Just look at the last published NYS crime statistics on that one.
The bigest concern with the way the current administration operates under this blanket of fear approach is that any schools who fear they might be failing will then become number fudgers themselves.Graduate as many kids as they can, give passing grades when the child has so obviously not passed, this is the true injustice to the children.

Privitization of schools is not the answer, support from thier local govenment is.
Its about time Education Boards listen to thier staff as opposed to basing all thier decisions on fixed statistics.

Yes, there are folks in Manhattan that live in very expensive accomodations and are taxed to death by NYC taxing of their RE and also consider that everything else in Manhattan is more expensive.  
Perhaps these parents do not see the public schools as “worth” their large tax assessments but if they are able to afford that sort of living expenses, most of them are able to send their children to private schools and some really really good PS.  

This issue with NYC Public schools not being worth the money is really nit picking the fact that something that comes “built in” to a package is not being used enough and thus described as “not worth it.”  Should I claim that the AC that comes as a package in a car I purchase is “not worth the money” because I do not use it?

Lets forget about this comparison, as car options are not the same as schools, but you get the idea.

Moreover, one cannot expect to pay the same salaries to teachers in NYC as teachers in other states because of the expense of living in NYC.  No teacher in a teacher’s salary can really afford to purchase RE because the middle income or affordable RE, for a 70 years old attached or detached house in one of the boroughs outside of Manhattan still easily cost 450-500K, even after the bubble has pop.

RE in other large metropolitan areas in the South are MUCH cheaper than NYC.  

Check the following comparisons:

Rochester, NY -> Hartford, CT (Hartford, CT more expensive)
Plattsburgh, NY -> Burlington, Vt (Burlington, VT is more expensive)
Syracuse, NY -> Tacoma, Wa (Tacoma, WA more expensive)
Watertown, NY -> Raleigh, NC (Raleigh, NC is more expensive)

My points are:
1. Throwing money at the problem has not worked (based upon data)
2. The tax payers and more importantly, the children are NOT getting their money’s worth (based upon data)
3. http://www.empirecenter.org/pb/2009/10/empirestateexodus102709.cfm
If we are to stop the outflow of educated/affluent folks from this great state of ours, we need to fix the problems of education and taxes and charter schools MAY work toward BOTH of those goals. Give them (Charter schools) a chance. (NYS ranks LAST in migration)

Below is a direct quote from the last link:
Conclusion

What accounts for New York’s chronic inability to attract and retain more Americans than it loses every year? Any attempt to answer that question must begin with New York’s state and local tax burden, perennially ranked among the heaviest in the country.5 Taxes aside, likely explanations differ regionally. Downstate residents face high taxes and housing costs rated among the most “severely unaffordable” in the world.6 Land-use regulations in downstate New York also tend to inhibit growth.7 In upstate New York, housing is relatively inexpensive but even more heavily taxed, and new economic opportunities have been scarce.

Weather, on the other hand, seems less compelling as an explanation. After all, while the Sunbelt’s climate has long attracted northerners, cold winters haven’t stopped New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Minnesota from adding population while upstate New York has been shrinking.

This much is clear: with New York now facing the most serious fiscal and economic crisis in its modern history, government policies should be aimed at slowing down and ultimately reversing the state’s population drain.

Obviously, whatever problem NY is having, money is not fixing. Why not give Charter schools a chance? Can it really get any worse? As an educator, I say these teachers/admin. should RISE to the Charter school challenge, as a taxpayer and a parent I think NYS has had plenty of time to fix the problem and I don’t want to see any more of my tax dollars going up in smoke. Lets embrace the Race -To-The-Top Challenge and MOVE FORWARD!

None of these small schools, if they had to take the same kids as the “failing” schools they replaced would do one bit better. And what are we left with? Klein, a man who is inept and unqualified to hold the position he has, has done more damage to the school system that will be difficult to undo. Yet we continue to heart from the p[ress about school reform and how Klein has done a wonderful job! Give me a bfreak.

Monroe was one of the first big high schools closed in the Bronx and have mini schools open on the “Monroe campus.” Those schools were given attention, money and got to screen the students they enrolled. Bloomberg & Klein touted this as the new better way to educate. As time went on and the next “campuses” were opened, the newer mini schools got the attention, money and student selection ability. Then the schools on the Monroe campus, like Monroe Academy for Business Law, lost their newness. They lost the benefits of newness in the Bloomberg/Klein House of Cards and they started to have their budget cut and got the lowest percentile students dumped on them. And now here we are… What was once the best new thing is closing for poor performance. This whole damned thing is just SMOKE & MIRRORS so these selfish people (I’m trying to be nice)can tout statistics and get press for political purposes while NO ONE is really addressing the needs of the lowest percentile students. Instead these poor miserable children are being moved from failing school to failing school so the DoE can open new schools somewhere else and claim success. Why can’t we stop these megalomaniac racists? I don’t understand why the press and governments (state, federal) can’t see through all this smoke, like we can. Having money, apparently, makes one an expert. We, who made serving students our life’s work, can’t know what we’re talking about. But folks who drop in on our profession, before moving on to their life’s work, are the true experts, to be taken seriously. Give me a break.

How many years in, and your solution is to close 98.5%… less 0.7%?

Turn ‘em — don’t burn ‘em!

Secretary Arne was smiling as Bloomberg kicked the current leg of this strategy off the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. And why wouldn’t he be smiling? He helped kill off Chicago public schools with the same strategy and wants to bring the strategy national with Obama’s Race to the Top jive.

Obama, Bloomberg, Klein, and Duncan…helping to privatize every public school in the nation so that their hedge fund cronies can run their own tax-payer funded schools.

I wonder when Treasury Timmeh gets his charter?

Bloomberg and Klein failed in provide resources to the schools for students with the greatest needs. They failed in providing reducing class size so that teachers can reach each child in his/her class. They failed in providing solutions to overcrowded schools. They failed in providing assistance to schools who constantly asked those in Tweed for help. They failed in providing schools with pedagogical programs that are research-based to work. They failed to provide special needs students with the services they are entitled to under the law. They failed in allowing teachers to teach to the content but demanded that teachers teach to the test. They failed in funding schools with monies that are supposed to go to the arts and music (Project Arts). They failed in providing safety in and around schools. They failed in providing schools with experienced administrators who have more than 15 years of teaching. They failed to force principals to hire the ATRs, and to expedite the teachers in the Rubber Room their due process.

The bottom line is that Bloomberg and Klein have failed a thousand times over and yet they have NOT been removed.