Thirty schools damaged by Hurricane Sandy have reported post-storm looting, the city says. (NY1)
Parents say they’re worried about health issues from returning to P.S./M.S. 114 so soon. (Times, Post)
Another court said the city must release emails on Cathie Black’s appointment. (Daily News, Post, WSJ)
The parent council for District 7 in the South Bronx voted to move to district-wide school choice. (Post)
Brooklyn’s Midwood High School was evacuated on Tuesday after a fire broke out inside. (Daily News)
On a national ethics survey, fewer American high school students say that they cheat. (Daily News)
Thomas Friedman: I’d like U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to be Secretary of State. (Times)
Jeb Bush won bipartisan acclaim for boosting schools in Florida, but gains may be illusory. (Reuters)
Tim
Congratulations to District 7. I hope GS and other media outlets cover this story closely going forward–it’ll be hugely interesting to see whether there’s not much of a change, a ‘rising tide’ improvement borne out of competition, or destabilization/chaos (which was the defense invoked by folks in District 6 who are zealously protecting the gates of PS 187).
Take it easy, Thomas Friedman. Why don’t you sit this next column out, stop writing for a while.
Former Turnaround Teacher
Congratulations? The entire Boro is full of school choice at the upper level grades. The final two community schools are about to close. How much has school choice been a success in the Bronx? We need to go back to neighborhood/community schools. Having children travel all over for elementary school is a terrible idea, and will just further destabilize these communities.
Follow the Money
Wow, Thomas Friedman. Just wow.
Robert Pondiscio
School choice at the upper levels is of little use if the kids come to school years behind their more privileged peers. The battle is won and lost from Pre-K to third grade. This a great move. Now what is needed is an effort to help parents in the South Bronx become as informed consumers of education as parents on the Upper East Side.
Mr. Flerporillo
I commute about 50 minutes with my kids to elementary school every morning, because I don’t want to send them to our neighborhood school. If we were restricted to our neighborhood school, we would immediately move to a neighborhood with a great local elementary school. I suspect that after an initial period of “destabilization,” affected neighborhoods would ultimately stabilize again, although arguably not in a good way.
Tim
I agree with you completely that what’s happened to regular community comprehensive high schools in the Bronx is nothing short of a travesty–I’ve “liked” every single comment you’ve written on the subject.
But I think elementary school de-zoning is a bit different, especially when we are talking about a district like this one, which is as impoverished and disadvantaged as any urban district anywhere. It boils down to three issues for me: 1. being born to poor parents shouldn’t mean a child has no other option than his zoned school (more on this in a second); 2. School communities where everyone is there because of an active ‘opt in’ (be it private, parochial, charter, magnet, whatever) seem likely to me to get better results, and 3. this district is probably well past the point of ‘do something, even if it’s wrong’ anyway–it’s hard for me to believe de-zoning could make things worse.
On the first point, I think the definition of school choice has gotten corrupted and demonized amid the various reform debates. The fact is that those of us with the means and the savvy exercise school choice all the time, and we would be outraged if there was any sort of limitation placed on our ability to choose. We open our wallets and pay for private or parochial school, or for housing that is in a well-regarded district, suburban or otherwise. We enter charter lotteries and apply to exam or magnet schools. We use every weapon in our arsenal to put our children in the best educational setting that we possibly can.
This change, to me, is offering the families of District 7 a very thin and incomplete approximation of what you and I take for granted.
(For the record, I am fully aware of the bigger social challenges in the district, and I have no doubt that 99% of the professionals in those schools care deeply for the kids and are doing their very best.)
DisgustedNYCTeacher
I’m afraid I have to agree with Thomas Friedman. Except, my reasoning is that the sooner we get rid of the dunderhead the better. Much like Bloomberg, Duncan and his misguided policies have created havoc in education in this country. Race To The Top is thinly disguised blackmail and has accomplished exactly nothing.
Let some other country deal with his incompetence. After he demolishes foreign affairs maybe he can go back to Chicago and open a pizza place.
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