Mayor Bloomberg wants to close as many public schools as possible in this, his last year in office.
So his Department of Education has announced that another 26 schools will close as soon as they can go through the formalities.
All of these schools have low test scores and get poor marks on the DOE’s report cards.
But they have something else in common.
Every single one of them is highly segregated.
Only one school on the list has more than 2% white students.
Wouldn’t you think that after more than a decade of nonstop reform that the Mayor might have figured out some improvement strategies for schools serving students of color other than closing them?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We have a very similar situation in Philadelphia. Here is the link to a story in the Philadelphia School Notebook on how closing 37 schools–being voted on in March here–would affect different racial groups.
http://thenotebook.org/blog/135496/school-closings-hit-black-students-most
philalisa
Let the idiot close them and the new elected mayor reopen them. Bloomberg is powerless after he leaves office Stand tough teachers. Don’t become Bloomberg’s b***h!
Couldn’t this bring about a lawsuit claiming racial discrimination?
The other thing that’s interesting about these schools is that several of them are school that have been opened from large comprehensive high schools since the governor’s reign. this shows that his policy of breaking up large comprehensive high schools doesn’t work, but he keeps on dong it without the research to prove it’s the right thing to do.
Diane, about a year ago, I thought “We really need someone to expose these frauds and to organize support for public education and for beleagured teachers.” I was hoping you would accept this challenge and you have done so. I want to take a moment to thank you for doing this. It means so much to our teachers and to me. You have given us hope.
As to the divestment in the education of poor children of color in New York and other places, I believe the courts will come to the rescue.
Last year, someone emailed me and asked me to create and lead the movement to stop the corporate reformers, and I said I couldn’t do it, that all I can do is write and speak. That truly is all I can do, but when I started this blog in late April, it turned into a platform for the movement, and leaders are emerging all over the country, and learning about each other. And communicating. I am not the leader, I am the facilitator. You are the leaders.
Oftentimes a movement just needs one person to provide that spark and I believe you are that person. From these comments I can see that others are as grateful as I am. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We’re beginning to see a positive change at last!
Looks like a clear violation of Brown v. Board of Education. Racism is alive and well, and living all over the US. The powers that be pay lip service to diversity and equal opportunity, but their actions show their true motives.
Deep down, the “reformers” know that they really don’t have the best interest of children or our future at heart. They are simply obeying those who bought their positions for them.
Accompanying the closure of many of these public schools, the majority of which are in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, is a proliferation of charter schools. Below is a link to a map of charter density in NYC, which largely corresponds with the closing school list:
http://www.schoolbook.org/2012/09/23charting-the-city‘s-charter-school-growth
The local (which also happens to be a supra-national) Overclass is batting for the Triple Crown of neoliberalism here: neutralization of the union followed by its eventual busting, increased property values and development opportunities as a result of the displacement of poor and working class residents, and private takeover of formerly public resources.
Teacher Unions have been unable to educate inner city children. NOW is the TIME to get in there and EDUCATE children regardless of their backgrounds or color.
Terry F., please enlighten us about where to find the non-union inner-city districts where poor kids are doing really well because their teachers don’t belong to unions. Not schools, but districts..
Charters only exploit children of color. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. This has nothing to do with unions. I love how people who have never worked in a charter claim that the charters are the saviors of children of color. They’ve just found an easy way to exploit children and make money. Nothing more. This is one of the most vulgar movements in American history.
I only have limited experience with charter schools. The only one I have steeped foot in is the Community Roots school in Brooklyn, New York. Does it exploit children of color?
I don’t disagree with the criticisms of closing the schools, but it should be noted that only 15% of NYC public school students are non-Latino whites.
You do realize those schools never really close? They haul in a new principal and a few new teachers, change the name, and keep taking the same group of students with the same basic policies they had before.
No, they don’t take the same group of students – that’s part of the problem. Whenever they “turn around” a school or close it and re-open it as a new entity, local parents are sent scrambling having to send their children further and further away, usually across gang lines. The students that come in are a completely different cohort, usually skimmmed from the best of the pool. Then the rheephormers point to increased test scores at that school as proof that closures work. Hell, I’m not even an educator, but even I could “improve” a school if I could get rid of the current crop of kids and replace them with the cream of the crop. I have yet to see any studies, at least from the rheephormer side, that follows individual students as they get bounced from school to school.
If these high minority schools close, will the kids be bussed to high white schools? If so, is this a bad thing? I firmly believe in reintegrating our urban schools! My question is genuine- please tell me your thoughts. I am a huge fan, Diane!
If the high minority schools close, will the kids be bussed to high white schools? If so, is this a bad thing? I fully believe in reintegrating our urban schools as a step towards equity. I appreciate your thoughts. I’m a huge fan, Diane!
No, that is not what happens. When the high-minority schools close, other high-minority schools open. In time, the new schools close because nothing was done to change instruction or the basic conditions in which the students live. The students get moved around like pieces on a gameboard.