19 NY Schools Will Close
Michelle V. Agins ©The New York Times. Protest at Brooklyn Tech
As most of us were counting sheep this morning at 2:40 a.m, the Panel for Educational Policy was voting to close 19 under-performing schools. According to the NY Times, the panel has been widely criticized as a rubber-stamp to the Bloomberg administration and has largely held an obscure role in education policy. But under new laws governing the mayor’s control of the school system, the panel was required to make the final approval of closures of low performing schools, a centerpiece of the mayor and Chancellor Joel I. Klein’s effort to overhaul the school system. The panel’s decision will mean phasing out of six more large high schools, including Jamaica High School and Beach Channel High School in Queens, Paul Robeson High School in Brooklyn and Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx, as well as six small high schools created in previous rounds of closures under the mayor’s tenure, and a handful of middle and elementary schools. (Read the full article in the NY Times here).
Gothamist blogged that the majority of people assembled at the high school disagreed with the chancellor, including many of the panel’s appointees as originally reported by the NY Daily News. The four panel representatives of Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens cast their votes against many of the school closings, but were strong-armed by Mayor Bloomberg’s eight appointees, along with the representative from Staten Island. “Is there anyone who will defend this?” asked the Manhattan rep Patrick Sullivan, who was met with silence. “I can’t see how anyone can vote in good conscious.”
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