Big cuts in new seats, despite overcrowding crisis, with DOE spinning as a "restoration"

See this DOE press release on their “new” revised amended five year capital plan, which they try to spin as a major restoration, but is really a huge cut.

• In the Feb. 2010 plan (which was adopted in June), the DOE said they would fund 30,000 new seats at $4B, which we clearly knew was insufficient based upon rapidly increased enrollment and overcrowding.
  

• Then, in their proposed Nov. 2010 amendment, they said they needed to increase this amount to 50,000 new seats at $7.4 billion (including 2300 seats for design only); the first time they admitted the reality of the overcrowding crisis already upon us. (Strangely enough, this document has now suddenly been removed from the SCA website.)

• In their Feb. 2011 plan, they threatened to cut way back on new seats because the governor threatened to cap reimbursement, to build only 20,000 new seats total (with 6,000 of these funded for design only) , spending only $1.7 billion for new capacity.

• And now that the governor’s proposal to cap reimbursement was thoroughly rejected by the Legislature, they are still cutting way back to only 28,866 new school seats, plus 2,314 seats in design, for a total of 31,000 seats.
  

What kind of thinking leads to such erratic, and inexplicable lurches in one direction to another? Is there something toxic in the air at Tweed?

What happened since? Did the state change their reimbursement formula or amount? No.

Did the city’s financial picture significantly change since November? No.

Did enrollment suddenly decline? No.

Did the DOE change their projections based on the fact that now, ONE QUARTER of all elementary schools now have waiting lists for Kindergarten? Unlikely.

Or maybe they just want to spend billions of dollars on technology, so kids don’t ever have to have a seat in a real school but can stay at home and get “virtual learning” instead?

The full capital plan will be released tomorrow on the SCA website. Check it out and also check out the amount to be spent on technology “enhancements”, which in the Nov. 2010 plan included a total of $1.8 billion for technology, with $1B to be spent in FY 2012 alone. In the Feb.2011 plan, this was “cut back” to $957 million, with $540 million on technology to be spent in FY 2012 alone. Which is yet another disaster waiting to happen.

Helen Marshall says there's no more school overcrowding in Queens!

Check out what Queens Borough President Helen Marshall said on WNYC radio on Tuesday about school overcrowding by clicking here.

Meanwhile, according to official DOE data (which most experts think underestimates the problem), 67 percent of elementary school children in Queens attended overcrowded schools; and 77 percent of high school students. And this does not count thousands of students in trailers.

Class sizes are still increasing rapidly throughout the borough, and as of this March, nearly 800 Queens children were on waiting lists for their zoned Kindergartens.

If you are a Queens parent or teacher, and you think school overcrowding is still a serious problem, send her an email at info@queensbp.org, with a copy to her education adviser, RoseAnne Darche, at rdarche@queensbp.org and her PEP appointee, Dmytro Fedkowskyj at pepofqueens@yahoo.com

Kindergarten Overcrowding Debacle -- DOE Denies Accountability

Hundreds of public school parents, children and elected officials gathered at city hall on Wednesday to protest overcrowded schools and kindergarten wait lists.

See the full press release here. See the NY1 coverage here:

Links to other press coverage: Parents Protest School Waiting Lists (NY Times), Parents Protest Overcrowding in Kindergarten (WNYC); Mayor Bloomberg irked by dual City Hall rallies protesting kindergarten waiting lists (Daily News); Bloomberg Dismisses Kindergarten Protests (NY Magazine).

Despite their 14-person press office, the rally and ensuing media onslaught knocked the Department of Education into total disarray. DOE officials had a hard time keeping their story straight.

First, the party line from Chancellor Klein was that there isn't really a problem because most of the 300+ children will go to a gifted and talented program or private school. Never mind that private school admissions are done and the new found love of G&T is just a fig leaf for an aggressive busing program. Most parents don't want to bus their kid for an hour across the city to a G&T program.

Next, DOE announced they'd simply evict 65 pre-K children from PS 3 and 41 in the Village. That move drew a sharp rebuke from Council Speaker Chris Quinn for pitting 4 year olds against 5 year olds. (see NY1 clip).

Then, quite improbably, DOE official John White told WNYC that it was all the previous administration's fault -- those guys didn't plan properly to build schools. Sorry John, but Rudy Giuliani hasn’t been the mayor since December of 2001. You can't pass the buck when you claim to be the guys who introduced "accountability" to education.

Finally, handed a bowl of lemons by the bungling DOE, the mayor tried to make some lemonade:

"They complained about a couple a hundred kids not being able to get in to the schools they wanted to get into. I can tell you how to fix that. Just lower the quality of the schools. That's where we came from. Isn't it wonderful that kids want to get into schools?”

The mayor went on to say "These kids will find schools."

But who is accountable here? It's not the five year olds that are supposed to find schools, it is the responsibility of the mayor's handpicked team to manage planning, construction, zoning and enrollment for schools. Wasn't that what mayoral control was all about?

The current crisis is simply a result of bad management. The city issued the building permits and knew the kids were coming. Everyone knew. All you had to do was look up to see the residential towers growing.

Overcrowding rally on May 6: please come!

There will be a rally/press conference next week to protest school overcrowding and the hundreds of Kindergarten students who have been placed on waiting lists for next fall.

This administration has been criminally negligent in failing to provide seats for these kids. Please come!

Where: Steps of City Hall (Take the 1,2,3 to Chambers Street or 4,5,6 or J,M,Z to City Hall)

When: Wed. May 6 at 4 PM. Bring your kids!

A flyer to post in your school or building is here.