Dee Alpert, we will miss you!

UPDATE:  Memorial Service for Dee will be held Sunday, May 1 at 2:00 pm at:

Williams Memorial Residence
720 West End Avenue (between 95th St. and 96th St.)
New York City, NY.
212-316-6002

If you plan on attending, please RSVP to Susan@JoAnneSimon.com or call 718- 852-3528. If you cannot attend but would like to send your remembrance of Dee to be shared with others , please email them to Leslie Packer at admin[at]tourettesyndrome.net. 
For more info, check out Leslie's blog.

More remembrances of Dee at the WSJ, Edweek, Gotham Schools, and on the Tourette Syndrome blog. Her reach was wide indeed. If anyone knows a good home for her cats, please email her son at Mikeappell@gmail.com.

On Saturday night, parents, teachers, and other members of the NYC Ed list serve received the sad news that Dee Alpert, the Special Education muckraker, columnist for EducationNews.org and a valued member of our community, had suddenly passed away. See below note from her friend Jo Anne Simon. Here is a 2007 interview with Dee, detailing how she became involved with the issue of students with disabilities and the failure of the school system to adequately address their needs.

Yet Dee had immense learning about all sorts of issues in addition to special education, which she generously shared with our subscribers. She was always the first to report on the agenda of the all-powerful NY Board of Regents (which she pointed out would be posted just days before their meetings) and the first with news and analysis of eye-opening audits. Click here for a sampling of her messages to our list. See also the comments about Dee on this special education advocacy website.

After hearing the news last night, emotional responses started flowing forth from members. I myself am distraught; I learned so much from Dee. She was a fount of information, devoted to painstaking analysis and a passion for uncovering the truth and holding accountable those in power. Our NYC ed list will seem empty without her.

As mentioned below, her son can be reached at Mikeappell@gmail.com; we will post news about a memorial service as soon as it becomes available. Please leave a comment below, if you knew Dee and would like to share your memories of her.– Leonie Haimson

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Dear friends and colleagues:

I write with a heavy heart about sad news. My friend and our special education muckraker, Dee Alpert, has passed away. According to her son, Michael, a neighbor found her yesterday afternoon. Michael called me around 6. He has called some of her closer friends since then, but I know that many people knew Dee through varying list serves and her muckraker email list and so I am helping him get the word out. I know Dee was on several list servs that I wasn't. Please help by informing folks that you know would want to know.

According to the medical examiner, the cause of death was a cerebral aneurysm. Mike has indicated that she will be cremated. He plans to hold a memorial service of some sort in the coming weeks, although there are no firm plans for that yet. Mike can be reached at Mikeappell@gmail.com

Jo Anne Simon, P.C.
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Dear Michael,

I was shocked and saddened to learn of your mother's death. I always admired her fierce integrity, her keen intellect, and her great love for children. I know how proud and devoted she was to her own children.

My condolences, Diane Ravitch

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My deepest condolences and warmest thoughts. The children I serve lost a powerful and passionate advocate in Dee. Michael, please do let us know if there is a group or charity we might make a donation to in her name, I am sure many would find comfort in memorializing your mother by, in some small way, continuing her courageous works.

In sympathy, Julie Cavanagh, Special Education Teacher

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New to this fight, I have been consistently amazed by Dee's vast knowledge, intellectual prowess, application of logic, but most of all her deep and palpable passion for children with special needs of all sorts. Not knowing me at all, she took time out of her life recently to communicate with me off-line about my son.

What an enormous loss for her family, and for us - parents, teachers and students alike.

Tory Frye (D6 parent)

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Dee combined incredible passion with a huge knowledge base and an amazing attention to detail. Always holding those in power accountable, she was our Mencken.

She will be missed.

noah e gotbaum, CEC 3 President

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I never met Dee and only had a few conversations with her but her depth of knowledge and her analysis of the issues (no matter whether you agreed or disagreed with her), along with a no-holds bar approach, made an impression on everyone on this listserve. Her no-nonsense approach and her ability to zero in on the essence of an issue was unparalleled along with her knowledge of institutional historical context. One particular area of Dee's expertise was the corrupt state education department - and if you didn't start out thinking they were corrupt, it didn't take Dee long to convince you. I used to forward some of her posts to a contact at the DOE and the comment on hearing the news was, "Sorry to hear this sad news-This was a brilliant woman."

I was about to send her some information as a follow-up to the DiNapoli report on dropouts and I know she would have taken that ball and ran with it. (Remember it was Dee who persistently kept raising questions about why that report was delayed.) There are so few voices fighting the ed deformers and Dee will be sorely missed by The Resistance.

Norm Scott, Education Notes

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I am very sad to learn of Dee's passing. We never met, but I always enjoyed what she had to say on this listserv and looked forward to her posts.

Sigh. My condolences to her family and close friends.

Respectfully, Wilma de Soto, Philadelphia ESL teacher

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While I never met Dee, I read every one of her posts on this listserv and imagined her to be an incredibly astute, caring person. The comments tonight confirmed it for me.

Justin Wedes, education activist

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My condolences to the family.

Deborah Prince, PTA President, Clara Barton High School

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RIP

Maria Dapontes-Dougherty, Queens parent leader

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My condolences. I did not always agree with what she wrote, but I always read what she had to say.

Sad news indeed.

Jonathan Halabi, NYC teacher and blogger

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Dear Michael Appell,

We in the education advocacy community are so heartbroken to hear of the death of your mother, who was such a vital presence for us. Is there something we can do to remember her? Please let us know, and hold our thoughts for her close to your heart.

With best wishes, Ann Kjellberg, public school parent, District 2

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I am very sorry to hear this. Although we sometimes disagreed, she was obviously passionate and dedicated to the idea of public education. My sincere sympathies to her family.

Beth Bernett, NYC parent and PTA president

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In memory of Dee...

"There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep and still be counted as warriors....[from "Sources" by Adrienne Rich, 1983]

Dee was, indeed, a warrior (especially on behalf of children with disabilities and their families) and I am grateful to have learned much and been challenged so much by her.

Patricia Connelly, NYC parent and special education advocate

What will Black's departure mean for our schools, and my most unfavorite memory of Dennis Walcott

I have mixed reactions to Cathie Black’s resignation. Though friends and colleagues from around the country emailed and called to say that I must be celebrating, I had to respond.... not exactly.

Most parents realized immediately that she was not qualified for the job, although it took the mayor three months of sinking approval ratings for him to appreciate that fact. When he saw the latest polls, with Black approval ratings at 17% and his handling of schools not much higher at 27%, despite millions of dollars spent of ads trying to convince New Yorkers otherwise, he must have figured out it was time to cut bait.

Clearly, Dennis Walcott has far more experience in public education that she did. But watching Walcott in action for the last nine years, I have no evidence that he is ready to take our schools in a new direction. He can hit the ground running; but will it be in the right direction?

Parents are fed up with this administration’s version of education “reform”: rising class sizes, school closings, harmful charter co-locations, rampant overcrowding, frequent budget cuts, excessive test prep, and stagnant achievement levels -- all countered with PR spin rather than effective policies.

We are also furious at the mayor’s proposal to cut 6,000 additional teaching positions, instead of cutting the bureaucracy, wasteful consultants and contractors, or raising taxes on millionaires. We are tired of having our views ignored and disrespected by educrats who think they know better than we do about what’s right for our kids.

I remember when the mayor decided to ban all cell phones from schools a few years back. Most parents felt then and still feel that cell phones are a necessary safety device, especially considering how many of our children are forced to commute miles to school each day. Of course, not a single private school in the city, including the school that the mayor's own daughters attended, would dare ban students from carrying cell phones.

The City Council proposed legislation that would allow students to bring their cell phones to school, which then the school could store for them, but would have to give back at the end of the day. This seemed to be reasonable compromise, given the mayor's insistence that cell phones disrupted classroom activities.

Dennis Walcott testified during the hearings, as Deputy Mayor, and said that it didn’t matter one iota if the Council passed this legislation , since the mayor did not intend to comply with the law. Robert Jackson, chair of the Council Education committee, pointed to a high school students watching from the gallery, and said, “This is terrible example of democracy for these students, the fact that you would calmly say that the city does not intend to follow the law.”

Walcott replied that “No, this is democracy because we are having this discussion.”

In short, unless Walcott (and the Mayor) change course, show that they are willing to follow the law, listen to parents and other stakeholders, and alter the policies that are damaging our kids, I don't believe that our attitudes towards this administration or the mayor’s approval ratings will increase substantially.

Also: see my contribution to the NY Times blog on what Black’s brief tenure reveals about whether business success is enough to run a school system. Please take a look and leave a comment! I was also quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Gabe Pressman’s column and DNA info.

What's the real story behind Black's fall from grace?

The three NYC dailies have conflicting accounts, sometimes within their very same pages, about why Black was fired by Bloomberg, after three short months. Bloomberg usually sticks by his deputies, no matter what their level of incompetence. Despite all the emphasis on "accountability" at the school level, there is generally little accountability at the top at City Hall.

The Daily News claims that the mayor didn’t like her inability to cut the budget:

Two sources said the mayor became increasingly disenchanted with her inability to do the grueling and technical work of cutting the education budget.

Meanwhile, the NY Post says it was because she made decisions to expand programs too slowly:

The Department of Education under Black actually delayed plans to expand citywide an ambitious special-ed pilot program and increase the number of schools containing a high-tech education program. Even when she rolled out a program -- finding $10 million to spend on after-school tutors -- Black drew criticism for bragging about such a paltry expenditure.

These programs – the special ed pilot and expanding the Izone -- are both very controversial, of course, and the latter is going to cost millions of dollars, not less; of course, which doesn't exactly help with cutting the budget.

In a different NY Post article, it says that John White was actually running the department, and when he left, Bloomberg realized he needed someone else in there quick:

Bloomberg admitted the breaking point came earlier that day when Black's most competent deputy chancellor, John White, quit -- the fourth top DOE official to defect since Black took over the nation's largest school system. "White was running the system," a source said. "The mayor felt he needed to make a move."

Yet the NY Times features an account that claims that decisions were being made too slowly, because they were vetted through her two top deputies, as well as Walcott and Wolfson at City Hall, and doesn't even mention John White:

Under Ms. Black, proposals meandered through layers of review: Ms. Black, her two powerful deputies, and City Hall officials, including Mr. Walcott and another deputy mayor, Howard Wolfson. …Ms. Black often deferred to Shael Polakow-Suransky, the chief academic officer, and Sharon Greenberger, the chief operating officer, giving them so much power that education officials jokingly referred to them as “chancellor,” the two aides said.

Meetings were rife with jockeying as senior officials tried to steer Ms. Black toward their view, the aides said. Mr. Polakow-Suransky and Ms. Greenberger served as gatekeepers, deciding which proposals to endorse and which to scuttle.

One of the few named sources in this NY Times article is Joe Williams of DFER, while failing to identify him as a charter school lobbyist:

“Anybody working on any plan for the last two and a half months had no assurance that it would ever get done rather than just having dust gather on top of it,” said Joe Williams, the executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, who works closely with schools and education officials. “Not having a leader there makes them wonder why they are showing up every day to this giant bureaucratic blob.”

Clearly, Joe felt that the DOE under Black was not giving him and his hedgehog friends the sort of access they got when Klein was there.

Here’s another quote from the Times, this one from an anonymous source:

Among some charter school operators, there is also frustration. When new charter schools open, the Education Department guarantees most of them space. But there have been challenges to the space allocations, brought on by flawed plans that needed to be amended due to lack of detail or typographical errors.

The problems have also meant that e-mails and phone calls are not getting returned. “I’m trying to hang a sign on a building, and the czar of signs is not answering his phone,” said the head of a high-performing network of charter schools, who asked not to be named for fear of angering the department.

My guess that this quote is from Eva Moskowitz, who works closely with Joe. Few other charter operators would be so open about their desire to acquire space to admit frustration in "trying to hang a sign on a building".

So charter operators were fed up with the slowness of DOE to respond to their demands, especially as compared to Joel Klein, who was at Eva's beck and call and responded to every one of her innumerable emails.

Is the real explanation, then, that Black was fired because the privatizers complained that they weren’t getting their co-locations quick enough?

Who knows? My guess is that the story is far more simple: Cathie Black was fired because the mayor’s poll numbers were falling fast, down to 27% approval for his handling of education, in spite of the millions of dollars of TV ads he is paying for out of his own pocket. Wolfson, his political guru, probably told him the ads weren't working, and that he had to throw her overboard, fast. Loyalty only goes so far, after all.

Be Like Nutley?

While it will be nice to see Cathie Black walking out the Tweed door never to return, it's difficult to celebrate the Mayor's behind-closed-doors, non-participative, non-public, snap decision to name Dennis Walcott as her successor. Where else but in Michael Bloomberg's New York City could a mayor prove beyond doubt the emptiness of the phrase "I take full responsibility" by simultaneously repeating the very same, nonconsultative process that yielded the Cathie Black fiasco in the first place? Who else but the imperious, third-term Bloomberg could so thoroughly transform Barack Obama's "audacity of hope" into such hopeless audacity?

Yet all the discussion over Ms. Black's welcomed departure and Mr. Walcott's rapid appointment begs the crucial question: Is Dennis Walcott really the best NYC can do for a schools chancellor?

News 4 New York gently suggested as much in last night's telecast by sending a reporter to Nutley NJ, where the local school board is conducting a national search for a new schools superintendent. The unspoken implication was obvious: if Nutley can do it, why can't NYC? Perish the thought -- and that's precisely what the Daily News and the NY Times did this morning in their lead stories on Black/Walcott. The Daily News, shamelessly supportive of the mayor's every move, literally crowed in its headline: "Dennis Walcott, successor to ex-schools chancellor Cathie Black, hailed as all that she wasn't?" Hailed -- by whom? And is being "all that she wasn't" really enough?

Meanwhile, the NY Times wrote: "Dennis M. Walcott...has deep education experience. He attended the city's public schools and taught kindergarten." THIS is "deep education experience"? Has NYC really lowered its standards that much? Or does the fact that his children attended NYC public schools, as does a current grandchild, compensate for the thinness of his education credentials?

Accepting that Mr. Walcott knows something of the ins and outs of City Hall and the city's byzantine, acronym-laden, educational bureaucracy and that he commands the modern-day vocabulary of education reform, his genuine teaching and educational administration experience is disturbingly thin. No other candidate with similar credentials, brought into a superintendency search in Nutley or anywhere else, would be given serious consideration, yet Mayor Bloomberg has already made "the decision." Without consultation, without a search, without asking the public, without asking the parents of 1.1 million school children.

In the world of pre-college public education, the chancellorship of NYC public schools, the largest public school system in the United States, must certainly be seen as the premier such position in the country, the capstone of an educational administration career for the individual so chosen, the education field equivalent of being elected governor of a state or a U.S. Senator (or mayor for life in NYC) in the political world, at least. Furthermore, what NYC does in education often influences significantly what happens in many other large public school systems across the country.

For such a high-visibility, high-profile position, responsible for well the education of over a million children, is it not reasonable that every citizen of NYC, and certainly every parent of a NYC school child, has virtually the right to expect the Mayor to search aggressively for the BEST possible candidate to lead our schools? Not just settle for someone who meets the job qualification requirements and is likable and suitable, but someone who has educational vision, someone who has the best credentials, the most leadership skills, who is the most inspiring and motivational. Why is it that Mayor Bloomberg refuses to deliver to NYC what it needs and deserves: the very best possible leader for our public schools?

I would feel a whole lot better about Dennis Walcott if I thought he emerged from a genuine, broad-scale search for the best possible leadership of NYC's public schools, a search that would have sought to recruit the type of experienced, motivating, visionary candidate that our city and our children deserve as the nation's largest school system. Instead, NYC is achieving, at best, what economists refer to as "satisficing" -- settling for someone who seems satisfactory but likely well short of optimal. In that respect, I find myself only slightly less disturbed by Dennis Walcott's appointment than I was for Cathie Black's. Add to that Mr. Walcott's demonstrable lack of independence from the mayor, and the net result is deeply "unsatisficing."

In Mr. Walcott's uncontested and undebated appointment, Mayor Bloomberg is once again short-changing NYC's kids and their families, only this time perhaps slightly less so than he did previously with Cathie Black. Mr. Mayor, why can't NYC be like Nutley? For once, at least, we wouldn't mind.

Chancellor Resigns Yet Again

April 7, 2011 (GBN News): In another surprise announcement, Dennis Walcott resigned today, just hours after being named NY City Schools Chancellor. After a ten second nationwide search, Mayor Bloomberg has named Fox News personality Glenn Beck to replace him. No reason was given for Mr. Walcott’s move. However, the sudden resignation is in keeping with a growing tradition among NY City Schools Chancellors.

The choice of Mr. Beck is widely seen as an effort to curry favor with Governor Andrew Cuomo, another Tea Party favorite. But the Mayor, at a City Hall news conference, insisted that Mr. Beck “will bring real scholarship to the city school system”. Mr. Bloomberg noted that the new Chancellor “even has a university named after him”, though he failed to mention that it was Mr. Beck who named his on-line re-education program after himself.

It is unclear just how long Mr. Beck will be allowed to stay in the position. Mayor Bloomberg is said to feel that by hiring “temps” as Chancellor, he can avoid the embarrassing poll numbers that plagued Ms. Black. But Mr. Beck told GBN News that he would like to be remembered as “the longest serving Schools Chancellor since Cathie Black”. This would preclude any resignation announcement before 3 PM Friday.

John White, the next Superintendent of New Orleans?

UPDATE: his appointment was just announced; see Times-Picayune, with quotes from MBP Stringer, Irene Kaufman and me. My condolences to New Orleans.

John White, NYC Deputy Chancellor, is reportedly being considered as the next Superintendent of New Orleans schools.

White led the DOE’s efforts to expand charters, and to co-locate them in already existing schools. He is also a former TFA-er, and a graduate of the Broad Superintendent Academy, which has trained countless controversial superintendents, including many that have received no-confidence votes, like Jean-Claude Brizard of Rochester, and the scandal-ridden Maria Goodloe-Johnson, recently dismissed from Seattle schools.

In the views of many public school parents, he has consistently ignored our concerns about overcrowding and inequitable distribution of resources and space. See this account, for example, of the proposal to place the Hebrew Language Academy charter school within Marine Park middle school; here are also videos of the highly contentious hearings.

During the proceedings, he called the 150 children who would attend the Hebrew charter school the "jewels" of the DOE, which hugely offended the parents of the 1100 children currently attending Marine Park MS, as well as the community's elected officials, including Rep. Anthony Weiner.

White also supported the creation of a middle school called "Quest to Learn" based on video games, despite the opposition of District 2 parents and the Community Education Council. He promised it would not go into an existing school building but that it would find its own building. That never happened, of course. Instead it was inserted into the Bayard Rustin building, eliminating precious gym space for students at the schools already housed in the building. His refusal to consult with parents and the CEC led to a lawsuit.

White is now been pushing the rapid and costly expansion of the Izone, or online learning, to 400 schools, despite the fact that it has little or no research to back it up, as today's NY Times points out. Yet he wants to spend $500 million on technology next year to make this possible. As quoted in this recent report on the Izone, White said, “We are trying to make achievement the constant and adults the variable.”

It is no wonder that White would want to leave NYC, considering the negative feelings he has aroused; and the fact that approval ratings for Bloomberg's handling of education is at an all-time low of 28%. Despite all the money spent and often wasted, achievement has lagged, especially among black and Hispanic students.

John White also led the campaign to close schools. Below are videos of public hearings at which he presided concerning the closing of Jamaica HS in Queens and Metropolitan Corporate Academy in Brooklyn.

Jamaica HS Closing Hearing: James Eterno Presents the Real Data from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.

To Satisfy KIPP Space Demands DOE Takes Building to 120% of Capacity

Our March 23^rd meeting marked the end of the Panel for Educational Policy’s winter residence at Brooklyn Tech HS in Fort Greene. The bulk of the agenda was devoted to co-location of charter schools in Board of Ed facilities:

Girls Prep Charter Co-Location

After last year’s vote to expand Girls Prep middle school in M088 was found to be unlawful by State Education Commissioner Steiner, the DOE found space being vacated by the closing Ross Global Academy Charter School. This solution and was supported by CEC in District 1. The resolution passed unanimously.

East Harlem Scholars Charter School in Jackie Robinson Complex (M013)

This was a difficult vote for me as the after-school program creating the charter, East Harlem Tutorial, is well regarded in the community. Unfortunately, there was no communication with parents in the affected building and the public hearing was held only 24 hours before the PEP vote. I found the treatment of the affected schools to simply unacceptable and moved to table the motion until the community could be heard. A number of significant issues were raised but not addressed, including the fact that the building already is overcrowded with three schools causing one school, Central Park East to have to forgo access to the gym. The motion to table was opposed by the PEP’s mayoral bloc. The co-location vote passed with seven yes votes (mayoral bloc + Staten Island) vs. four no votes or abstentions.

In one of the most bizarre exchanges I've had on the Panel, I first asked Deputy Chancellor Marc Sternberg why we would hold the public hearing on the co-location of East Harlem Scholars Charter School only 24 hours before the PEP meeting when the law requires the Panel and public to be provided with summarized comments 24 hours before we vote. Sternberg asked DOE Counsel Mike Best to provide a legal interpretation in response to my question. Best explained how the letter of the law only requires the hearing to be held before we vote. Following Best's response, I then asked Chancellor Black if she thought it was appropriate for the public hearing to be held immediately before the Panel vote, without providing reasonable time for the Panel members to assess the commentary. Before she could respond, General Counsel Best began to respond on her behalf. I interrupted him explaining that my question was directed to the chancellor. I then heard PEP Chair Tino Hernandez say "you are out of order". I, of course, assumed it was Best who was out of order as I had been granted the floor and had directed my question to the Chancellor. But no, Chairman Hernandez declared me out of order for interrupting Best. Apparently the PEP chairman expects DOE staffers to respond in place of the chancellor and grants them implicit parliamentary privilege to do so. The chancellor waited for Best to finish his remarks to me and then answered my question.

Placement of KIPP High Schools in Manhattan M195 Temporarily.

A new school is being constructed for the KIPP High School in the Bronx by the Robin Hood Foundation. While the facility is being built, KIPP has requested space in a Board of Education facility; Manhattan school M195, which currently houses two other schools. The DOE’s Educational Impact Statement estimated that building utilization in M195 will rise to 113-120% due to the KIPP placement. The KIPP chain of charter schools is well-funded by both public and private sources. A recent study showed KIPP schools receive $5,760 additional per student in private funding. The Independent Budget Office demonstrated that charters housed in Board of Ed facilities receive more funding per student than public schools. Given the extensive funding available to KIPP, I asked Deputy Chancellor Sternberg if any of their funders could provide temporary space for KIPP, especially Robin Hood who is building the school. He admitted no one had pursued this option.

The six members present from the mayoral bloc were supported by the Bronx and Staten Island representatives in passing the proposal. Opposed or Abstain: Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

Co-location/Expansion of Promise Academy I and II in Choir Academy of Harlem Building.

The Choir Academy of Harlem School has made a strong recovery in recent years and was removed from the list of schools slated for closure by DOE. Specific grades of Promise Academy I and II Charter Schools are being co-located in the Choir Academy building while a new facility is constructed for the Promise Academies. Utilization in the Choir Academy building will rise to 96-108% according to DOE estimates. I opposed the co-location on the grounds that a vulnerable school was being forced into an overcrowded situation simply to provide temporary swing space for well funded charter schools. Moreover, DOE could not satisfactorily explain why Promise Academy II was being rewarded with additional space when DOE’s own accountability system had rated the school a “C” on DOE Progress Reports, including a failing grade of “F” in the progress dimension.

The proposal passed with support from the mayoral bloc plus Staten Island. The four remaining boroughs opposed the measure or abstained.

Queens: Magnetech Middle School

Queens representative Dmytro Fedkowskyj led a valiant and well-reasoned effort to stop the closure of Magnetech Middle School. The resolution passed with mayoral bloc + Staten Island in favor vs. Queens, Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn opposed.

The PEP will be touring the boroughs for the next few months. I’d like to thank the Fort Greene community, especially Brooklyn Tech HS and the Community Education Council for District 13 for hosting us this winter. I would also like to personally thank the staff at Mullane’s Bar and Grill of Fort Greene for their hospitality.

The Kindergarten waiting lists, and more disasters just waiting to happen

Yesterday, the DOE announced that there are over 3,000 children on waiting lists for Kindergarten next year; 42 percent more than last year.

About a quarter of the city's elementary schools, or 157, have kindergarten wait lists. An excel file with school by school data was posted by InsideSchools.

We warned them and warned them and warned them again, but they ignored all our pleas to think about the future.

In 2006, for PlanNYC, the Mayor’s taskforce was asked to come up with recommendations to prepare every area of the city’s infrastructure for 2030, when they projected there would be a million more New Yorkers, including the need for more water supply, transportation, sewage treatment, police, libraries, etc. etc. But the much-praised plan did not have a single word to say about schools. In fact, the only mention of schools in the plan was a proposal to convert school buildings to more housing.

In October 2008, we released a report, predicting that there would soon be sharp increases in enrollment citywide, due to the rising birth rate, rampant residential development, the closings of parochial schools, and the growing perception that NYC was a more family-friendly city. The MPB and the City comptroller did their own studies, showing the failure of the DOE to build enough seats to accommodate the population explosion to come.

We urged them to expand their new five year capital plan, and nearly fifty elected officials from the city, state and federal levels signed onto our recommendations.

Instead, they cut the seats in the capital plan by 60%, since their consultants claimed there would be no citywide increase in enrollment till at least 2016! Sure enough, citywide enrollment started to increase in 2009, just as we had warned.

This has been a slow-moving disaster waiting to happen and they paid no attention, and now the disaster is here.

To the contrary, every DOE policy has made overcrowding worse, including co-locations, where they have continued on their reckless course of squeezing more and more schools into existing, overcrowded school buildings, each of them eating up classrooms to create more cluster rooms and administrative spaces.

Rather than focus on creating enough new seats, the DOE plans to spend more than $500 million next year in the capital plan on new technology, to expand online learning and enable new computer-based tests.

This is yet another disaster waiting to happen, given the city's deplorable cost overruns with technology projects. See my comments in Gotham Gazette, this NYT article , and a recent Times post breaking down the millions of dollars in online learning contracts that have already been approved by the PEP– including half a million for a technology consultant, to consolidate the use of technology consultants!

Clearly, the DOE is hoping for the day when they do not have to provide any new teachers or classrooms, because all the “learning” will take place online. We cannot let this go forward without a fight.