Progressive Democrat Issue 65: NYC FOCUS

I have been very critical of Mayor Bloomberg's claims of having a wonderful education policy. I have criticized his ignoring the needs of current students while waiting for his lawsuits against the state to bear fruit. That was one reason I liked any of the Democrats over Bloomberg in the mayor's race: they had ideas for increasing education funding right now without depending on the state level lawsuits. I have criticized Bloomberg's middle school application process, a process my wife, step-daughter and I currently have to endure. And I have discussed the criticisms from Americans for Democratic Action of Bloomberg's education policies.

My main problem with Bloomberg on education is that he presents himself as smugly proud of his record on education. Well, even if his education program was brilliant, there is NOTHING to be proud of yet. The Park Slope Courier (Feb. 20th 2006 issue) reports numbers from the Department of Education that are absolutely damning for the city's schools. The DOE reports that the high school graduation rate for the state is 64% (or 71% if you include students who take 5 years to graduate). That alone is too low and is described as "unacceptable" by State Education Commissioner Richard Mills. But this blows the graduation rate for NYC away.

The high school graduation rate for NYC is 53.2%, if you include students who graduate after taking summer classes. THIS IS ABYSSMAL! How can Bloomberg even hint at being proud of his education record while we have numbers like this? At least the State Education Commissioner, who has as much a stake in seeing good numbers, has the decency to be horrified by the state of education in the state. Bloomberg, during his campaign, did nothing but glow smugly about his education record.

Bloomberg's approach to education is not much different than Bush's "No Child Left Behind." Both Bush and Bloomberg want more and more testing without actually properly funding all schools. Bloomberg also introduces competition, making schools compete for students from Middle School on and making students as young as 10 years old compete against each other to get into the few good schools. This is NOT a solution. All it does is create a further divide in our schools where we have good schools get better and bad schools get worse. Funding in the worse schools is so bad that students actually have to bring their own toilet paper to school.

I am not against testing. Even when it produces a certain amount of "teaching to the test," something my stepdaughter has complained about. If teaching to the test genuinely brings most students up to at least a minimum standard, then all is good. But what happens is that many students who don't make the grade are pressured to drop out in high school. So some of the High Schools with the worst graduation rates also have high dropout rates.

Let's be clear here. For every student who does not graduate high school, either through failing or dropout, represents a failure on our part. ALL of us fail here. Our society in NYC is not educating our children adequately and the changes made by Bloomberg, whether good in and of themselves, are not solving that problem. Until our society is properly educating the vast majority of our children, there is NOTHING for Bloomberg to be proud of and his smugness is nothing but an insult to those students who are poorly served by our education system.

Bloomberg's ideas for improving education are, at best, a mere beginning. Testing is fine. But you have to act upon the results of those tests, putting considerably more funding into the worst schools, hiring many more teachers and cutting dropout rates. This is not being adequately done. As a first step, Bloomberg's plans are worth something, though I think the "competition" aspect misses the point that ALL schools should be good. But as the end all and be all of an education policy it is completely inadequate. And completely inadequate is what our education system is for many students. All teachers I have known in NYC are enthusiastic and dedicated, moreso than I remember from other cities. But they don't have the moral and financial support from either the state or the city that they need. That has to change.

Mr. Bloomberg, you need to admit that your education policy is not adequate. That would be the first step to developing a REAL education policy that will serve all our children better. Contact the Daily News and Newsday and your favorite local paper to demand that Bloomberg stop being so smug about our schools and start DOING something to make things better for our students right now.