NYC Public Schools are Sinking Fast

                                                   
    I just read an article in the New York Post describing the public schools as being the most dangerous in the state. https://nypost.com/2019/08/13/nyc-schools-were-most-violent-and-disruptive-in-state-last-year/?utm_campaign=iosapp&utm_source=message_app What a shock! What’s really a shock is that even with the nonreporting it still came in at the highest in the state. The actual numbers are likely to be 10 to 50 times higher - not 10 to 50% higher.  Let that sink in for a moment. Every principal in the city is under the gun statistically. Everything that’s reported is a strike against them personally and against the school. Their jobs are on the line if their schools show incidents. So what’s a well-meaning, self-serving principal supposed to do? They don’t report. What they do report are incidents they have no choice in reporting, because of rotating metal detectors and or deeds so serious that the families become involved and contact the police themselves.  Many of the schools that I was in as an ATR warned the kids the afternoon before the metal detectors were coming.  So even with the warning there were numerous weapons found. The weapons are the least of it. It’s the stuff that goes on inside the schools that is unbelievable. There are sexual and physical assaults, attempted murders, bullying, drug use and sales, prostitution and teacher assaults that all go unreported. The city uses warning cards, restorative justice and non- police involvement in conjunction with non - reporting to prove the schools are safer than they have ever been. Just the opposite is true. This fact has the potential to destroy the NYC public school system and all teaching positions. Allow me to explain.

   Firstly, what parent is going to send their kids to a New York City public school? The only parents that would do so are parents that are poor and desperate. They have no other choice. Unfortunately, the economic reality of our city is such that the poor are usually Black and/or Hispanic. These parents if given a choice of a public of charter school will choose the charter school. http://chaz11.blogspot.com/2019/08/poor-areas-losing-public-and-catholic.html?m=0 I don’t blame them. (The charter schools can handpick their kids and throw out those they don’t want - you know- the same ones we don’t want.) The public schools cannot do this. Many quiet decent kids have become so traumatized that they just stop going to school. NYCDOE is such a large bureaucracy that is very easy for huge numbers of kids to get completely lost in the system. Guidance counselors are extremely overworked and these kids who want to get an education simply can’t - their lives will be a constant struggle. Lack of safety is in large part a contributing factor for why our schools are segregated.

   If Carranza/de Blasio truly want to desegregate public schools -  they have to acknowledge this fact. They are going about the whole desegregation procedure incorrectly. It borders on idiocy. They are targeting schools that have tests, that are colorblind, in order to bring more Black and Hispanic kids into them. These schools work, they aren’t dangerous. What Carranza/deBlasio should be doing is getting more White kids into the non-selective public schools. There is absolutely no way that this can be attained due to the fact that no parent in their right mind, who has a choice, would send their kid to a New York City public school - especially in poorest areas - 90% of the Bronx and a large portion of Brooklyn - they are simply too dangerous and badly run.

    Well, how can we get White kids into our public schools? (The answer will also get Black and Hispanic kids into selective schools.) The first thing to do is have complete transparency. School leaders have to have a background in education and an affinity for the job. Many of these Leadership Academy principals seem ill  prepared to help their staffs help kids. Deal with serious incidents seriously. No one believes the NYPD or NYCDOE stats anymore. Hardcore thugs need to be put into schools that focus on behavior modification and support. If a student is dangerous, and we have many, they shouldn’t be sitting next to the kids that are struggling to do the right thing. Secondly, all schools have to be greatly improved on all fronts. (As an example, that means in part an office of Curriculum Development is  reestablished - Bloomberg closed it. Many of the educational problems we have started with Bloomberg.) Every class in the city should have learning happening every day.   Vocational schools should be reopened so kids have a choice between a trade and/or college. College isn’t for everyone and if a kid wants to be a carpenter, she/he should have that opportunity.

     So, how does this have the potential to close down the system? Rampant academic fraud, dangerous schools and a choice for the beleaguered parent. That choice is the charter school. All the decent kids will be siphoned off and the dregs of society will be left in the public schools. They are apt to get even worse in all regards. This will continue until something dramatically tragic happens that can’t be hidden and  makes the state and the federal government aware of the whole outrageous facade.  A Jewish school in the city had bulletproof doors installed in their classrooms this week https://www.bing.com/amp/s/forward.com%2ffast-forward%2f429386%2fanti-semitism-mass-shooting-jewish-school%2f%3fgamp. How well is your school prepared for a dangerous scenario? https://campuslifesecurity.com/Articles/2019/06/18/State-Audit-Shows-NYC-Schools-Not-Prepared-for-Shootings-Other-Emergencies.aspx?m=1  How many weapons are coming into your school on a daily basis? I guarantee you, if you are a high school teacher in the Bronx  at least ten kids sitting in front of you are armed. Why can’t the DOE become proactive instead of reactive? Yes, I know - it would have to admit the truth.