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Bloomberg & Opponents Reach A Deal On School Shake Up
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Christine Quinn, Robert Jackson and UFT president Randy Weingarten reached agreement on compromise to the Mayor's third major school reorganization plan.
Under the agreement, schools wont lose money during the next school year. That had been a major danger in the Bloomberg-Klein plan -- that the effect would be actual reductions in money available even as billions more are added the the education budget.
In addition the UFT appears to have won concessions that may mitigate the incentive built into the reorganization which will encourage principals to shed higher paid senior teachers. Other crucial areas: class size, parent engagement, middle school reform etc. appear to be adjourned to later with precatory language. Community leaders who were at the announcement included: Director of the New York Immigration Coalition Chung-Wha Hong, NY ACORN Director Bertha Lewis, and Irania Sanchez representing the Coalition for Economic Justice and Make the Road by Walking. They were the ones clustered around the Working Families Party which, along with the UFT, put considerable resources into the anti-reorganization effort. .
Consistent with the long Bloomberg-Klein hostility to parent groups, it appears that no leader of a Parent Association was present. The press announcment is here while press accounts from the New York Times and Daily News are here and here.
As I see it, the deal may blunt some of the worst parts of Bloomberg-Klein reorganization, but leaves in place a system on contractors who will benefit from the Bloomberg-Klein largess. Will children ever do as well under this system as no-bid consultants? More later as the terms of the deal become clearer.
Not A Fair Description
The deal allows Bloomberg to rearrange some deck chairs while abandoning equity.
The proposal would never have forced any teacher to leave any school, just spread new hires around the system.
Under the agreement, schools with better off children will continue to exclusively hire seasoned teachers out of the schools with poorer students. They will have a permanently higher funding level that schools in poor neighborhoods, based on the salaries of teachers there today.
Schools in low income neighborhoods will continue to have a succession of new hires, who will receive no additional compensation for remaining but can depart for greener pastures as soon as a position is available.
To the extent that seasoned teachers are a greater resource relative to those in their first year in the classroom, the better off will continue to get more resources. Just as, I believe, Spitzer's school funding compromise will do statewide.
A massive increase in spending, directed to the better off, is what conservative Republicanism really is. And this is what liberalism really is. No, you won't accept that, and neither will they. But if you are on the outside, it is clear.
We May Just Have To Disagree
The Bloomberg-Klein reorganization, as originally proposed, would not -- as I understand it -- have ensured funding equity among schools. The revised agrement won't either.
Indeed, as I understand it, funding equity should not be a goal. Lower performing schools, largely attended by lower SES children with significantly higher needs should get much more funding. (But without -- removing cash from some schools to give it to others).
By connecting funding to enrollment (each school would get a fixed humber of dollars per child), no allowance was made in the Bloomberg-Klein scheme for higher need children, ensuring, therefore that they'd get shorter shrift. Cash-strapped principals at lower performing schools would, therefore, have to strip every program bare in order to spend money on one thing: test prep.
For all of their talk, the one thing Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein have consistently refused to do is to throw money at the problem of lower performing schools and children.
They need smaller classes Bloomberg-Klein have so far refused to reduce class size; going so far as to create phantom classes to earmarked small class money to other purposes.
They need experienced teachers, who cost more money. Data suggest that teachers with more than 5 years on the job do better with children.
They need lessons directed at the children where they are. Bloomberg-Klein educational theory is that all children are widgets who need to be given the same lesson at the same time of day, regardless of need.
My thought: Pay teachers more, give them much smaller classes, stop forcing scripted lessons on them and on children. Then, hold them and principals accountable for child successes and failures.