YEARN TO LEARN ON DAY 1
But problems still abound at schools
New school year, same old problems.
Mayor de Blasio and city Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza touted the city's heavily hyped early-education programs as public schools kicked off the first day of class Wednesday.
But in classrooms across the city, persistent challenges posed by struggling schools, inequality and racial segregation were on full display, even as de Blasio and Carranza vowed to create a better system for all.
The two marked the start of instruction for the nation's largest school district by visiting a 3-K class at Queens Public School 377, which is one of 187 sites across the city that offer kids as young as 2 the chance to enroll in free, full-day classes similar to those in higher grades.
The city's 3-K program has grown from 47 last year and builds on the success of the popular universal prekindergarten classes that were rolled out in 2015.
De Blasio said the new 3-K classes will change the lives of public school families for the better, and he hopes to offer them to all city kids by 2021.
“This is this irreplaceable moment,” said de Blasio. “We've got to grab it while we have it and give them every opportunity to learn.”
But in order to grow the program, de Blasio will have to obtain a significant amount of federal and state funding, something he's yet to accomplish.
The mayor and Carranza also acknowledged challenges in their ongoing efforts to desegregate the city schools, which are among the most racially divided in the nation.
They both ruled out busing as a tactic to diversify city classrooms, saying it would work against a goal to improve all schools.
“I don't see there having to be a need for that kind of intervention,” said Carranza. “I don't think it's the kind of a thing we want in our city.”
But de Blasio said he “liked the chances” of his plan to desegregate the city's elite specialized high schools by eliminating the controversial test that's currently used for admissions. The proposal must be approved by the state Legislature to take effect and faces long odds in a Republican-controlled Senate.
Students at Manhattan's prestigious Stuyvesant High School said they support a plan to desegregate their school, where just 24 of 3,336 students were black in 2017, representing less than 1% of enrollment.
But they weren't sure of de Blasio's plan to replace the admissions test with a program to admit top middle school students from around the city.
“I don't think you should completely eliminate the test, but I think they should lower the necessary test scores because I think it's way too high compared to other schools,” said Safina Davis, a black Stuyvesant freshman from Harlem. Safina, 14, said she believes specialized high schools should use multiple measures to admit students, such as prior grades and state testing scores.
And Bronx parents said they need more quality schools in undeserved communities, like Bathgate, where 100% of students enrolled at PS 59 last year met federal guidelines for poverty. “The schools in the Bronx are not great. There's not that much good education,” said Corally Camargo, 28, whose daughter started fourth grade at PS 59 on Wednesday.
“The kids are failing in reading,” Camargo added. “My kid is one of them.”