Carranza’s Red Herring: Don’t Blame the Parents
THE ISSUE: Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza’s tweet on protesters of the city’s academic diversity plan.
Not even a month on the job and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza is already a polarizing figure (“Fanning the Flames,” Editorial, April 28).
Can’t parents voice concerns for their children’s education without first having to prove they’re not racists?
A hand-picked progressive, Carranza is pretty quick to use race to prove his point. Great example for the kids, showing that there is simply no such thing as polite, fact-based discourse anymore.
Careful what you wish for, folks. Gary Kaelin Commack
The Upper West Side parents cannot have it both ways.
If they vote continually to support the horrible education system brought to us by the mayor and the teachers union, they shouldn’t be excused when they exhibit racist behavior because the system is terrible.
They help to propagate the horrible education system they complain about. Francis Rushford Brooklyn
Carranza has a lot to learn. Why not look at the real problems at failing schools to figure out what’s wrong? Maybe it’s the teachers or the curriculum.
You don’t solve the problem by moving kids to a different school. Fix their schools, so they all can learn in their own schools with their own friends, instead of having to travel further to go to school. Pete Calogero Red Hook
Once again, Mayor de Blasio and the Department of Education are making the problems worse.
Instead of fixing the schools that kids are attending, they are going to move kids who are not doing well to better schools.
This will mean some kids who are currently doing well will be shut out from higher-performing schools.
This is totally crazy; diversity thrives when all schools are doing a good job.
This problem could be fixed if de Blasio stopped fighting charter schools and gave them the space they deserve. The charter schools are working. Gene Lindsay Mastic
One would think in the Upper West Side, a neighborhood inhabited by the ultra-left, parents would be fighting to bring minority children to their schools.
They tend to vote for politicians like de Blasio and Barack Obama. These parents should have been out front on this issue, since many of them likely voted for politicians who have blocked charter schools and kept these children as prisoners in a failed system. John Lacey Southold How does putting lowperforming students in with higher-performing ones to achieve “diversity” make any sense?
Lower-achieving students need more help, and that will take away from the learning experience of better students.
The real problem here isn’t diversity. It’s poorperforming schools.
The solution is to fund more charter schools that have demonstrated success in low-income and minority communities. Jonathan Block Astoria
I would have thought the smart thing to do was to improve underachieving schools, so all the children in New York City could have a fair shot at a good education.
Carranza shouldn’t call out any parent for fighting for his kid. These parents didn’t fail the children in low-scoring schools; the Department of Education did.
Don’t blame white parents on the Upper West Side. Look to the institution that has been shortchanging their kids all along. Barbara Lorge Dix Hills
The right is always accused of dividing this country, but the description of Upper West Side parents as “wealthy and white” demonstrates that the left can always be counted on to wage class warfare.
Someone please explain to Carranza that in America, financial success is respected and emulated, not denigrated.
The parents he disdains likely became affluent as a result of hard work, intelligence and entrepreneurship. Michael Gable Aventura, Fla.