THE POST SAYS:
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UNDREDS of children, mostly African American, rallying on the City Hall steps — chanting, “Kids before politics,” no less — and Mayor de Blasio . . . just walks on by, avoiding not only eye contact but any acknowledgment of their presence. He ignored the “I want to LEARN” sign, as well as the “De Blasio, don’t discriminate” and “Mayor, have a ♥ ” ones, simply sauntering along in the midst of his entourage, eyes carefully forward. The fourth-graders from Success Academy elementary schools in southeast Queens were asking the mayor to honor his promises, and those of Chancellor Richard Carranza, and find space for a new Success middle school.
If Team de Blasio reneges, 227 children will have no classrooms next fall.
Why? Because the teachers union, and Blas himself, have an irrational hatred of charter schools. They can’t stand that publicly funded but privately run classrooms are doing a better job giving the minority students they claim to care about a better future.
It’s heartless, it’s calculated and it’s borderline illegal — the city is required to find space for Success or pay its rent at a private location. By stringing the school along with two years of empty promises, the city is cynically hoping to rob the kids of their chance to continue with Success.
At Success schools, the kids aced last year’s state exams, with 99 percent passing math and 93 percent passing English; at the non-Success schools in their neighborhoods, fifth-grade pass rates aren’t even 30 percent.
But the mayor treated them like un-persons, just as his Department of Education has spun its wheels on the network’s request for space, although at least seven school buildings in southeast Queens have more than enough room.
The DOE hacks insist they’re following their protocols, which plainly have nothing to do with helping kids to learn.
“Let’s see how much courage he has to face the very children he is going to disenfranchise,” Success CEO Eva Moskowitz said as the mayor approached the rally.
No courage at all, of course.