De Blasio’s Lottery Plan: A Blow to City Education THE ISSUE:
As a college professor, I was amused by Mayor de Blasio’s plan to use a lottery to select students to go to even the best public middle schools (“Killing Public-School Standards,” Editorial, Dec. 21.).
The resulting dumbingdown of education standards apparently does not concern the city’s elected leader.
Is he actually too stupid to understand this or does he just not care?
In the same way that police fled to Long island, will teachers — and students — now accelerate their flight to the wisergoverned suburbs? Does Hizzoner care?
Shel Townsend
Glen Cove, LI
The mayor wants to change middle-school policy for accepting students under his mantra of a fairer city.
This is another move right out of his Marxist playbook. The overachievement of some students must be punished. Somehow, it’s our fault, and not the fault of the lower schools that are under his command.
He tried and failed to impose this on the specialized high schools. Managing outcomes is central to his philosophy, as opposed to merit. Everything is seen through a racial prism.
Phil Serpico, Queens
That’s right, Barnacle Bill. Let’s further destroy the city school system.
He’s done remarkably well at that by just about eliminating suspensions for unruly behavior. Now the genius comes up with the idea of suspending restrictions for admission to certain schools so as to increase diversity. What hogwash.
Deserving pupils will be denied admission and students with behavioral problems will make their
The de Blasio administration’s plan to end academic-based screening for middle schools.
way into schools and create a totally disruptive environment in the classroom.
Instead of creating more challenging standards, the mayor and his cohorts are presiding over the further deterioration of city schools. When will they ever learn? Ed Greenspan
Brooklyn
De Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, whose ineptitude, lack of action and lessthan-stellar handling of public education during the pandemic are finally doing something. Their brilliant solution is to further erode educational standards.
I guess they would like the children of New York City to grow up to become knuckleheads, just like they are. Karl Olsen
Watervliet
Education, when it is done with purity of heart and a dedication to the importance of learning, is among the most noble of professions.
Helping kids learn is satisfying on so many levels. Under the reign of de Blasio and Carranza, student learning is virtually nowhere to be found on the list of priorities.
They have destroyed
the essence of education by reducing it to a cynical political strategy that helps no one. Learning and achievement have been replaced by terms like “equity” and “diversity” under the cover of COVID.
The reality is that because of the terrible job they’ve done with remote learning, the city’s kids are losing the gift of learning at the expense of political ideology.
It is tragic and the consequences of what has gone on will last for years to come.
Robert DiNardo
Farmingdale
The mayor’s announcement that merit will no longer be the criterion for admission to selective middle schools in the city was shocking, but not surprising.
This inept buffoon who is pretending to be the city’s leader is determined to weaken whatever has made the city strong in previous decades — law enforcement, education, public welfare and transportation.
The next time de Blasio goes to the hospital for surgery, let’s hope he gets a surgeon who went to medical school on the basis of a lottery, not ability. Jay Roberts
Jericho
Crazy Carranza’s plan to ax academic metrics for middle-school admission and end geographic priority for high-school admission is a woke joke.
His dangerous game of racial roulette to achieve educational equality will result in most students from grades 6-12 getting a worse education then they had before COVID hit. Richard Reif
Queens