Fariña’s fix: Get ‘Stone’d

Language-class flap

Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña offered startling advice to parents upset at cuts to foreign language classes: If you don’t like it, buy a $200 Rosetta Stone program so kids can teach themselves.

Fariña shocked parents at a community meeting in Inwood on Dec. 15 with her response to a complaint from the mother of a seventhgrader at Harlem’s Mott Hall School, who griped that her son’s French class had been cut from two days a week to only one.

“I’m going to give you my grandmother advice to this one. I have a 9yearold grandson that loves language and I bought him Rosetta Stone for the holiday,” Fariña told the workingclass parents. “That’s something I strongly recommend. It’s very exciting.”

Rosetta Stone sells for about $200 — but a quarter of InwoodWashington Heights residents live below the poverty line, so that isn’t pocket change to them.

Fariña earns a combined salary and pension of $412,913 a year.

The chancellor also re minded the complaining parent that her son was attending one of the city’s toprated public schools.

“First and foremost, be happy you have an embarrassment of riches,” Fariña said of the wellregarded Mott Hall, which has a strong emphasis on math and science instruction.

Parents and education advocates flunked Fariña’s remarks as tone deaf.

“More than 50 percent of New York City students are living below the poverty line. We cannot expect parents to choose between enrichment activities for their kids and basic necessities like food and shelter,” said Zakiyah Ansari, advocacy director for the unionbacked Alliance for Quality Education.

Department of Education officials claimed that Fariña’s remarks — first reported by DNA Info — were taken out of context.

“As a former Englishlanguage learner, Chancellor Fariña created the first standalone Division for English Language Learners and Student Support to ensure the DOE has a clear focus on ELL students,” said DOE spokeswoman Devora Kaye.