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After School Ruling, Another Space Scramble
March 29th, 2010

Now that the judge has ruled the city violated state education law when it moved to close 19 school earlier this year 19 schools, thousands of city eighth graders can learn what schools they will attend in September. But the larger issues surrounding the closing of schools the Department of Education considers to be failing remain far from settled.

In a statement released today, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said the city has now mailed out its high school acceptance, letters, a process that had been halted pending the ruling. Students who had applied to a school originally slated for extinction will be able to attend that school — or the school the department had matched the students with instead.

At the same time, the department is facing a game of musical chairs at some of the affected schools. It had planned to locate 10 new (albeit small) public schools, four charter schools and two other existing public schools into the closed schools. Now it still hopes to launch the new schools, but where will they be?

“The court’s decision relates to the closure of failing schools, not the siting of new schools,” said agency spokesman Danny Kanner in statement. “We have no plans to change course for the creation of new schools.”

As it ponders this space headache, the departments could face another one. Parents at two Lower East Side schools that share space this morning announced that they would challenge the department’s decision to expand a charter — Girls Preparatory Academy — that shares space with the two other schools. Echoing the substance of the school closing suit, the parents from PS 188 and PS94 have charged the administration “violated state law in approving the expansion of Girls Preparatory Charter School, and neglected to account for the serious impact that the expansion will have on students, especially students with disabilities.”

The Friday’s decision on closed schools, in a case brought by the United Federation of Teachers and the NAACP, found the Department of Education did not comply with new state law requiring that it analyze the impact school closings would have.

The ruling, by Judge Joan Lobis, has elicited sharp reaction from many quarters. Supporters of the mayor generally saw the failure to comply with the law as nothing more than a bureaucratic glitch — if that — while critics tended to see it as a kind of comeuppance for a department that has been faulted frequently for not having meaningful consultation with parents and teachers.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer stood clearly in the later camp. “Todays court decision is a wakeup call to the Department of Education, he said in a statement. “The message could not be more clear: When DOE breaks the law by paying lip service to parental involvement but fails to follow through, the system breaks down and our children end up being the losers.”

In a similar vein, Robert Jackson, chair of the City Council Education Committee said he was “gratified” by the decision. He said, “Students, parents, teachers, administrators and advocates often feel stymied by the [education department's] high-handed dismissal of legitimate complaints.”

The Daily News saw it differently. Calling the suit ” a cynical exercise by the union to protect jobs,” it said, “This decision, should it stand, will severely crimp a school chancellor’s power to pull the plug on schools that, year in and year out, neglect to teach their students.”

The Post described the judge as “nitpicking” when she faulted the city for not giving local community groups sufficient advance notice of public meetings or giving the speakers at those meetings sufficient time to talk. (It did not mention that Lobis also found the city did not prepare detailed statements about where students enrolled in specific programs at the closed schools might find similar programs.)

Whitney Tilson, a blogger and charter school advocate, admitted the department did not “cross some t’s and dot some i’s,” but, he continued, “The judge shouldn’t have stopped the closure.”

Taking a more nuanced approach, education attorney and Brooklyn College Professor David Bloomfield applauded the judge for checking “illegal use of political authority.” Despite that, Bloomfield said, “The decision should also be greeted with sadness. That the city should so brazenly violate the letter of the law is contemptible. That the identified schools, hobbled by instructional incompetence or supervisory negligence, will continue to maltreat students is equally appalling.”

By Gail Robinson on March 29, 2010, 4:45 pm
In category: Education, Law | 6 Comments »

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