Thursday, June 16, 2011

NYC Education Groups Deliver Bloomberg News: Bloomberg Social Promotion Policy a Sham/Seven 50-Foot Scrolls To Mayor Bloomberg With More Than 16,000 Signatures Opposing Classroom Cuts

Bloomberg has often boasted about his promotion policy, saying that previously students passed from grade to grade regardless of whether they mastered material. A RAND study commissioned by the city concluded that the policy had short-term benefits for students affected by it. The study al so confirmed, however, that more students have been promoted to the next grade since the policy was introduced than were promoted before. -
Gotham Schools (9 percent of third through eighth graders sent to summer school).
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Bloomberg has police demonstrate Children First:
Bloombergville sleep-in updates:

From Doug:
A high school student, was arrested this morning with absolutely no provocation, but last I heard http://bloombergvillenow.org/he was about to be released. There is a press conference happening about this with Charles Barron that I think is going to be at noon at City Hall, but I don't have confirmation on that.
From Michael Friedman, who slept-out at Bloombergville last night:  We spent the night in front of Citibank, on Broadway – a legal, public space – across from City Hall, where we had been displaced the night before after police abrogated an earlier agreement  we had with them.  There were about 50 of us, split into two groups in order not to block the bank entrance.  At about 7 am, police began to gather and commenced harassing the group, apparently in response to complaints by the bank manager.  First, they demanded we remove signs from the walls.  Then it was signs leaning against the walls.  Finally, they put up barricades separating the two areas where we were sleeping.  A high school student, who has participated in the sleep-out since it started, was arrested for crossing from one area to the other with a sign in his hands.
Update: The student was released from custody shortly before noon.

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MORE Bloomberg Children First
And then there's the high school graduate scam.
These Three Schools Show How Bogus The Graduation Rate Is When It Is Compared To The "College & Career Readiness" Statistics.

Deserved Salutes To Uncle Mike Bloomberg And The 61% NYC Graduation Rate!
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And even more Bloomberg Children First


 


Mayor’s Proposal Includes $350M In Ed Budget Cuts, Plus $79M to Early Childhood Education, $34M to After School Programs 

Parents Demand That City Return More Than $200M in State Funds to Ed Budget, Recognize IBO Savings of $100M to Avoid All Classroom Cuts, Not Just Teacher Layoffs 

(New York City, New York)  Parents, students and community members organized by New York City’s largest education groups delivered a petition to Mayor Bloomberg today signed by more than 16,000 New Yorkers opposing his massive, unnecessary cuts to schools.

The groups called on Bloomberg and the City Council to make restorations to a proposed $350 million cut from classrooms that would eliminate more than 6,000 teaching positions as well as afterschool programs, arts programs, tutoring, sports, counseling, professional development and other essential services.

Participants called attention to the City’s failure to utilize an additional $205 million in state education funding for schools, and demanded that the funding be re-appropriated.  Protesters also pointed to an Independent Budget Office estimate that the Department of Education could realize savings of $100 million through more accurate estimates regarding teacher attrition.

“The fact is there are no excuses for the Mayor's proposal to eliminate 6,000 teaching positions.  My son's school, High School for Law, has already had to eliminate it's after school as a result of last year’s budget cuts.  When the Mayor received over $200 million from the State he could have chosen to use the money to maintain positions, instead he chose not to. That’s why I signed the petition,” said Carlos Ruiz, PTA President and Alliance for Quality Education parent leader.

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