I know it's a busy day and this is my 3rd post (make sure to check out the others) and it's only 1PM, just in time for Bloomberg's lying State of the City address. I was going to go to the protest at 12:30 but looked at directions and saw the word "Bruckner Expressway --- the use of the word "express" is a knee-slapper --- and I thought there is no way on a day it rained. So I am just going to head up to Williamsburg later for the CEC 14 meeting where D. 14 long-time Superintendent James Quail whom I've known for 40 years will be making his last appearance before retiring on Jan. 31. I will attempt to worm some ugliness towards Tweed out of him if I can.
Breaking: Just saw my childhood pal Marty Needelman in NY1 on another Bloomberg scuzzy operation in Williamsburg/Bushwick to create discriminatory housing --- they went to court and won against him -- another slap at the leagacy. David and Pat Dobosz from GEM who are neighborhood residents have been involved in this story.Leonie initial take:
Bloomberg’s State of City Address |Gotham reports:
He wants to re-introduce teacher merit pay (What? didn't we try that already?)
& bring Rocketship charter to NYC http://goo.gl/4cXq7
see also http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/01/12/ bloomberg-unveils-ambitious- proposals-for-schools/
50 more charters over the next 2 yrs.
streaming live (if you can stand it) at
http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/01/12/ bloomberg-unveils-ambitious- proposals-for-schools/
Mayor’s address comes against evaluations impasse backdrop
In education-packed speech, Bloomberg vows to bypass UFT------
Public School Parents from Across NYC to Protest “Mayor 13%” Today Outside State of the City Address
Site of address – Morris HS – likely to be touted by mayor as success;
but “new” Morris actually made gains by neglecting the highest-needs special ed students
After a decade of school closures and other failed school reform policies, only 13% of Black and Latino students are graduating prepared for college under Bloomberg
Poll after poll has shown a strong majority of New Yorkers reject Bloomberg’s education platform and want a new direction
Parents and education advocates from across New York City will protest today outside the mayor’s State of the City Address, decrying the man they call “Mayor 13%” for his failed education policies—which only prepare 13 percent of Black and Latino public school students for college.
Protesters will also draw attention to the dubious selection of Morris High School in the Bronx as the site of the address, and, apparently, a symbol to the administration of its success. Indeed, Morris’s graduation rates have improved since it was closed and re-opened under the Bloomberg Administration—but at the expense of high-needs (self-contained) special education students who were forced to attend other schools. The old Morris HS had a 14 percent rate of self-contained special education students; the new Morris HS campus schools have an average of just two percent. [FACT SHEET ON MORRIS HS AND BLOOMBERG POLICIES ATTACHED.]
Advocates and parents will also point to the Bronx neighborhood surrounding Morris as a microcosm of Bloomberg’s failed education policies across the City, where high-needs students who typically score lower on standardized exams are “warehoused” in a few schools to inflate scores in others. In the neighborhood around Morris, for example, only three percent of students are in high-needs special education classes at the “A” schools, while the closing schools average nine percent high-needs special education.
The federal government’s National Assessment of Educational Progress Trial Urban District Assessment (NAEP TUDA) test results in December showed that City scores have plateaued since 2009 and the large racial achievement gap persists between students of color and their white peers has not budged. More than one-third of all City schools are now considered failing by the State. Earlier this fall, we learned that adjusted state scores showed a deepening crisis in our middle and elementary schools, and that higher graduation rates were masking the fact that just one-in-four high school seniors were actually prepared for college. In response, poll after poll has shown a strong majority of New Yorkers reject Bloomberg’s education platform and want a new direction.
WHEN: Thursday, January 12th – 12:30 PM
WHERE: Outside Morris High School – 1100 Boston Road, the Bronx
For immediate release:
January 11, 2012
Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters, leonie@classsizematters.org; 917-435-9329
Mili Bonilla, Coalition for Education Justice, mili_bonilla@brown.edu; 347-901-1049
Don’t Believe the Hype!
The Real Deal on Morris High School
& Bloomberg’s Failed Education Policies
