By Julie Shapiro
Volume 79, Number 19 | October 14 – 20, 2009
West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933
Only some school issues are for parents, Bloomberg says
Parents do not need a role in decisions like new school sites or school zoning, Mayor Mike Bloomberg told The Villager last Friday.
Bloomberg said parents need only be involved in the micro issues of their child’s education, like the student’s attendance, behavior and grades. It does not make sense for parents to be involved in larger issues like overcrowding, because those issues take years to resolve, Bloomberg said.
“When you’re talking about siting schools, you’re not talking about parental involvement,” he said, “because the process from deciding you want to build a school, siting it and building it and moving your kid in — your kid’s going to be through graduate school by that time. These things don’t happen overnight. You’re talking about a different group of people who want to have some input: community activists. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s not parents.”
Bloomberg drew the distinction between parents and activists during an hour-long interview Friday with reporters and editors from The Villager, Downtown Express, Gay City News and Chelsea Now, the group of four newspapers owned by Community Media.
Earlier this year, the state renewed mayoral control of the city’s schools, keeping Bloomberg in his position of oversight and responsibility. Some parents opposed the renewal because they wanted a greater voice in the city’s education policies.
In Lower Manhattan, parents pointed to the persistent elementary school overcrowding and the Department of Education’s incorrect population projections. Those parents, who raised the problems months before the city acknowledged or addressed them, and who have sometimes suggested the solutions the city ultimately implemented, said the city could benefit from being required to listen and respond to parents.
For example, it was a local parent who first identified the site for P.S./I.S. 276, the soon-to-open “green school” in southern Battery Park City. And it was parents, together with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who successfully advocated for the city to open kindergarten classes this fall in Tweed Courthouse, on Chambers St., when it became clear that nearby P.S. 89 and P.S. 234 would not be able to handle the influx. In many cases, the parents fought for the new school seats even though their children did not directly benefit.
The new version of mayoral control does include provisions for parents to have more input in Department of Education decisions through the Community Education Councils, but many parents still want a larger say. Asked if the new version of mayoral control gives parents enough input, Bloomberg replied, “I don’t know what ‘enough’ is.”
He continued, “Parent involvement should not be parent control. We have professional principals, administrators and teachers — experts. They should design the classroom.”
Bloomberg then described the improvements he has made in sharing information with parents about their children’s performance and their children’s schools, including parent coordinators, school report cards and surveys. Parents have more input now than they had under the old school board system, Bloomberg said.
“For the first time, they really are involved,” he said of parents. “Is it enough? You know, most parents say yes.”
