Parents and Students of District 7 in the Bronx Are About to be Screwed, Again

Oh the fun does not stop in District 7 in the Bronx. The New York Post reported today that District 7, as the behest of Community Education Council (one wonders whose behest they are working for), that 17 elementary schools in District 7 sill no longer be zoned schools, but rather open to all students within the district.

Said Nedya Franco, the D7 CEC president;

“We feel that it can’t get any worse, because we’re failing. So we have to do something that’s going to change the whole spectrum of our district, now [principals] have to prove what you have in the building and you have to bring students in. We feel there’s more accountability.”

Yes, that word, accountability, and a good dose of competition. Right? WRONG!!!!

This is what it boils down to. The schools that perform well, or at least appear to perform well, will cream the best students District 7 has to offer. The rest of the schools, will get the students from homes in which education is not taken seriously, students that are behavior problems, students that are struggling, and students that are way behind.

Think of this. Entry into Kindergarten will be akin to what parents on the Upper East Side, The Village, and the Upper West Side go through. There will be interviews of these families and their children, perhaps even tests. The schools will make damn sure that they are only selecting the best and that the best will select them. The resources will follow these students to a few select schools.

What happens to the rest? The rest of the schools will be deemed problem schools, with blame put on  problem teachers. There will be no resources, no curriculum, no nothing. Your child will not get an education at all. Nothing. Nada. Bupkus.

Soon, these "problem schools" will be forced to continuously shut down, with new teachers every few years, and with charter schools forcing themselves into these buildings to yet again take more and more resources away. Less space for the students that are not getting into the charters or the elite of District 7 will mean less building space for an ever growing amount of students that are not welcomed in neither. Who loses at the end? The students and the families.

This is the solution they choose for District 7. Tracy Woodall , the second VP of D7 CEC said that parents;

"were struggling to get their kids out of schools in their area that were failing, and there was nothing they could do.” 

Maybe not, but there is nothing the city is doing. It has been Mayor Bloomberg, and he alone, that has deprived the schools of needed funds and resources. It has been Mayor Bloomberg's lackies at Tweed that have deprived the schools in District 7 of a true curriculum. It has been Mayor Bloomberg and his lackies at Tweed that have deprived the schools of District 7 of any real curriculum.

Parents of District 7, who are being played. Do not believe that City Hall, Tweed, and those at 501 Courtlandt Ave have your best intentions in their hearts. They don't, and never will. Until your voices are heard, things will continue this way.

Think of the book by George Orwell, Animal Farm. "Some schools are more equal than others."