Posted on 07/26/2007 1:59:59 PM PDT by neverdem
Lauded in the press, Bloomberg’s education reforms are proving more spin than substance. Parents are losing patience.
Mayoral control, the hot new trend in urban school reform, began in Boston and Chicago in the 1990s. Now it’s the New York City school system, under the authority of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, that’s become the beacon for education-mayor wannabes like Adrian Fenty of Washington, D.C., and Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles. Influential philanthropic foundations, such as the Los Angeles–based Broad Foundation (headed by Bloomberg friend and fellow billionaire Eli Broad) and the Gates Foundation, are investing in Bloomberg as the model big-city mayor who uses his new executive powers over the schools to advance a daring reform agenda. Meanwhile, the national media’s positive coverage of mayoral control in Gotham is adding to the luster of a possible Bloomberg presidential run.
--snip--
The only education numbers that can’t be manipulated are those that tell how steeply education spending has increased under the Bloomberg-Klein regime. In the past four years, total expenditures on city schools from all sources—state, city, federal, and private—surged from $14 billion to $18 billion yearly, the greatest increase in history. The new funding allowed the system to hold the equivalent of 15 extra days of school per year and to hire thousands of extra teachers.
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...
I could’ve told you the education quality in NYC was poor in 2000.
The costs have gone up about 60 percent per student since then, and Bloomboob is touting himself as having accomplished something. Not that long ago $16,000 a year was tuition for medical school.
On the other hand, I hear that Bloomie’s education reforms make him feel very pretty.
How long ago was that?
Oh so pretty
It depends on the school, public or private.
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You can’t do an average per student. By law every kid is entitled to an education, some of these kids with handicaps and severe learning disabilities are very expensive to educate.
Why can't you? I understand other factors are involved, but it gives a rough idea of how much we're spending for such a lousy return on investment.
By law every kid is entitled to an education, some of these kids with handicaps and severe learning disabilities are very expensive to educate.
Setting Higher Standards For Special Education In New York City page 4 of pdf
"This report suggests how to provide more effective and efficient special education services to the 160,000 students who currently receive them. New York City should finally comply with the federal requirement that these students be educated with their non-disabled peers to the maximum extent possible."
That's 14.5 % of 1.1 million. The numbers may have changed some since 2002, but I doubt if it is that much. In the late 90s, IIRC 98 or 99, we were spending $11 billion for 1.1 million students, $10K per student. It's been a 60 % increase since then. Yet when we hear the results comparing this country to others on tests, we seem to be doing worse and worse.
NYC education is what it has always been. It’s never ever been a hand holding, “we’ll help you succeed” venture. If you’re a bright kid with ambition and drive, then you get an excellent education. If not, then you’re kicked to the curb.
Those are the cold hard facts.
Thanks for the ping!
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