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The recent rejection by parents of a move to privatize five public schools provides those of us who care for the public school system a second chance to show that we can provide quality education for our children. Chancellor Harold Levy and UFT president Randi Weingarten now have the opportunity to level the playing field for students and teachers, understanding that shifting responsibility to the private sector is not a viable solution.
We must provide our schools with the resources necessary to offer extended instructional hours, smaller class sizes, state of the art curriculum, up to date textbooks, and computers, in safe and modern school buildings. We need to support our teachers and provide them with the respect, training and compensation they deserve. At the same that we give more, we must make it known that we expect more.
It is now time to put aside the rhetoric of the Edison debate, which in reality was not about the Edison Corporation, but rather about our responsibility to provide quality education, to close the opportunity divide, and to ensure that public education dollars are spent wisely. The choice is not about “privatization or nothing;” it is about our ability as a community to have our expectations met for our schools and for our children. To do so, we must have a system and a standard to measure performance, demand accountability, and provide the resources to ensure that every child has the opportunity to excel.
In my mind, this debate was never about Edison or any other private management company’s ability to manage a school or to improve reading and math scores. It was about our responsibility to maintain a free public education system.
We should not siphon away public resources to support private schools while abandoning our public school system, which serves the huge majority of students. When every public school performs at the level we expect, the level our children deserve, then I would support options of private management.
Low expectations are a dangerous and often pervasive form of systemic racism. The Board of Education must set a clear agenda for improving poor performing schools. They must define their expectations, listen to the expectations of the community and engage families in school improvement.
Randi Weingarten tells me that our teachers are ready to accept the challenge. Harold Levy tells me the Board of Education is ready to accept the challenge. I am ready to give them a second chance; we must work together to give every child a second chance.
As an elected official, I will work with out local, state and federal officials to provide the funding necessary to sustain the improvements introduced by educators. This debate is not about “blowing up” the system, as the Mayor has said, but rather about building up our schools.
I seek the support of the education community in setting a new agenda for America’s public schools. Let us bring together the business community, parents, educators, universities, and elected officials to work together to create a model for school reform under the banner of creating Empowerment Schools. Just as the model for the federal Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Community legislation was born here in Harlem, let us again lead the nation in creating a new vision for public education. We should work together to create a model that empowers communities, teachers, parents and children in ensuring that no child, no family, no community, is left behind.
It is time to give New York City children, and every under-funded New York City public school a second chance. I got that second chance as a young soldier returning from Korean War, with no high school diploma and no prospects for a good job. The GI Bill and my country gave me a second chance. Let us work together to give our children the second chance they deserve.
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