Public Advocate Letitia James ripped Mayor de Blasio’s cash-guzzling Renewal school program Tuesday at a City Council hearing on the $582 million initiative.
“The Renewal schools program was announced with great fanfare in November of 2014,” James told the panel’s education committee. “And three and a half years and hundreds of millions of dollars later it is hard to argue that this program has been a success.”
James said parents, teachers and administrators have complained to her office about the “disorganization, inefficiency and burdensome bureaucracy” plaguing the controversial program.
“Many of the Renewal schools have failed to close the achievement gap in any meaningful way,” James said. “And 7 in 9 enroll fewer students now than they did when the program began.”
But despite that grim assessment, James blasted the Department of Education for opting to close teetering Renewal schools instead of plying them with additional resources.
The strategy “feels like a troubling return to the last administration policy of closing schools that could be saved with better policy,” James said.
“These schools can be saved, this program can be saved – but it will take real commitment,” she said.
Deploying waves of pricey consultants, the program kicked off with 98 sputtering schools in 2014 and will be culled to 47 by next year.
According to the DOE, 21 former Renewal schools showed enough progress to be rebranded as “Rise” schools next year.
Nine original Renewals have been already been shuttered and another eight have been proposed for closure.
The remainder have either been merged or have contracted.
Newly minted education chairman Mark Treyger, a former teacher, said he’s seen signs of life at some Renewal schools but voiced a litany of concerns.
“What I saw and heard was deeply inspiring,” he said. “Many of these schools have made significant improvements, demonstrating a strong school culture and the importance of the integrated supports.”
But Treyger also pointed to some of the red flags whipping around the initiative.
Of the original 98 Renewals, there were 70 principal changes at a total of 56 schools, according to the DOE.
Treyger also pressed DOE officials on high teacher attrition, inadequate engagement of parents and a lack of basic amenities like wi-fi and gyms.
The councilman also suggested that the program’s negative connotations have fed low enrollment and fleeing staffers.
Chris Caruso, who heads the DOE’s Community Schools program that includes Renewals, stressed gradual upticks in some basic metrics like graduation rates and state test scores.
“The Renewal program is the most ambitious turnaround program in the country,” Caruso said. “It provides unprecedented resources alongside targeted supports and increased accountability to help long-struggling schools change outcomes for students.”