After eight years of Mayor Bill de Blasio, New York’s K-12 public schools are in a crisis. Compounded by the pandemic, de Blasio’s abysmal stewardship has caused confidence in public schools to plummet. Enrollment has fallen to 890,000 from 1.1 million, while homeschooling, charter-school applications and Catholic-school enrollment are all on the rise. Crime dominates the messaging of the mayoral campaign, but for the next mayor, fixing our public schools is equally, if not more, important.
Consider the ugly facts: Though the city spends more per pupil than any major K-12 system in the country, 25 percent of kids fail to graduate high school; in many schools less than half graduate. Pandemic exceptions and “alternate pathways” create the illusion that graduation rates have held steady during de Blasio’s tenure, but when adjusted for watered-down graduation requirements, graduation rates have declined.
The mayor’s announcement ending the Gifted & Talented program is the latest example of his dumbing-down student excellence for the sake of “equity” — i.e., an equally poor education for all students, rather than an equal opportunity to have an appropriate place to flourish and succeed to the best of their natural abilities. A bored gifted student is not good for either the student or the school.
For de Blasio, it’s another personal political maneuver. In contemplating a gubernatorial run, de Blasio is pandering to elements of New York’s Democratic primary base. But there will be a new mayor on Jan. 1, 2022, and the Democratic candidate, Eric Adams, has already voiced support for the G&T program.
Shortly before launching his 2020 presidential campaign, de Blasio played a similar political “equity” card, announcing plans to replace the entrance exams to selective high schools with a lottery drawn from the top 10 percent of students in feeder schools — never mind that students from underperforming schools may be unprepared for some of New York’s more rigorous academic programs. Both this plan and his presidential candidacy failed on arrival.
In late 2013, the then-newly elected de Blasio announced his K-12 plan for failing schools. The plan, dubbed “Renewal,” aimed at turning around the 94 most under-performing schools with more funds and consultants. Though marred by bureaucratic confusion, expensive consulting contracts and unrealistic timelines, Renewal continued for five years and $800 million until Blasio abandoned it after his reelection, leaving minimal measurable positive impacts on graduation rates, test scores or other academic metrics. Only three of the 94 Renewal schools met their targets for improvement, and attendance at Renewal schools plummeted while cost-per-student rose.
In addition to wasting time, effort, funds, achievement and hope, de Blasio squandered the progress made by Mayor Mike Bloomberg and his schools chancellor, Joel Klein. Together, they cut a path determined by experience and common sense and presided over rising graduation rates and improving test scores.
Bloomberg wrested mayoral control of schools from the Legislature, and with Klein, overhauled reading and math curricula, boosted more accountability and flexibility for principals, reorganized failing schools into smaller, more focused units and allowed schools the space to innovate. Bloomberg also won key concessions from teachers unions, including tenure reform and steps toward pay-for-performance.
Most important, the Bloomberg/Klein team resisted huge union and political blowback in closing and replacing failing schools to get results for kids. And Klein (a former Justice Department trust-buster) pushed charter schools, which gave parents a choice and enrolled 70,000 students by the time of de Blasio’s election.
Alas, to please teachers unions, de Blasio fought charters — though he failed again, as charter enrollments grew to 145,000. And he focused on “equity” and pandered to the teachers union, again prioritizing his personal political goals.
For eight painful years, a self-styled progressive set back progress in the schools and thwarted a sound, basic education for many a young New Yorker. Too bad: Good schools can be a great leveler and a first rung on the ladder of upward mobility. Now that rung needs repair. New York’s next mayor will have much to do to fix it.
Ed Cox was a founder and the co-chairman of SUNY’s Charter School Committee and has been involved in New York’s alternative schools since 1985.