Parents Lambast DOE Proposal

As the Department of Education continues to move forward with changes proposed by Mayor Bloomberg in his January state of the city address, parents gathered Wednesday and called for the DOE to halt implementation until concerned stakeholders could be more thoroughly consulted.

The DOE wants to dismantle the current regional system and transfer more authority back to districts and individual school principals. The autonomy will be in exchange for increased oversight. Parents, City Council members, and teachers expressed their displeasure with the mayor's process for forming the plan, which they say did not contain enough community input.

Leonie Haimson, a parent advocate and executive director of Class Size Matters, said the DOE "won't listen to anyone outside the DOE structure, not even the City Council ... they're like the group up top steering the Titanic, and they're not listening to anyone on deck saying 'stop, you're going to crash.'"

Teachers, parents, and City Council members are apprehensive about Bloomberg and the DOE's emphasis on business techniques to solve the public school system's problems. Many interested parties are worried that the emphasis on numbers will shift public educators' focus from education to money.

"Education has become big business," said Harriet Barnes, a District 5 parent and Community District Education Council president. About the removal of the region system she noted, "they gave these companies millions of dollars to see if we needed it [the region system] and then you pay someone to figure out that we didn't."

The new changes and their effects have prompted meetings across the city. The DOE has been holding town-hall forums in all five boroughs, and Klein met with the city council's committee on education, weighing in last month at a session to address concerns of the council and parents.

Council members from across the city expressed anger that they had not been consulted in the process.

Robert Jackson, chairman of the Council's Education Committee and representative for West Harlem and Washington Heights said in a press release that, "It is time for the mayor and the chancellor to stop their dismissive approach and begin to engage parents and advocates so we can work together for the improvement of our children's education."

Teachers are also concerned about the changes, which include a shift in the way tenure is allocated. The new system would not automatically grant tenure after three years. Retaining qualified teachers in schools where they are needed has been an issue for parents, administrators, and teachers alike.

The DOE runs the largest public school system in the country, and change can be slow and painful.

"I know a lot of parents are whipped," Barnes said. She noted that in regards to the relationship between parents and the DOE: "a lot of damage has been done. Anything that's done now is going to take a long time to mend."