For a second year, lawsuits and protests help stop school closings

[proud2BlibKansan]

For the past 27 years, Gail Drillings has been a special education teacher at Columbus High School in the Bronx - and she has loved every minute of it.

"It's always been a real neighborhood school, a place where the kids and teachers really cared," she said yesterday.

But until Wednesday night, Drillings had no idea what would happen to her school come September.

Chancellor Joel Klein has labeled Columbus a "failing" school and slated it for closing in the fall. Along with 18 other schools across the city, Columbus was supposed to be phased out and replaced by a new school.

But the staff and hundreds of Columbus parents refused to accept Klein's master plan.

So did parents and teachers at the other schools. They turned out in huge numbers at public meetings earlier this year and organized demonstrations against a rubber-stamp approval of the closings by the mayor's Panel for Educational Policy. After the vote, the parents joined with the United Federation of Teachers and the NAACP to file a lawsuit.

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This is the second time in two years that lawsuits have forced Klein to rescind school closings. The same thing happened with his attempt to close three Harlem elementary schools in 2009.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/07/16/2010-07-16_parents_win__again_for_a_second_year_lawsuits__protests_help_stop_school_closing.html

[sandnsea]

1. Or prevent school turn-arounds

and school improvement grants so that the kids can go to a school like this one, that is on the Columbus High School campus and not scheduled to be closed:

http://www.cimshs.org/

[customerserviceguy]

2. Instead of 'stop' you should say 'delay'

I don't see how lawsuits generate any extra dollars to run a school system. In fact, they just expend money on lawyers that will eventually come out of the education budgets.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Well unless you have a crystal ball you can't say these are just delayed

[customerserviceguy]

4. No, no crystal ball

but if the school system cannot shut down the schools they target, then they will just shut down another school. Eventually, it will come down to which schools can get the most public support and the sharpest lawyers who will win, the other ones will just lose out.

Unless you think that lawsuits chewing up taxpayer-provided education dollars to pay attorneys is going to make voters sympathetic to increasing school funding, then I don't see any other way this plays out.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. I'm pretty certain NYC School District has full time attorneys on staff

They also have insurance that covers much of their legal expenses.

What I see happening, and what has happened in many other districts, is that school boards and administrators are increasingly reluctant to close schools when there is a history of community opposition.

I think public support of our schools is vital and applaud it in any form it takes.

[customerserviceguy]

6. Any money spent on attorneys and lawsuit insurance

is money not spent in classrooms. Lawsuits opposing the closing of all but the poorest schools will simply drive up the cost of both.

[girl gone mad]

7. Then maybe the DOE should quit trying to close down schools..

against the wishes of the parents and teachers in the community.

[customerserviceguy]

16. How do you suggest that school districts try to pare expenses

in a tight economy? We don't need all the schools that were built to serve the baby boomers, and some are nightmares to maintain. I will agree that the very best decisions are not always made, but they're the same kinds of decisions used to close military bases.

In any case, somebody's always going to get hurt, costly legislation just increases that hurt.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. So will transporting kids out of their neighborhoods once their schools are closed

Transportation is almost always the second highest expense a school district has, after salaries.

Why close the schools at all? How about expending resources making them strong and helping them improve when they need it? Closing a school is a death to a neighborhood. That's why community members organize and rally to keep their schools open.

[Recursion]

9. Because throwing money into a broken school doesn't always help

I have no idea if the school in question is broken or not. But some schools (and school systems) really, really need to change how they do things, and are very resistant to change. And people get very frustrated about that. The community reaction to this proposed closing suggests this isn't one of those. But they're out there, and they're why the "fire them all" attitude is getting traction.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. "I have no idea if the school in question is broken or not."

No you don't. You also don't know whether other schools are broken and should be closed. You're just posting neoliberal/right wing talking points slamming public education.

[Recursion]

11. No, I'm posting my experience from having survived a very broken school system

Taking a pollyanna attitude about the real problems that some schools do have doesn't help anything. Funding is often a problem, but it's not remotely the only problem.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Polyanna attitude?

:rofl:

[Recursion]

13. Yes, Pollyanna: "If we give schools more money the problems will be solved" NT

[Catshrink]

14. So schools "should" change

How? Tell us, oh tell us, your ideas. Tell us how they're broken. Tell us how the great wise one, Arne Duncan, with his bribes and teacher-bashing will accomplish positive change?

Oh, and be sure to tell us how you feel about having your tax dollars go to corporations/fraud/abuse.

And be sure to include your methodolgies, assessment strategies, plans to deal with special education students and those who are behaviorally challenged, those who have high numbers of absences, and the ELL students. Pedagogy is important to teachers so we are very eager to learn your strategies. Please do share.

[Recursion]

15. Unlike the "defend the status quo at all costs" crowd, I don't claim to have a panacea

Though one big idea is to break up the old boys' and old girls' clubs that wind up as mid-level administrators in so many places and engage in constant games of CYA.

In terms of the particular school I suffered through, I'd start with firing the science teacher who teaches kids the sun goes around the earth, and cutting as many administrators' positions as it takes to afford to hire one who doesn't teach that.

[customerserviceguy]

17. Transportation is expensive

but there are efficient and inefficient ways to do it. When I was living on the West Coast, we used large buses for the majority of students, only the special ed kids got the short bus. Here in NY, I see many, many more short buses than full-size ones, and the kids here aren't that developmentally disabled. Clearly, the drivers' union has things this way to be able to have more jobs, but it's not efficient.

While expanding resources is one way of keeping every school, crumbling or not, in operation, lawsuits do nothing more than reduce resources and piss off taxpayers who might be more inclined to support higher school financing.