Dear Editor;
I am writing to voice my serious concerns with mayoral control and the present New York City school governance system. Mayoral control sunsets in 2009 and I would like to see it eliminated. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein have not used this authority to the betterment of our schools nor have student performance improved significantly.
I am writing to voice my serious concerns with mayoral control and the present New York City school governance system. Mayoral control sunsets in 2009 and I would like to see it eliminated. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein have not used this authority to the betterment of our schools nor have student performance improved significantly.
I am the proud parent of two daughters and a product of the city's public education system in District 27, being a graduate of PS 60, MS 210 & John Adams High School.
I also am the former District 27 representative to the Chancellor's Parent Advisory Council, the former co-president of the MS 210 parents association in Ozone Park and present member of my daughter's parents association board and a member of the Community Board 10 Education Committee.
I recently gave testimony before the New York City Council and at a hearing held by the United Federation of Teachers on mayoral control in our schools, which I will summarize as follows.
¥ I feel the six-year experiment with mayoral control of the city Department of Education has not achieved improved student performance.
¥ Mayoral control has eliminated the public election of community oversight bodies (school boards), which violates the basic human rights of our communities and parents to participate in their children's education.
¥ I believe that the development of a whole child requires the reinstitution of the arts, music, physical education (gym), student governments and the teaching of basic American civics, so students can learn how a basic democracy works and make intelligent political decisions in their own and their families' self-interest as adults and concerned citizens.
¥ I call for the elimination of the NYPD presence in the schools, which I feel creates a prison-like atmosphere in our schools. As the New York Civil Liberties Union has also noted in its determined effort to bring these official vigilantes under control that "this massive presence would make the NYPD's school safety division the fifth-largest police force in the country - larger than [those of] Washington, D.C., Detroit, Boston or Las Vegas."
¥ I feel that we should put educators back into the Tweed Building and not corporate media spin doctors who misinform the citizenry about the problems in our schools.
¥ Mayoral control has resulted in educational leaders being replaced by lawyers and corporate consultants as policy makers and decision makers, causing widespread demoralization within the system.
¥ Mayoral control has resulted in costly no-bid contracts, which have taken vast amounts of money from the classrooms and put it into large corporate coffers.
¥ Mayoral control has ignored the basic human rights of our children and had a major negative impact on an entire generation of student's elementary school experience, all of which has been driven by high stakes testing and constant test preparation, limiting the scope and depth of a comprehensive curriculum, lack of fulfilling special education mandates and constant upheaval causing high anxiety.
¥ I believe that New York City Council members should have authority to monitor schools within their districts.
I demand that our elected officials and our Queens contingency of New York State legislators respond to this educational catastrophe and malfeasance by eliminating mayoral control and remodeling the school system based on a human rights framework with a governance plan that incorporates local autonomy, school-based decision making and parent and community involvement with strict oversight by independent bodies and the City Council.
David M. Quintana
Ozone Park
I also am the former District 27 representative to the Chancellor's Parent Advisory Council, the former co-president of the MS 210 parents association in Ozone Park and present member of my daughter's parents association board and a member of the Community Board 10 Education Committee.
I recently gave testimony before the New York City Council and at a hearing held by the United Federation of Teachers on mayoral control in our schools, which I will summarize as follows.
¥ I feel the six-year experiment with mayoral control of the city Department of Education has not achieved improved student performance.
¥ Mayoral control has eliminated the public election of community oversight bodies (school boards), which violates the basic human rights of our communities and parents to participate in their children's education.
¥ I believe that the development of a whole child requires the reinstitution of the arts, music, physical education (gym), student governments and the teaching of basic American civics, so students can learn how a basic democracy works and make intelligent political decisions in their own and their families' self-interest as adults and concerned citizens.
¥ I call for the elimination of the NYPD presence in the schools, which I feel creates a prison-like atmosphere in our schools. As the New York Civil Liberties Union has also noted in its determined effort to bring these official vigilantes under control that "this massive presence would make the NYPD's school safety division the fifth-largest police force in the country - larger than [those of] Washington, D.C., Detroit, Boston or Las Vegas."
¥ I feel that we should put educators back into the Tweed Building and not corporate media spin doctors who misinform the citizenry about the problems in our schools.
¥ Mayoral control has resulted in educational leaders being replaced by lawyers and corporate consultants as policy makers and decision makers, causing widespread demoralization within the system.
¥ Mayoral control has resulted in costly no-bid contracts, which have taken vast amounts of money from the classrooms and put it into large corporate coffers.
¥ Mayoral control has ignored the basic human rights of our children and had a major negative impact on an entire generation of student's elementary school experience, all of which has been driven by high stakes testing and constant test preparation, limiting the scope and depth of a comprehensive curriculum, lack of fulfilling special education mandates and constant upheaval causing high anxiety.
¥ I believe that New York City Council members should have authority to monitor schools within their districts.
I demand that our elected officials and our Queens contingency of New York State legislators respond to this educational catastrophe and malfeasance by eliminating mayoral control and remodeling the school system based on a human rights framework with a governance plan that incorporates local autonomy, school-based decision making and parent and community involvement with strict oversight by independent bodies and the City Council.
David M. Quintana
Ozone Park
