Education dept: You have free space. Teachers: Overcrowded. ED: Make room for charter school

[The Straight Story]

Space in Brooklyn's PS 308 is about to get tighter.

On Tuesday night, the Panel for Education Policy gave a newly approved charter school the okay to move into a Bedford Stuyvesant building currently occupied by PS 308, adding it to the ranks of city schools that share building space. Nearly two-thirds of the city’s charter schools now occupy space in public school buildings.

Teachers, parents and students familiar with PS 308's building say they are baffled by the Department of Education's reports that estimate that nearly 50 percent of the building is underused.

"It's cramped," said Aquilla Raiford, a seventh grade English teacher who has classes of up to 29 students in what she describes as a half-sized room. "If they're going to take away classrooms from us that means we're going to have to cut down the number of classes in each grade, so it's going to be even more crowded and cramped."

Following a walk-through in October, the DOE released a report concluding that there was enough space in the building for at least 300 additional students. The 11-page document explained how the building could be sliced and diced to accommodate the two groups of students, teachers and staff.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/PS-308-charter-117401498.html

[Tansy_Gold]

1. The automatic reaction is to ask if they're crazy or insane or stupid,

but of course they are none of the above. They are simply implementing The Plan to stop educating any children who are not of The Elite. Along with this, they will erase child labor laws, so these uneducated kids can be put to work. The middle classes will be destroyed and the Heavenly Kingdom will reign on earth.

Ain't it a great idea?



TG

[Hannah Bell]

2. they've been doing this in nyc for some time. as part of their plan to destroy the quality of

public ed.

[Tatiana]

3. Hey, at least they let the public school keep half of the building!

:sarcasm:

In Chicago, they usually label the public school as a "failure," shut it down amidst protest, shuttle the original kids to other schools (possibly in dangerous, rival gang-ridden areas), and then sell the facility for $1 to a charter to be re-opened amid much fanfare.

It's so disappointing that we have people in this party that actually don't have a problem with this. Of course, those same people probably don't have a problem with someone being forced to lie naked everyday in captivity either.

[HockeyMom]

4. Charter schools

A while back there was a charter school which opened on Eastern Long Island. To make a long story short, it was shut down after parents got the media involved because the teachers didn't have college degrees, the aides didn't have HS diplomas, rats and bugs were all over, and the charter was bilking the county for millions of dollars.

Is this is what is going to replace public education? They want to trust for profit companies with children's education and well being? I don't think so.