VPerspective
Deja vu … all over again
Apr 10, 2008 1:23 PM
It’s smiles all around following a recent meeting with UFT Vice President for Middle Schools Richard Farkas, UFT staff and members at PS 71, a K-8 school in the Bronx. Also at the meeting were (back row, from second left) Chapter Leader Carol Griffin, Delegate Debbie Briscoe and UFT staffer Susan Picicci, and (front row, with glasses) UFT District 8 Representative Carmen Quinones.
A national recession … high oil prices … an unresponsive federal government … state and city budget cuts … sound familiar? While these are today’s headlines, they were also the stark realities that faced our schools in 1975. Now I know that many of you were not born in 1975, so a brief recap.
A national recession fueled by an Arab oil boycott caused New York State and New York City to deeply cut its budget. When President Gerald Ford told New York City to “drop dead” by withholding federal backing of New York City bonds, a major fiscal crisis developed. The city responded by slashing its school budget by $270 million. The results were devastating! Seventeen thousand teachers and support staff were laid off, thousands of teachers were excessed, class size rose dramatically, the ratio of guidance counselors to students was 1-to-1,500, art, music and other vital programs were cut, the building of new schools was stopped and repairs on existing ones went undone. Many experts say that a generation of students was lost and that it took more than 20 years for our schools to begin recovery.
In 1981, Chancellor Frank Macchiarola, in response to declining student achievement, instituted the “Gates Program.” Struggling 7th-graders were held over another year and were supposed to be given support and remediation. None of this happened and the program along with the students were quickly abandoned. Another example of how well-intentioned programs fail due to a lack of resources and institutional support.
Let’s jump forward to 2008. With the exception of layoffs (thanks to the job security provisions in our UFT contract) the news sounds pretty much the same. Understanding the effects that budget cuts would have on their schools, more than 10,000 teachers, principals, parents and students rallied (in a cold, pouring rain) at City Hall on March 19 to protest the $800 million that our schools would lose. UFT President Randi Weingarten noted that “the streets today are flooded with caring people, because everybody who is here in this rain understands what this is all about.”
Earlier in the week, the Panel for Educational Priorities voted 11 to 1 to implement the 8th-grade promotional policy beginning in September. Our union has supported ending social promotion and by itself this plan has much merit, but we question the supports that our students will be given, especially with the threatened cuts.
At the March 17 meeting, several hundred parents expressed similar concerns. Will class sizes be lower? Will there be more guidance services? What tutorial and after-school programs will be in place? They have a real and legitimate concern. The Coalition for Educational Justice estimates that under the new guidelines 18,000 8th-grade students will be eligible to be held over in June 2009. As of now, the Department of Education has not outlined the supports that will be given. Given the anticipated cuts we don’t see how this program can be successful.
So where do we go from here? We keep on doing what we have always done … joining alliances when we can or doing it alone when we have to, but always fighting for our teachers, our schools and our kids.
