UFT President Michael Mulgrew responds to DOE's latest announcement on school closings

The Department of Education announced on Dec. 8 that it would move to close or downsize 15 struggling schools, and that more schools would be added to the list. The schools targeted for closure are:

• Elementary: PS 19 and Gen. Chappie James Elementary School of Science in Brooklyn; PS 14 on Staten Island.
• Middle: Satellite Three, Middle School for the Arts and JHS 296 in Brooklyn.
• High: Legacy School for Integrated Studies and Manhattan Theatre Lab HS in Manhattan; Gateway School for Environmental Research and Technology and Jane Addams HS for Academic Careers in The Bronx; International Arts Business School in Brooklyn.
• Secondary: Academy of Business and Community Development in Brooklyn.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew said:

"This announcement — particularly in the wake of yesterday's disappointing scores in national reading and math tests — represents another stunning failure of DOE management. Rather than doing the hard work of helping struggling schools, the DOE tries to close them, making sure that the hardest-to-educate kids end up concentrated in the next school on the closure list.

"It's playing three-card Monte with children's lives and education. It's wrong, and if our attorneys find that the DOE is violating state law in this process, we'll be seeing them in court."