Releases

February 1st, 2011

Two Dozen Protesters Arrested During Rally Against School Closures

by Lindsey Christ, NY1

The day before the Panel for Educational Policy begins to meet to discuss closures of 25 public schools, two dozen people were arrested in Downtown Manhattan today as they protested the plan.
Two dozen demonstrators, including two City Council members, were arrested in Downtown Manhattan Monday as they protested the proposed closing of 25 public schools that the Panel for Educational Policy will vote on this week.

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February 1st, 2011

Dept. of Ed. sets up many schools to fail

by Yoav Gonen, NY Post

The Department of Education has for years been able to predict which schools will fail based on a number of factors, but many disadvantaged schools have been blamed for their crummy performance and marked for closure anyway, according to a department analysis obtained by The Post.

The report shows that education officials created a dividing line between schools so that those whose “predicted” graduation rates were less than 50 percent — based largely on their size and concentration of low-achieving students — were likely to be closed rather than receive support.

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January 31st, 2011

NY city councilmen among 24 arrested in school protest

by Reuters

Twenty-four people, including two members of the New York City Council, were arrested on Monday at a protest over plans to close two dozen city schools, authorities said.

Charles Barron and Jumaane Williams, City Council members from Brooklyn, were arrested along with 22 other adults after the group formed a human chain across Chambers St. in downtown Manhattan outside the city’s Department of Education headquarters.

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January 24th, 2011

City Plans Tutoring Effort

by Barbara Martinez, Wall Street Journal

After months of criticism that the Department of Education was not doing enough to help students who had fallen behind, Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday announced a $10 million effort to tutor children who are below grade level.

Flanked by the teachers union president and a representative of a parents organization, each of whom only months ago criticized the mayor’s lack of a strategy to address their concerns, Mr. Bloomberg said the money could affect up to 50,000 students at more than 500 schools. The union and the parent groups have been saying that 100,000 need intensive services—but yesterday neither group was willing to criticize the mayor’s plan as insufficient.

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