With the Department of Education agitating for fundamental changes at the nation’s largest school system, more than 1 million kids and their parents will enter a new academic school year Thursday loaded with questions and controversies.
Overtly making “equity” his central mission, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza has pushed for a series of polarizing changes to undo stark racial separation in city classrooms.
While a plan to remake admissions to the specialized schools stalled, Carranza has vowed to press on with the fight to junk the single-test entry system. Asian parent groups — whose kids predominate the elite schools — are preparing for another battle over the plan this academi🔯c year.
Several city districts — including Park Slope’s District 15 — will continue to phase in diversity programs this year, including the abolition of academic screening at middle schools. Parents are preparing for the various impacts of those changes — with some predicting eventual departures should traditionally high-achieving schools see their metrics decline. While the District 15 plan enjoys wide support, detractors have questioned the pace and rollout of the new measures.
City charter schools are at a crossroads entering the 2019-2020 school year. While demand remains at an all-time high, a stifling state seat cap has halted expansion outright. Mayor Bill de Blasio has become increasingly outspoken in opposing the sector’s enlargement, and Success Academy is already girding for another space battle with City Hall in the coming weeks. Charter officials fear a further loss of momentum and worry about an increasingly overt hostility toward school choice among leading Democrats at the national level.
The DOE will introduce a new set of disciplinary policies this year to further decrease suspensions and arrests in city schools. The new rules prohibit lengthy suspensions and urge teachers to favor less punitive measures when dealing with misbehaving students. Backers cite racially disproportionate suspensions in pushing for the changes while critics argue that school safety and classroom order are suffering. The DOE has touted dropping school crime numbers — but weapons confiscations hit multi-year highs last year.
Special education parents mounted a revolt last year, accusing the DOE of illegally failing to suitably accommodate and educate their children. The DOE has paid out millions in legal settlements and pressure has mounted to stem those payouts — and growing parental outrage. Legions of parents decried a disastrous school transportation debacle at the beginning of last year that saw countless city kids — many of them special education students — stranded on buses or left waiting for vehicles that never arrived. There will be intense pressure on the DOE to improve on that 🌟performance this year.
After spending $800 million on a Renewal school initiative that wheezed to an unsightly end earlier this year, critics will be monitoring the fate of former participants this upcoming year. City Hall conceded that some schools in the program will be shuttered, but vowed to continue support for others. Butꩵ details have been scant and the schools will be under a microscope.