Resolution Opposing the Latest Public School Restructuring

At the last PTA meeting, the Executive Board unanimously approved and signed the petition below expressing its opposition to the Chancellor's latest restructuring initiatives, Fair Student Funding and Children First. These programs represent the third major restructuring of the NYC public school system in the last three or four years, creating unnecessary and unwarranted distractions and organizational confusion while doing little or nothing to solve the real problems of the City's schools. The signed petition has been sent to Mayor Bloomberg, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, our district's representative on the City Council Melissa Mark Viverito, City Councilman Robert Jackson (Chairman of the City Council committee on education), David Bloomfield (President of the Citywide Council on High Schools), and Tim Johnson, President of the Chancellor's Parent Advisory Council (CPAC).

The Executive Board of the Parent Teacher Association at Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics High School does herewith attest that:

Whereas we have reviewed the Chancellor’s plans for organizational restructuring and school funding as embodied in the Children First and Fair Student Funding plans, and

Whereas New York City schools have borne multiple restructurings in the last several years, including the elimination of Community School Boards and replacement by virtually powerless Community Education Councils, the creation and now proposed elimination of regional structures, imposition during the school year of revised schedules and allocation of teachers’ time, and introduction of the Empowerment Zone concept for a portion of the public school system, and

Whereas nearly all of these past restructurings as well as the proposed Children First and Fair Student Funding initiative focus primarily on organizational and administrative structure rather than teacher and classroom initiatives (such as class size reductions) that could positively impact student learning and performance, and

Whereas the Department of Education has provided no statistical or comparative performance evidence on the Empowerment Zone initiative from which assurance could be derived that further such organizational restructuring will result in improved academic performance and adequate funding for teachers and student programs, and

Whereas the Department of Education’s most recent classroom initiatives have consisted largely of adding, or proposing to add, still more standardized testing that tends to discourage free-ranging intellectual exploration and alternative assessments, and

Whereas we as members of the Parent Teacher Association’s Executive Board and School Leadership Team have observed that the Department of Education’s constant restructurings have forced unwarranted distractions on our school’s senior administration rather than allowing them to focus on student learning and teacher supervision, and

Whereas the full budgetary implications of Fair Student Funding are unclear and promise to create incentives (or even impose budgetary restrictions) under which principals may choose (or be financially impelled) to hire lower-paid and less experienced teachers rather than retain more expensive and experienced teachers, to the detriment of our children, and

Whereas principals are being forced to make structural management decisions based on inadequate information, and those principals in turn are asking the parent community for their input while being able to provide only sketchy outlines of how these alternative programs would work and how they would affect our children, and

Whereas the academic and support requirements of those most in need – Special Education and Special Needs students and English Language Learners – are largely overlooked in the chaos and confusion of repeated restructurings, and

Whereas in these latest initiatives, the Department of Education has continued its disappointing practice of management by administrative fiat, ignoring the wishes of the parent community, refusing to compromise, and repeatedly failing to solicit the input of the constituencies most severely affected by these changes – parents of public school children and their teachers,

Therefore, be it resolved that the Parent Teacher Association of Manhattan Center of Science and Mathematics joins other NYC Parent Associations and Community Education Councils in declining to support the Children First and Fair Student Funding proposals. Furthermore, we call upon the Mayor and Chancellor to postpone implementation of this plan and arrange for public hearings on the priorities for education spending, school restructuring, and processes for meaningful participation of public school parents in formulating these policies.

Passed by the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics High School Parent Teacher Association Executive Board, April 17, 2007.