Obama Has Urban Public Schools Under Siege

The New York State Education Department has released a list of 34 schools that need to be closed, restructured or handed over to charter operators as a result of Obama's Race to the Top education policies.

The city already plans to close 20 schools, but 12 of the schools on that list are not on the state's list.

That means 46 city schools will be either closed, restructured or handed over to charter operators.

Some of the schools the state wants closed received A's and or B's on their school report cards.

One school was given a silver medal by US News and World Report just a couple of years ago and on a list of the top 505 schools in the nation.

Now the state wants it closed.

And all of this is a direct result of Barack Obama's education policies.

He is the man driving the current spate of deforms.

And these deforms will continue until entire urban public school systems have been privatized.

Here's how that will work:

46 states will be closed or restructured this year in NYC as a result of Obama's policy mandates.

Those closures and restructurings will affect other schools which will then be slated for closing in subsequent years.

Those schools will reopen as charters.

And of course charter schools do not have to accept at risk students, so the kids with the lowest test scores and grad rates will go to the remaining public schools.

Then those will be declared "failing" and closed.

In a few years time, most NYC public schools will have been closed and handed over to charter operators.

And this is EXACTLY what Obama wants.

I guess this is part of the change he believes in.

It is time to put a stop to not only Bloomberg's ed deform policies, but also Obama's.

And yet, as I noted on NYC Edcuator's blog today, I see no protests from the education blogosphere about Obama.

I see no protests outside his house.

I see Bloomberg vilified by these same people for the exact same policies Obama is pushing.

Until we fight the REAL enemy here, we will continue to see schools closed, teachers fired, charters proliferate and the cycle go on.