DOE Sets Destructive Sights On Newtown, Flushing High Schools

There is less than one year left in Emperor Bloomberg's illegal third term, but that doesn't mean he isn't trying to cause as much chaos and destruction in the school system as he can before he goes out.

The Daily News reports that two Queens schools that have made the "failing" list put out by the state in the past will be the sites of three new school co-locations despite the improvements these schools have made on their school report cards:

The city has proposed opening one new school in the Newtown High School building, in Elmhurst, and two new schools at the Flushing High School campus.

The Department of Education is also looking to cut enrollment at the large high schools, which could affect the amount of funding each institution receives.

The city attempted to close both of the schools last year, but was blocked by a court order.

“These are two overcrowded schools that have just turned the corner in starting to make progress,” said James Vasquez, the Queens High School rep for the United Federation of Teachers. “This does nothing to help these school communities.”

Indeed, these co-locations are meant to be a knife into both Newtown and Flushing, not help either of those school communities to continue to "improve" on their school report cards.

 

The DOE wants these schools to fail:

Last year, the state identified Flushing and Newtown High Schools as two of the worst-performing schools in New York.

The city plans to reduce enrollment at Newtown by about 300 to 350 students and open a new international school in the same building. The new school will focus on foreign-born students who may not speak English well.

But Newtown is improving. It went from a “C” to a “B” on its last city report card. Newtown PTA President Debora Martinez said “if they bring another [school], that’s going to affect us.”

City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) called the co-location “insane.”

“This is a school that has been struggling to improve and [has] done the job,” he said. “It seems as if the [city] wants to make sure that Newtown fails.”

 And how will the co-locations affect Flushing High School?

The city also plans to reduce Flushing’s enrollment by about 850 to 900 students and install two new schools on the campus. One will offer Chinese bilingual programs. Flushing got a “D” on its last city report card.

State Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing) said the proposal was destructive. “Enrollment will decrease, funding will go down,” she said. “The school will have fewer resources and it will be even more difficult for [it] to succeed.”

When asked why the DOE would want to co-locate schools in Newtown and Flushing, taking away much needed space and resources in a move that is sure to undercut the schools and set them up for failure, the DOE spokesperson offered the usual jive:

Education Department spokesman Devon Puglia said decreasing the schools’ student bodies will help them improve while the new schools serve the area’s immigrant populations.

“Our goal is to create a system of great schools that prepare all students for college,” he said.

That's not true - their goal has been to undercut and set up as many large schools for failure as possible.

Their goal has been to close as many schools as possible once the failure set-up has been in place foe a few years.

Their goal has been to blow up as much of the old school system as possible so that it cannot be re-constituted in any way after Emperor Bloomberg flies off to Bermuda full-time.

Newtown and Flushing are two of the few larger schools left and now they've got their sights set on them.

It is possible that these two schools will survive because Bloomberg will be gone by the time the schools reap the consequences of the destructive actions the DOE schoolbusters are taking this year.

But don't bet on it.

The one thing you rarely see in corporate media accounts of school closures and school "failure" is how Bloomberg and his DOE minions have deliberately set up the large schools for failure in a systematic way.

They've closed the "bad schools," taken the kids from those school and dumped them into neighboring "good schools" and made those into "bad schools" within a few years.

Murry Bergtraum, just a few short blocks from Tweed Courthouse, is the perfect example of that.

When Bloomberg came into office, that was one of the "good schools."

Then, as the DOE closed many larger schools around Manhattan, they used that school as a dumping ground.

Now Murry Bergtraum is a mess.

That's been the pattern of "reform" Bloomberg and Klein followed from the beginning, but you never see that in the suck-up stories in The Atlantic Monthly or The New Yorker about the wonders of Joel Klein or the miracle that is the Bloomberg Education Reform Movement.

Now Flushing and Newtown are next on the list unless somebody stops them.