Submitted by Larry Littlefield, Nov 21, 2007 08:53

Let's face it, the de-funding and pension flight of the 1990s, along with "you will pretend to work and we will pretend to pay you" contracts signed over 30 years, mean that millions of the city's children (who were not basically taught by their parents or in special deal schools) did not receive an education. That cannot be undone years later.

An a decision to gradually start providing an education in NYC, with slow improvements over time, cannot undo what happened for years overnight. So even those entering the school system after 2001 are basically victims.

Why won't the people who benefited just admit that? Lots of people got hired in the rest of the state, after all. Why won't the Mayor admit that the reason that so many kids are crammed into failing high schools is that they have been written off, while new high schools are created to hopefully up and running when kids who have a chance enter the 9th grade.

I'll judge Bloomberg's success in education by the status of children who entered school in, say, 2003 and 2004. By 2009 they'll be in, what, fourth grade?

Everything else is on past decisions, particularly the state education funding decisions, city teacher contracts, and pension deals of the 1990s, and the deferred maintenance of school buildings over 30 years.

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