Klein Dubs Schools Not ‘Desirable’

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The New York Sun

A full 86% of the city’s 318 high schools are “not highly desirable,” Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said yesterday at a City Council hearing.


Since Mayor Bloomberg took control of the public schools, he has said he inherited a system riddled with problems and has pledged to improve it. Yesterday, at a surprise appearance before the council’s Committee on Education, Mr. Klein got specific about the state of the system, disclosing data that he said demonstrated the limited appeal of the vast majority of the city’s high schools.


“Eight-six percent of schools have fewer than 20 applicants per match. What that means is those schools are not highly desirable,” he testified.


Before the committee chairwoman, Eva Moskowitz, cut him off, he said, “Compare that to a certain number of schools that have between 40 and 60.”


“Eighty-six percent of our schools are not highly desirable?” she asked.


“Exactly,” he replied.


Earlier, the chancellor testified: “I’ve got 100,000 children. Those are all my children. None of them are children I prioritize. One hundred thousand. I’ve got to find a high school seat for all of them in the system I inherited, which has many high schools you would not send your own children to.”


Not only did the chancellor acknowledge that 273 of the city’s high schools are not very attractive to large numbers of schoolchildren and their families, but he backed up his point with a colorful pie chart entitled “Few Highly Sought After Schools, Limited Demand for Most Schools.”


The handout, which was passed around the council chambers by Mr. Klein’s aides, showed that only 1% of public high schools received between 61 and 80 applications for each available seat. In other words, only two schools – the Professional Performing Arts School and Hostos-Lincoln Academy – were listed as one of 12 choices by more than 60 students per opening. The figures do not include the schools that require admissions tests or auditions.


The vast majority of the high schools drummed up little interest from applicants, winning from zero to 20 applicants for each slot.


Another chart provided by the Department of Education showed that 24% of schools received between zero and five applicants per slot and 29% of schools received between five and 10 applicants per slot.


Hours after the chancellor made his remarks, the director of communications for the Department of Education, Stephen Morello, said: “The chancellor didn’t say or mean to say or imply, and in fact he has never said and would never say and wouldn’t agree with anyone who did say, that only 45 of our high schools are desirable schools.”


Mr. Morello continued, “He said that we have far fewer high-performing high schools than we need, but that we’re making progress in creating more through the addition of new schools and the improvement of existing schools.”


The leader of the teachers union, Randi Weingarten, expressed skepticism about the claimed improvement.


“At some point, the chancellor has to stop blaming others and has to start taking responsibility,” the president of the United Federation of Teachers said in a telephone interview. “He’s been there for two-and-a-half years.”


Ms. Weingarten said that under Mr. Klein’s stewardship, some schools, including the Clara Barton High School, where she once taught, have fallen apart. “He could be fighting to help a school that was stable, and instead, that school has deteriorated in the last two-and-a-half years before my eyes,” she said.


At the hearing, Mr. Klein said the high-school admissions process he created last year is better than the old system, which he implied was corrupt. But he acknowledged that the shortage of good high schools is a fundamental problem that shackles policy-makers.


“We’ve got a crisis in supply and demand in our city,” he testified. “And we should not kid ourselves about it.”


His administration has taken steps to offer additional good options by creating more than 100 new, small high schools. But he said: “The problem may not be solved as long as we have as many high schools as we do that no one wants to go to.”


This year, 7,000 more students were placed in their top-choice school than the year before, and 10,000 more students were placed in one of their top five choices, according to the Department of Education.


Still, more than 10,000 students did not receive one their top five choices, and a similar number chose not to attend a New York City public school after going through the admissions process.


Mr. Klein said that before he came along, the high-school placement system was based on “favoritism and who you know” and didn’t provide real options to children. In 1983, for example, 20,000 students were able to choose their high schools, while 40,000 students had no options.


“High-school choice has been largely a cruel hoax in New York City for many, many years,” the chancellor said.


The New York Sun

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