By The TimesLedger
By the time this issue of the TimesLedger reaches your door, the city’s Democrats will be at the polls choosing the man who will face off against Republican Michael Bloomberg in the mayoral elections in November.
The No. 1 priority for the next mayor must be the task of rebuilding the city while fortifying it against future terrorist attacks. By now everyone knows and understands that we will be asked to make sacrifices in the name of public safety. Getting through airport security will only be more difficult with better trained and better paid guards who will seriously search for contraband that could be used as a weapon. A drive from northeast Queens to Manhattan that once took an hour now takes two hours and it may get worse.
Until the United States and its allies have defeated international terrorism, like it or not we will be living at a heightened state of alert. Rebuilding Lower Manhattan and preserving public safety in the world’s most famous city will be the greatest challenge facing the new mayor.
Arguably, priority No. 2 must be rebuilding the city’s crumbling public education system. It is estimated that the bill for the attack on the World Trade Center could run as high as $100 billion. The federal government will reimburse part of this, but the city and state are bound to take an economic hit.
Will this mean that there will be even less money for public education? God forbid. It was only six weeks ago that our children were returning to schools that had made drastic cuts to important programs and services. Schools in Queens have reduced or totally eliminated Project Read, a program in which children who cannot keep up with reading are given special tutoring after school. If the Board of Education elects to cut such a vital program, no one should be surprised if readings scores continue to plummet and the number of children not ready for promotion continues to grow.
Faced with nearly impossible budget cuts, many districts have been forced to sharply reduce performing arts programs. Music, drama and art will take it on the chin this year as schools cut to the bare bones. Sports programs will also face the ax.
In the near future, the prospects for public education in New York City are not bright. Albany has turned its back on the children in the city. The call to abolish the Board of Education and put the schools under the control of the mayor makes sense, but this will take years, if it happens at all.
The new mayor must find a way to build new schools and to make certain that the schools are offering children vital programs such as Project Read and performing arts. The myth that the school system is overfunded must be laud to rest. Yes, the bureaucracy at 110 Livingston St. has squandered millions of dollars. But at the district level there are no surplus funds. District superintendents and the principals have long been operating on shoestring budgets. On this level, the school system is woefully underfunded. It is the children who suffer.
We look forward to learning in detail how the candidates for mayor will deal with the unhappy reality of our public education system. Just as Mayor Giuliani found a way to radically reduce crime, the next mayor must lead the way in radical reform of the education system.
