City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein trots out the word “accountability” to justify every “reform” he has hatched. Well, more people are no longer equating the word with the concept behind it.
Klein is allocating money to schools in a way that pits school against school. He is taking $99 million directly out of school budgets and instead of using some of the city's $4 billion surplus to restore the $450 million he cut from his education budget, he blames the state.
Many school budgets will be cut 3 percent to 6 percent. His claim that he could reduce the cuts to 1.4 percent if he could orchestrate spending is a ruse, as is his pleading city poverty. The city Independent Budget Office says there will be no shortfall for the next two years.
The state kept its promise to increase education aid by $600 million. The city Department of Education is to blame for unfair school allocations. Klein's spending formula penalizes stable schools with experienced teachers.
The new state education money, the “Contracts for Excellence” fund, could be used to help reduce class size and create legitimate middle school reforms as envisaged in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity statute. Klein should have done that last year, but did not. The state is going to monitor the DOE this year to make sure that class size reduction becomes a reality.
The Keep the Promises Coalition is a brilliant concept and a powerful army in the war for truth. When Klein attacks the “special interest” of the United Federation of Teachers, he must now include the citizens of this town.
Ron Isaac
Fresh Meadows
