This is not just one district’s problem. In every neighborhood with a beloved school, classrooms are stuffed—the burden and blessing of a city whose residents no longer bolt for the suburbs when the kids are born. The Manhattan New School (P.S. 290) has reached 155 percent of its capacity as one condo after another rises in Yorkville. Park Slope’s William Penn School (P.S. 321) has seen its kindergarten classes grow by 20 percent. East 33rd Street’s Mary Lindley Murray School (P.S. 116) gained 77 students this year, many from the 32 apartment buildings put up in its catchment these past two years. “When I toured the school [last year], the class size was maybe 20 to 23 kids, totally within the city and union limits,” says one new Murray Hill mom. By the time her child started in September, there were 28 per class, eight more than the state recommends. “This is not what I thought I was getting into.” When the Con Ed site, on the East River from 35th Street to 41st, gets seven new high-rises in a few years, the school will be swamped. “If you don’t build schools, you’re pushing families out,” rails Mary Silver, a mother of two at P.S. 116. “These families have helped stabilize the city … the system is imploding.”Catchment-22
So now what? Elsewhere in the country—in Florida and Georgia, for instance—developers have to pay impact fees when they build houses so new infrastructure can be created to serve the growing public. But no such policy exists here.
District 24 has long been the most overcrowded in the borough, if not the city. No one ever really gave a crap about it, as long as Elmhurst was able to absorb all of the new immigrants. Now that overpopulation is affecting schools in Manhattan, it's suddenly a big deal.
14 comments:
No-brainer - remove tax abatements and assess points on overall final value of the property to go directly into a school building fund. Public schools are not only overcrowed but filled with non-english speaking students. The chances of a child being educated to meet minimum state wide standards is very low. RE development affects school populations, taxes public transportation, parking, garbage collection, increases crime and requires greater fire/medical responses. Developers are enjoying a free ride at the expense of formerly desirable neighborhoods. I say formerly desirable because that what our neighborhoods have truly become.
If anyone is able to find the elusive "Waldo"....
one can spot the NYC real estate/political mafia's
hidden plan for the city.
Our overcrowded public schools
are designed to provide a minimum level
of education for its students.
They exist primarily for the custodial care
of the lower classes.....
so that these common folk
(who vote along clubhouse lines)
will continue to be ignorant followers.....
thus very easily tweeded!
The other half .....
the sons and daughters of the wealthy.....
attend private schools.
They will be guaranteed a superior level
of education and will not grow up to be sheep....
blindly herded into the Mutton mill
by their shepherds.
(Their moms and dads aren't raising them to be Democratic Party fodder).
There you have it....pure and simple.
Unless the newly arrived can afford to
send their kids to parochial schools.....
they'll never be able
to climb out of their economic holes.
As NYC continues to lose its middle class.....
our city, by attrition, will consist mainly
of two economic classes.
The rich will rule the roost
and the poor will serve their needs!
This is happening in LIC and Astoria as well. Building after building going up to accommodate those who are priced out of the Manhattan real estate market. Residents will demand better services, especially when they start having kids or when the kids they have reach school age.
I know you like to find reasons to complain and criticize every chance you get, but in District 24: the School of Heroes was built in 2002, PS49 and PS128 are currently undergoing construction projects that are practically doubling their size, and PS87 is undergoing an expansion. If you are trying to complain that District 24 has been neglected in favor of Manhattan public schools, I don't think your criticism holds up very well.
Rebecca I agree with you..... BUT.....
by the time that these kids are old enough
to need these services
(no matter how loudly their parents scream).....
it will be too late for that generation!
The new improved schools etc. will go to the next .
The time to YELL is now.....
well before the need arises for these services.
I never said Queens schools were being neglected in favor of Manhattan public schools. What I said is that class size was never considered to be a crisis until GOOD public schools in Manhattan had class sizes of 28. I don't think there are any public schools in Queens that have a class size that small. And despite all this new construction, it still won't be enough to accommodate the rapid influx of people to the area, which is the point of the article. 2030 includes lots of upzoning plans, but no schools. Assuming that the mayor's figures are correct, Queens is expected to absorb the largest percentage of the million new people. How about building the schools before encouraging unsustainable growth?
"If you are trying to complain that District 24 has been neglected in favor of Manhattan public schools, I don't think your criticism holds up very well."
Typical tweeding asshole. These schools needed to be built 20 years ago. They are only being constructed now. Case closed.
From the 12/27/07 edition of the Times Newsweekly.com
Rockaway:
Upon learning from SCA Manager of Operations Kendrick Ou that it normally takes at least three years to build a school from start to finish (with one year required for the design process and about two years for construction), Baumann said that incoming young families moving into the new communities of Arverne East and Arverne by the Sea can’t wait that long for schools to be built.
“It’s clear that you have not factored in [these people] moving into small homes,” offered CEC 27 member David Hooks in reference to the 4,600 homes that will go up in the two Arverne locations.
Bushwick:
Council members also debated how and where land can be acquired within the Bushwick community for the construction of a new elementary school. While some argued that there are presently no adequate locations available, others stated that too many sites in the neighborhood were being developed for housing.
Gee, is it not interesting that the city that prides itself on catering to the whims of every obscure interest group dreamed up by the clubhouse (my personal fav is the Pacific Islander Transgender Group advertising in the subway) seems to turn a blind eye again and again to the misery that developers (and by extension their minions, the politicians and the city planning) creates on the citizens of Gotham.
Yes, the devasting impact that develpers have on our least protected, in this case, innocent children, is a real scandal.
And no, like corruption in the Middle East, it will not be covered by state sponsored media.
Residents will demand better services, especially when they start having kids or when the kids they have reach school age.
----------
Most of the yuppies in Astoria just add to the increasingly transient nature of that community.
The will meet, mate, and then move.
They will NOT raise their kids in a community gowing downhill.
but in District 24: the School of Heroes was built in 2002, PS49 and PS128 are currently undergoing construction projects that are practically doubling their size, and PS87 is undergoing an expansion.
School of Heroes is already jammed packed with immigrant kids. The neighboring home owners were furious at the thought of this school being built in their midsts after putting up with the notorious PS 73 only 1 block away - a rowdyish school with out of control students. So the middle working class takes the brunt of hosting students bused in from as far away as Corona. They should have built many more schools 25 years ago in those neighborhoods. New development is adding a huge additional burden to this neighborhood. Everyone knows that NYC public school education is a joke and a student and or teachers are not safe in them. The new immigrant today have many more children than past immigration waves. They don't try to assimulate or participate in general issues of their children's school. They throw children at the school system - "educate them - that's your job" mentality.
Funny how Gary and Vicky and their ilk never discuss this.
The do report an endless series of love fests as they give each other meaningless wall cluttering plaques.
Sort of remind me of a platoon of Colonel Blimps each with a chestful of medals.
Hello parents. How about a series of letters to the editors in the newspapers about this.
If they don't print it, send 'em to Crappy.
Afterall, this is the public's forum.
Schools could not accomadate the local population 30 years ago. 25 years ago, people realized public schools were unsafe and sacraficed and saved to send thier kids to Catholic Schools. (Double taxation). Public Schools are not free there is a high cost to keep your kid there. Most likly they will fare poorly later on and not acheive a highschool diploma or gain enough knowledge to get into a decent college. Unchecked development is a major burden on schools that can't absorb the children entering them. Catholic schools and similar Parochial schools are not the best answer or always the best education choice but it is superior to NYC public schools.
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