Segregation 2010: Bloomberg's Schools

The mayor and his schools chancellor make their stand at the schoolhouse door

Comments (0) By Nat Hentoff Wednesday, Mar 24 2010

In plain language, the News also reported these additional less-than-"historic" scores: "Graduate rates for students with disabilities rose 2.2 percentage points, to 24.7 percent, while those for students who speak English as a second language increased by 3.9 percentage points, to 39.7 percent." That's possible lifetime segregation, too—in all colors of the diminishing rainbow. Still, it's a rise!

Tickertape parade for these "historic rates" accomplished by Bloomberg and Klein? Not quite yet. The overall high school graduation rate was 59 percent, a rise from 56.4 percent in 2008. But only 44.6 percent of the city's students received a state Regents' diploma, a considerably more prestigious route to college admission than our "local diploma."

Amelia Beamish

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By 2012, however, the city's "local diploma" will be replaced by the Regents' diploma in order to graduate. Currently, students have to score 55 or higher on seven stipulated courses for a Regents' diploma, but by 2012, they'll have to get 65 or higher on those same exams.

As a result—despite the pseudo-Herculean efforts of Klein and Bloomberg—the city graduation rates will decline.

To place these years of Bloomberg control of the public schools in accurate focus, even before the coming mandated graduation Regents' scores for all city students, dig this: Among the large numbers of city high school graduates who move into the city university system, some two-thirds require remedial courses!

Alas, there are no remedial courses for the mayor or schools' chancellor.