The Village Voice continues to shed light on Michael Bloomberg's failures as mayor of New York City, which lately include patronage job appointments as well as racially segregated schools.
In the Voice issue dated February 24-March 2, 2010, Tom Robbins notes the contradiction between a mayor who is threatening massive employee layoffs and closings of firehouses while creating a new six-figure job for a campaign aide who lacks a college degree and who was hired in contravention of agency personnel procedures. Robbins observes that "it's not just a case of one mayoral pal getting a cushy job... hiring cronies has long been standard operating procedure."
Here is Robbins' story: http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-02-23/columns/the-bloomberg-employment-agency/
The Voice's cover story concerns a "zoned" neighborhood school which shares space with a "talented and gifted school" consisting of students who score high on tests given to them at four years of age. The zoned school students are overwhelming Latino and African American and come from the local neighborhood (95th Street and Third Avenue), while the talented/gifted school students are mostly white and Asian and come from all over Manhattan.
Consider these disturbing facts: Interaction between the students and teachers of the two schools is discouraged through deliberate policies. School entrances are separate, with white students entering at the front door to attend the talented/gifted school and black students entering through a back door to attend the zoned school. What kind of symbolism is that?
Read Steven Thrasher's story: http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-02-23/news/inside-a-divided-nyc-public-school
Scott
In the Voice issue dated February 24-March 2, 2010, Tom Robbins notes the contradiction between a mayor who is threatening massive employee layoffs and closings of firehouses while creating a new six-figure job for a campaign aide who lacks a college degree and who was hired in contravention of agency personnel procedures. Robbins observes that "it's not just a case of one mayoral pal getting a cushy job... hiring cronies has long been standard operating procedure."
Here is Robbins' story: http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-02-23/columns/the-bloomberg-employment-agency/
The Voice's cover story concerns a "zoned" neighborhood school which shares space with a "talented and gifted school" consisting of students who score high on tests given to them at four years of age. The zoned school students are overwhelming Latino and African American and come from the local neighborhood (95th Street and Third Avenue), while the talented/gifted school students are mostly white and Asian and come from all over Manhattan.
Consider these disturbing facts: Interaction between the students and teachers of the two schools is discouraged through deliberate policies. School entrances are separate, with white students entering at the front door to attend the talented/gifted school and black students entering through a back door to attend the zoned school. What kind of symbolism is that?
Furthermore, the students from the two schools arrive at different times and never play or eat together. For a myriad of reasons, including student-teacher ratios, PTAs, fundraising, equipment and labs, the students at the two schools might as well be attending schools in separate buildings because their educational experiences are anything but equal. An NYU professor of education concludes: "What we have here is really Plessy at work: separate, without even being equal - but very much separate."
Read Steven Thrasher's story: http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-02-23/news/inside-a-divided-nyc-public-school
Scott
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