The Time is Always Right to Do What is Right
blog originally posted at The Brock Report
by Zakiyah Ansari
In New York City, the last 10 years of educational reform has consisted of stripping parent and community voice from the system and the belief by Mayor Bloomberg that closing schools is a school reform strategy (more than 100 schools closed under Mayor Bloomberg). This strategy has resulted in the creation of more than 400 new small schools, but they have largely left behind the lowest-performing schools serving the highest-needs communities, predominantly in Black and Latino neighborhoods.
As a mother, advocate and an organizer with Alliance for Quality Education I signed my name to the lawsuit along with AQE, NAACP, UFT, other parents and elected officials because the politics DOE is playing with our children must stop. They claim that they have raised the graduation rates, closed the achievement gap and tout that their policies over the last 9 years have been successful. Yet as a result of Bloomberg’s school reforms the racial achievement gap has widened since 2003 and now white students are twice as likely to read on grade level