The MOST nonsensical co-locations of all
Joel Klein and others at DOE repeatedly accused parents of only protesting charter co-locations, and not the numerous others that DOE has pushed forward in recent years, that of new public schools inserted into the buildings of existing public schools.
Certainly among the 40 or so co-locations that the DOE is planning that will only take place after Bloomberg leaves office, the most controversial are the numerous charter schools that take more space each year from public schools -- including many with deplorable records in serving our most at-risk kids. (See, for example Success Academy charter – which DOE is giving more space so it can extend its tentacles in every borough of the city , despite numerous examples of illegal disciplinary and suspension practices ).
The Panel for Education Policy has already rubber-stamped 25 school siting proposals and there are another 29 proposals that will be voted on next month. And while charter schools co-locations are contested, they are not the only co-locations that parents and community members bitterly oppose. Perhaps the most absurd and nonsensical of all the proposals put forward by DOE are their plans to put new zoned public schools inside the buildings of existing public schools – of the same grade levels – for no apparent reason except to starve the existing school of students and resources.
See the comments of Laura Timoney, parent activist and CEC member in Staten Island, who deplores the plan to