Mixed (Text) Messages from Department of Education

Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council may not agree on the appropriateness of cell phones in public schools, but the DoE is now handing out cell phones to a select group of students. The privately funded pilot program will give cell phones to students and reward positive behavior, such as showing up to class, behaving and doing well.

In an ironic twist, the Samsung phones will not actually be allowed in class, per Mayor Bloomberg's ban, calling them an unnecessary distraction. (Parents have been battling in the courts to allow their kids to bring their phones.) Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, who supports school children's right to bear cell phones, is unenthusiastic about the project and described it as just another wasteful attempt to foist more standardized tests on students.

The cell phones come with 130 prepaid minutes and will allow students to receive text messages, reminding them of homework and upcoming tests. The Pavlovian texting experiment is overseen by Harvard economics professor Roland Fryer, who was recently named the DoE's chief equality officer. Fryer told the Times, “You can try messaging campaigns by putting up billboards; in my neighborhood back home it was ‘Crack is whack, school is cool.' Basically, the message was whack...We want to reach kids where they are, and where they are is hanging out; they’re texting.”

Last year, in another interview with the Times, Fryer discussed brainstorming rewards with students and how his idea for a special Air Jordan for good students was shot down, “It took about three seconds for one of them to look at me and say, ‘Oh, you mean Air Nerds?’”