Parents Irate At City Over Kindergarten Wait Lists

In one corner, there's Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Klein. In the other, middle-class parents who have been told their children have been placed on wait lists for kindergarten placement. The NY Times describes it as a "mounting...middle-class vitriol against the school system." One parent shared a letter to the Dept. of Education—"You have unleashed the fury of parents throughout this city with your complete lack of preparedness"—while another recounted, "I got a call from Mayor Bloomberg’s campaign about yadda yadda yadda was I going to vote for him. As a parent who has a child with no place to go next year, no indication of where he’s going to go next year as a result of the mayor taking control of education, I said absolutely not... You would think that Bloomberg, who is a businessman, knows how to manage inventory like this. My kid isn’t just a bottle of vodka, but this is about inventory.” The Dept. of Education believes their approach to wait lists is fair and "will ensure that children have a placement offer by the end of June."

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By Jen Chung in News on May 1, 2009 9:48 AM

Comments [rss]

felixthecat2

Bloomberg is a lousy mayor and yet people continue to state he perform well as mayor. The newspapers don't attack him as they do patterson. it is obvious that Bloomberg runs the 3 papers (DN, NY Post, NY Times) and they report the news that fits him. The post especially want Guiliani as Governor. I wonder why? (Sarcasm)

abcohen

I think that the city sold off many of its school buildings to private developers and to private schools now it finds itself with a troubled economy with parents who no longer want to pay for services like Pre-K and Kindergarten (since those schools havent lowered their prices in this state of the economy)

so here we are with lack of space and a surplus of students... it is clearly a lack of planning on the city's government (but years before bloomberg) I think in the end they need to revisit how they're running the schools - start thinking about taking some of the now empty office space as a result of the economy and start to build out CITY schools. Because in 4-10 years the big issues will be having enough Middle and High Schools (with enough open spaces for sports).

Some progressive City Leadership would start looking at how to outsource education in New York City by shuttling kids to Long Island, NY/Westchester, NY/Tappan, NY/Yonkers, NY. I'm also sure that someone could think of a way to kid parents tax credits to enroll in a private school (in the middle to low income brackets). Finally start thinking about a home schooling program to certificate parents using Distant Learning Technologies that would give the stay at home moms something amazing to do (along with Tax credits for waiving out of the NYC school system).

nicemarmot

Yeah, that's why I'm leaving when I start popping out brats. The schools here seem like the world's largest pain in the ass. Not knowing which schools are going to have kindergarten spots in May is pretty pathetic. Either you deal with the public school BS, or else you compete for the few private school spots, then pay way too much money for them. No thanks!

Mags

The obvious, though unpopular answer, is to make Pre-K and kindergarten half day. You would double the number of available spaces. And this is how it is in many, if not most, towns and cities. I am a parent of a child about to enter the system and the whole process is hugely frustrating.

whitecastlerock

shitty planning by the city-over development without building essential things like schools causes these headaches. For every skyscraper that is built there will be kids that need to go to school.

pazzia

yeah, they're talking about getting the kids into schools near their homes instead of shipping them out to schools elsewhere. even then it sounds like no one knows which schools have room.

JenChungsThong

I would love to think that maybe, just maybe, this will deter some of these idiots from turkey basting themselves into more of these little eating, crapping, whining moles that are clogging up our schools.

Clarice City

Honestly. And, have your kids before your ovaries shrivel up like rasins and maybe you'll have the energy to deal with stuff like this.

It's always these menopausal old ladies living in Park slope injecting themselves with babies,dumping them with a Thai nanny and then they complain when they realize that parenting means more than having a cool baby accessory and trendy stroller.

Felix Hoenikker

Amen.

Peter

(sniff) It would be such a tragedy if these SWPL-spawn had to go to an ordinary kindergarden!

JRod5417

If you read the article, this is about people trying to get their kids into ordinary public schools. I too would be upset if I were in their shoes.

Peter

From the article:

Children still on waiting lists at the end of June will be offered slots at other schools in their district (there are 32 across the city).

I read that as meaning all children will get a kindergarden slot, though perhaps not in the schools their parents most desire.

abcohen

but what that translates to is you live across the street from a school (or two blocks away) your kid might need to be on a crosstown bus and a subway to get to school (I'm sure it'll be soooo easy to get your kid to school and still make it to work on time)