The ‘smaller class dimension’ drive is STILL a gross disservice to metropolis schoolchildren
“Stockholm Syndrome,” the time period for the weird growth the place hostages begin taking the aspect of the hostage-takers, got here to thoughts the opposite day when Mayor Eric Adams joined with teachers-union boss Mike Mulgrew to cheer the hiring of 3,700 new academics to “give colleges the flexibility to create smaller courses.”
This follows years when Adams rightly opposed the outrageous United Federation of Lecturers-backed state class-size legislation, for the wonderful motive that it imposes big prices on the town with out any prospect of really enhancing training.
But there was the mayor, Mulgrew beside him, bragging that he’s giving the already-bloated metropolis Division of Training tons of of thousands and thousands extra bucks for hiring, with extra (waste) to return within the years forward.
Enrollment within the metropolis colleges has been dropping, and this legislation (which applies solely to the town) is the UFT’s scheme for guaranteeing that the ranks of metropolis academics (its dues-paying members) don’t additionally decline.
And nothing greater than that: The town’s worst-performing colleges have already got smaller class sizes; it’s the higher ones, together with gems like Stuyvesant HS and Brooklyn Tech, with a number of children crowded into courses taught by strong academics.
And hiring heat our bodies to fulfill the legislation’s senseless mandates solely ensures that extra children get “taught” by “educators” who don’t know what they’re doing.
The Legislature handed this legislation purely to appease the UFT: If lawmakers actually believed within the logic behind it, why make the mandate NYC-only?
The town already spends an insane $41.2 billion — a full third of its finances — on a college system the place truancy is up and check scores have fallen to the bottom ranges in 30 years; because of this legislation, it now should spend much more, to no profit besides the UFT’s.
Really enhancing public training is about removing (or re-educating) dangerous academics and shutting down (or restructuring) dangerous colleges — and, in fact, about opening extra good colleges.
However the UFT fights tooth and nail to stop the opening of latest constitution colleges, whose file of success and educational excellence embarrasses the union by exhibiting there’s a greater method.
We perceive why Mayor Adams opted to brag about complying with the class-size legislation: He has no alternative however to obey; he would possibly as effectively attempt to get some political profit out of it.
Sadly, none of his main Democratic challengers exhibits a lot promise of standing as much as the UFT, both.
However the truth stays: The “smaller courses” push is all about serving the union’s pursuits, not the children’ — and pretending in any other case is taking part in together with the political goons.
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