Destroy top performing public schools???

I found this article back in December and it's a bit mind boggling, but just shows the state of public policy right now:

Ending selective admissions for top performing public middle schools in New York will disadvantage the city's brightest and highest achieving students as well as those who are not academically gifted.

New York had 1.1 million public school students, though that number has now shrunk to 900,000 or so, and they are not all academically gifted. Most of the kids who have left the public school system since the pandemic are from low-income families. Those who are not academically gifted, or even who are not academically driven, are not stupid, bad, or in need of having all the super smart kids descend on their classes.

De Blasio and the United Federation of Teachers believe that because the diversity at the top performing middle and high schools does not reflect the ethnic and racial makeup of the city, there's something wrong with these schools. Instead of being pleased that the city is able to serve the most academically gifted students with free, world-class educations, de Blasio and the UFT think they need to destroy those programs and replace them with, well, nothing.

As Eliza Schapiro wrote in The New York Times, "In doing this, Mr. de Blasio is essentially piloting an experiment that, if deemed successful, could permanently end the city's academically selective middle schools, which tend to be much whiter than the district overall." Most of the city's top achieving students, however, are Asian.

The gifted kids will remain in their neighbourhood zoned schools as the admissions standards for middle schools are put on hold. Those top schools will now admit kids based on a lottery. Sheer chance will decide which kids end up in the schools with the most academically rigorous pace.

I have my own proposal for a leaner more responsive public school system. Sadly it means probably closing schools and/or layoffs because a more leaner system is necessary.

The way I see it I see in the news here in Chicago locally that we're still trying to figure out what to do with those school buildings that are now closed. In Englewood they're discussing turning one school into a residential space. In my opinion just because you close a school doesn't mean it won't be a school anymore especially if another organization other than CPS can come in and adequately operate it.

Another thing I would propose is that it doesn't make sense for CPS to close down their top performing schools or programs. These are what should make CPS look good, and fulfills the image of what we want to see public education do. And public schools right now are getting a bad rap for a number of issues in addition to whether or not the children are being adequately educated for example.

They reason why Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed down a number of elementary schools on the south and west sides in 2013 is because many of them were under-utilized. Can we afford to keep open schools that not only aren't performing but barely have students within their walls? The system we had was built for a city of a different time when the economy was doing great and parents had a lot of kids. However in 2021 I also recognize parents have more options as far as where they sent their children.

So my idea probably won't be popular with the educators and probably some parents. I'm sure parents are concerned about where their children go to school. Back in the 1990s my mother was concerned about where I went to high school when it was that time. She didn't want me to go to school halfway across the city even if it was possibly a better school. She'd rather the safety of myself staying in the neighborhood going to school everyday. I'm sure someone's parent has the same idea even now.

I'm sure many good parents with these coronavirus lockdowns are looking into alternatives since it seems CPS is surely but slowly crawling back to some semblance of normal even now. I mention this because there is an agreement between CPS and the teacher's union to go back to the schools. I would imagine if I was in school now, I would miss the social interactions with my peers for example.

I know I wrote a lot here, but that's what this blog is here for. We can discuss the article and we can discuss what's going on currently as far as basically any topic, though certainly public education specifically.