Families in District 2 just saw the fruits of the “diversity” drive inflicted on them by the central Department of Education, as top-performing middle-schoolers got assigned to struggling high schools for next year under new admissions procedures.
The inevitable result: District 2 parents are fleeing the public-school system, just as they’ve started to do in other areas that get similar treatment. And if the DOE doesn’t drop this madness under the next mayor, many more will follow.
“My kid did everything she was supposed to do,” said Herbert Bauernebel, whose daughter got into none of the 10 schools she tried for despite a 97 percent average. “She worked really hard. We’re dumbfounded.”
He knows of about 20 kids from IS 276 in Battery Park City rejected by all their listed schools and instead assigned to troubled Murry Bergtraum HS, which can’t possibly offer them the same academic challenges.
Adding to the horrors was the DOE’s move to do away with a neighborhood preference that reserved spots for kids who lived near a school; now each once-competitive high school must set aside at least half its seats for low-income applicants. And random lotteries have replaced high standards.
Parents are “desperate at this point,” one mom told The Post. “Some are planning to move, some are going private if they can afford it, some are sending their kids to live with grandparents.”
But the exodus is already citywide, as families fled the system because of its utter failures during the pandemic. The DOE won’t admit it, but enrollment has fallen below 890,000 students — down from more than a million kids a decade ago, The Post discovered after reviewing DOE records.
In late January, DOE officials pegged this year’s enrollment at “approximately 960,000 students” — a 4 percent drop over last year, with 43,000 kids exiting the system. But the new numbers indicate a loss of 70,000 more.
The DOE disputed that number last week — but refused to give the current enrollment. And the mayor’s own budget documents match The Post’s figures.
Bottom line: Mayor Bill de Blasio’s policies are destroying the city’s public schools. They’re headed on a rapid downward spiral if his successor doesn’t reverse course.