White-Adjacents Are Finally Figuring It Out

For decades, conservatives have argued that “true compassion” for black children living in poverty meant, in part, providing them with a decent education that would enable them to succeed. For just as long, liberals and teachers unions derided them as heartless racists. Now, probably because the national lockdown and the teachers unions’ stubborn refusal to open the schools has opened their eyes, black parents are seeing what’s been going on.

Parents rip into DOE, say NYC has failed black students

A growing legion of black parents in Queens say the Department of Education has failed their kids through mismanagement and neglect — fueling an exodus out of the public school system.

Fed-up families in District 29 — a primarily black area which includes Hollis, Rosedale, and Cambria Heights — said the DOE has long tolerated abysmal math and English proficiency rates, despite high per-student spending.

“There are a lot of black middle-class homeowners here,” said local activist Michael Duncan of the newly formed Students Improvement Association. “These are successful people, successful families. The results in our schools are not reflective of the community. Something is wrong here.”

Duncan said many families — including his own — have been forced to pay out of pocket for private schools in recent years due to DOE dysfunction.

Duncan and the grassroots SIA have begun collecting and analyzing district statistics and promoting awareness among local parents.

“I think a lot of parents knew that it was bad,” he said. “But they didn’t know it was this bad.”

Despite spending roughly $27,000 per student, PS 134 in Hollis saw only 6 percent of 5th graders pass their 2019 state math proficiency test and 17 percent hit that minimal mark in English.

The DOE spent nearly the same amount at PS 156 in Laurelton – but only 21 percent of 5th graders were proficient in math and English that year

The agency expended $25,000 per student at PS 118, where only 22 percent of 5th graders were proficient in English and 12 percent in math.

Overall, just 37 percent of black District 29 students in grades 3 -8 passed their 2019 English state exams while 28 percent were proficient in math.

Duncan asserted that the DOE and some public officials cast troubled schools as “under-resourced” to provide cover for mismanagement and mediocrity.

“It’s just simply not true,” he said, “Look at what is being spent. Where is this money going? Successful Catholic schools don’t spend anywhere near that. Small private schools in this district charge far less in tuition and are doing much better. There are public schools next door in District 28 that spend much less per student and are doing well.”

SIA member and District 29 community activist Raymond Dugue echoed Duncan.

“The DOE’s first priority is employment,” he contended. “To keep the employment cycle going. In our district, a black district, whether teaching is done or not is secondary. The poor results we see for black children are not a function of funding. It’s not caring and not teaching.”

Too bad for these parents and their children that the Biden administration and Democrat mayors and governors, in collaboration with the NEA, are fiercely opposed to charter schools and any other alternatives that could compete with teachers unions.. And it’s too bad that, in order to hide their failure, those same groups are eliminating testing that would show exactly how badly the schools are failing their charges. But this may be the start of a great awakening.

of course, the teachers have lots of other issues to worry about