Education

Our city’s public education system has been in dire need of reform for decades. Despite spending more money per pupil than any other public schools system in the country, our city-managed schools often deliver worse results.

 

Why? Advocates for city-managed public schools have lots of ideas why problems exist, but the solutions are often more elusive.

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I have a solution: We cut the bloated and unneeded people in the central office of the DOE. I am talking about administrators and consultants, some of whom are making six figure salaries and providing either duplicative support or providing no service to the DOE at all. Freeing up the schools from oppressive administrators who have to constantly justify their role in the education system will free up funds which can be allocate to all schools to make needed improvements and free up teachers to do what they are trained to do and that is educate the best they can.

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While we tackle the massive project of reforming our public agencies and turn them into high-perfomance agencies, we also need to make sure parents have more choice and control over their childrens’ fates.

We need to lift the cap on charters and begin to experiment with school vouchers. Allow parents to use a fraction of what we would otherwise spend to look for what works for their children and their communities.  At the same time, give public schools more freedom to accommodate local needs and show that they can, in fact, provide a competitive option and a quality education.