Education in the News: What Happens To Schools as They Wait to Be Closed…”Slowly Bleeding Out?”

From the April 16 New York Times:”New York City is filled with schools marked twice over for death.

“The Bloomberg administration long ago determined that its education revolution would occur at the edge of an ax. So far, officials have closed 140 schools, which they routinely describe as failing, and replaced them with smaller schools and charters, which they routinely describe as making ‘historic gains.’

“Perhaps this is so. But for tens of thousands of children who live in the purgatory of schools marked for closing, boasts of an education revolution bring little comfort.

“Last week, I talked with Juan Pagan, the parent association president at Legacy High School for Integrated Studies in Manhattan. This year, the city’s Panel for Education Policy, a public board as obedient to mayoral desire as any in the city, voted to begin the shutdown of Legacy, a process that takes years.

“Mr. Pagan described a school slowly bleeding out. Elective classes and after-school programs falling away. Favorite teachers seeking new jobs. But for his daughter, a 19-year-old senior in special education without enough credits to graduate, the most grievous recent loss was the social worker…”