NYC School Reform Must Happen Now

The city is looking at the biggest teacher layoffs in 40 years. The cuts to the city’s department of education could be even bigger if it doesn’t get the money it is hoping to from the state, which releases its budget next week.

With money and teachers flowing away from the city’s educational system, it is distressing to think that when the city’s public schools need to be improving they may instead be getting worse.

Are there ways to improve the city’s schools without throwing money and teachers at them, as many politicians seem to love to do?

I suspect there are. In fact, at this point, I would say any real, fundamental, and lasting improvements to the city’s public schools are going to happen without money. The numbers game has failed.

“Right now, we rank number one in the nation in spending per student, and number 34 in student achievement,” says Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a public letter issued last week. “Worse still, these poor results are coming after a decade of record spending increases in education funding.”

“Throwing money at the problem is not the answer,” continues Cuomo. “We need to cut the bureaucratic fat and champion reforms that will help our students achieve their true potential.”

The next question then is what reforms to champion. This is the perfect time for the city’s department of education to try some really sweeping and bold reforms to schools. Many ideas are already out there and are working. We just need the chutzpah to go out there and grab them.

Many ideas are being tested in charter school or have been used in other schools.

Right now, the DOE is experimenting with a project called School Of One. This project, being tested on students in three schools, offers a personalized curriculum for each student based on daily evaluation. The preliminary results are promising, according to administrators involved.

“I am a former teacher, and I remember how hard it was to meet the needs of each student in my class,” said Joel Rose of the DOE, who came up with the idea, in an interview with The Epoch Times. “I was teaching the fifth grade and I had students at the second-grade level and some at the ninth-grade level and everything in between.”

Sounds promising to me too. At this point, the city’s schools do not have a lot to lose.

Other educational reforms that have promise include instituting uniforms and making schools single gender. These methods for instilling discipline are already used by some charter schools and have been in use traditionally among private schools, like Catholic schools.

I grew up attending Catholic schools. The facilities and materials we had were typically of lower quality than those at public schools, but the quality of education, evidenced by the standard barometers like graduation rates, state tests, and college attendance, was higher.

Could we not harness the atmosphere of Catholic schools without actually being religious schools?

For instance, what if, during the school year, everyone in a school, from the principal and teachers down to the janitor and the students, were required to not drink, smoke, or swear; not watch PG-13 or worse movies, television, or other media; and not engage in a relationship outside of marriage. Call them secular commandments. Whatever they are, every single person would be judged by the same simple rules.

Certainly, not everyone would follow these secular commandments, but they would be there and they would be in their faces every day. They would be expected by their superiors, teachers, and classmates to be following them.

Just think about the kind of environment that would create. Certainly one where our children could thrive.

The Knights of the New Epoch

The knights that rule the depths of night,
Rising early before dawn,
Armed and ready in their flight,
Are great conquerors, not pawns.
Above their heads a banner burns
With energy strong and bright,
Alive, unstoppable it yearns
To touch ev’rything in sight,
To spread upon the vast, dark earth
A gushing force of power
That incinerates with pure Truth
Lies’ fortified towers.

Invincible, they storm the walls,
This kingdom has been reclaimed;
When you hear their loud battle calls,
Your mind’s ears are burned by flames,
Jerked awake into the cold world,
Made so painfully alert,
Into this moment you are hurled,
Joyed for fate of any sort.
The bloody battle is over;
They could fight a thousand more;
These land and people now are their’s
To give to their ordained lord.

Though they may not say it at first
The conquered people rejoice
In their cleared minds, for at long last
Silenced is the depraved voice
That had ruled them all those lost years;
Now amidst forced quietude
They stare down their deep-rooted fears
And reform their attitude.
Beaming and cleansing above them
Is a banner, a vast shock!
Guided by Heaven’s fateful helm:
“The Knights of the New Epoch.”

(Dedicated to the sales staff the Epoch Times)