WE THE PEOPLE: Will Everyone be Left Behind?

The federal Education Department is quietly seeking assistancefrom the New York State Board of Regents to design a waiver toexempt states from the rigorous standards of the No Child LeftBehind Law.

That law requires all students to be proficient in math and Englishby 2014. It penalizes schools for failing to have the studentscomport to mandated levels of proficiency. It spawned amultibillion dollar industry for consulting, testing and lobbyingexperts. Education Secretary Arne Duncan described the law as atrain crash and a failure.

The law lacks the needed flexibility to differentiate theperformance of a school with non-English speaking students ordisadvantaged students. The law was crafted with the best ofintentions, but it places all responsibility for instruction andperformance on the educator.

Teachers and administrators must be more concerned with their ownreport card rather than the student report cards. Meanwhile,charter schools take the students who are better motivated andbetter supported by family from the system. The DOE responds topoor performance by attempting to close the high schools with thegreatest number of disadvantaged students because the schoolfailed. Will the mayor place those students in Stuyvesant H.S. orFort Hamilton H.S.?

Mayor Bloomberg favors closing schools and reopening new onesinside buildings that are under-utilized. We now know that thespace estimates upon which these shoehorn developments were basedwere wrong. We now know that, despite the DOE spending twice asmuch on education than the Board of Education, our schools arestill struggling.

When Mayor Bloomberg assumed office, he was worth approximately $5billion, and now it is estimated that during his tenure as mayorhis worth is $20 billion. That is quite an accomplishment,especially since he is not allowed to make daily businessdecisions, according to the Conflict of Interest Board.

Mayor Bloomberg is having a former political consultant JohnHaggerty prosecuted for stealing $1 million which the mayor gavehim to spend to aid the mayor’s third term re-election. The CityHall witnesses who are to testify received immunity fromprosecution and their legal fees are being paid personally by themayor.

The DOE wasted millions of dollars on a program to pay students todo their schoolwork. The City Council was outraged to discover thatthe Finance Department recently paid almost $12 million in taxcredits to landlords for rent-regulated tenants who passed away ormoved. No one talks about the $700 million CityTime embezzlementscandal, either. What’s going on in City Hall?

It would be great if New York City could do as well as Bloomberg LPand Mike Bloomberg. Perhaps if Mayor Bloomberg headed down toBermuda and recused himself from New York City business like hedoes for Bloomberg LP, the city might double its revenues and cuttaxes in half.

Over the past 10 years, the amount of borrowing for New York Cityinfrastructure projects has increased, residential property taxeshave doubled and water rates have skyrocketed. Meanwhile, theinfrastructure is crumbling, taxes are high and the educationpicture is grim.

Democrat and Republican leaders need to come to the table and notbe afraid to negotiate so that we can make legitimate plans toreturn our city and nation to greatness.

Brian Kieran is a community activist who works for the State ofNew York and is a Democrat.