The City Has Allocated Scarce Buiding Funds To Help The Charter Schools While The Public Schools Suffer Budget Cuts

To my shock and horror I read a New York Post article that the City has quietly made available 3.8 billion dollars for Charter School construction and this money was taken from the traditional Public School construction funds. This allocation of money, despite a New York State prohibition in giving the Charter Schools any construction funds, was kept quiet since the NYC Public Schools are experiencing significant budget cuts and even staff layoffs. How can the City justify the shifting of Public Schools funds to Charter Schools during a financial crises and budget cuts at the Public Schools? Easy, when it comes to the NYC Public Schools they are the poor relation to the Charter Schools as Mayor Mike and Chancellor Klein practices their favorite policy, "children last".

Many of the NYC Public Schools are in various state of disrepair. Remember, the statement by Arthur Goldstein of Francis Lewis High School in which he said the following:

" My high school was built to hold 1,800 but enrolls 4,450 students. My kids sit in a crumbling trailer, with no technology and often no heat in the winter. So much for efficiency".

Wouldn't some of the City's school construction funds be better served to build an extension to the school and get rid of the trailers? Not according to Mayor Mike & Chancellor Klein. To them it is more important to fix up and build the Charter Schools then to allocate the badly needed funds to the traditional Public Schools. How many schools have disgusting bathrooms, broken furniture, and classrooms that need to be refurbished? How about the lack of equipment and air conditioning in many schools? What about school building improvements such as workable windows, doors, and floors? To the City that is not as important as to make sure their pride and joy, the Charter Schools, are supplied with the necessary building funds for them to succeed while starving the traditional Public Schools. "Children last" continues....