Can the DOE learn from the past?
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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — March 4, 2010. On a day when student activists urged all concerned to “defend education” from budget cuts — and a couple of hundred were arrested as protests erupted on campuses across the nation — a smaller protest happened on the sidewalk of a New York City public school, just outside the school yard where students aged five to eleven were being picked up by their parents.
Leafleting outside PS 45
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As high school and college campuses across the U.S. erupted in protests, the United Federation of Teachers convened a press conference in a more serene setting — just outside the playground of a Staten Island grade school.
The conference was held at Staten Island’s P.S. 45 to underscore the fact that cuts could cost the school its “The Arts For Kids” program. Addressing the press at the school’s dismissal time, UFT Representatives Emil Pietromonaco and Sean Rotkowitz spoke out against the Paterson administration’s proposed budget cuts to education.
The UFT’s Borough Rep Emil Pietromonaco
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“We can’t make the same mistakes that we made in the Seventies when we had the extreme budget cuts,” said Emil Pietromonaco, the UFT Borough representative for Staten Island.
“We lost a whole generation of kids,” he added.
Discussing the Bloomberg administration’s emphasis on test scores Pietromonaco said, “By cutting everything back to its basics we’ll have schools becoming test prep academies.”
A teacher chats with UFT District Representative Sean Rotkowitz
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UFT District Representative Sean Rotkowitz argued that “Any study you want to look at shows you where there’s arts programs, it deepens and enriches, not just the kids’ experience in school but you see, academically, the success.”
“So our fear is, with these budget cuts, is this principal going to be forced to make that kind of decision — to have the arts or not to have the arts here? It’s not a decision any of our principals, whether it’s here at P.S. 45, any school on Staten Island, or in New York City, should have to make,” Rotkowitz said.
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David Marquis, founder and director of Marquis Studios, created “The Arts For Kids” initiative that is in danger of being cut at P.S. 45. Marquis has been providing arts education to New York City schools for 32 years. He currently serves over 80 schools, citywide. Marquis spoke in defense of a well rounded curriculum — that includes the arts.
“For two years we have experienced 30 percent cuts in our funding from the DOE — the Department of Education. Now, as you all know, the budget cuts [ from the State ], while severe, have not been 30 percent. The arts, after-school programs, sports, are seeing an inequitable amount of budget cuts being passed along to them. And as our children no longer receive an education in creative thinking and in problem solving that is part of any arts experience they will find themselves less and less able to grow up and become productive citizens,” Marquis said.
Marquis gave the “No Child Left Behind” program a failing grade.
“We are suffering under the weight of the ‘No Child Left Behind’ act which has been repudiated this week by Diane Ravitch, the very woman who created it,” Marquis said.
Marquis said that the emphasis on test scores not only caused the educational system to provide substandard instruction, it also promotes cheating. Marquis argued that testing should be used to determine aptitude and placement, rather than in a punitive way.
“High stakes testing is not the same as testing. Testing for assessment is a wonderful and necessary tool. But high stakes testing, where the prize is we’re going to keep your school open and the punishment is that we’re going to close your school and take away your bonuses or deny you tenure is totally inequitable and leads to a school that is nothing but test prep,” he said.
The NAACP’s Ed Josey mentioned the damage the MTA could do to education by eliminating student metro cards and stressed that art programs keep kids in schools — kids who might otherwise lose interest and drop out.
(l to r) Pietromonaco, Ed Josey, Jeanne Johnson and a parent
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Staten Island Federation of Parent-Teacher Associations co-president Jeanne Johnson said that, while parents will help buy essential supplies — even more than they are presently doing — they cannot be expected to do the Department of Education’s job.
“We’re willing to dig deeper in our pockets to help our children get the right education, no matter how hard it hurts, but we cannot pay, out of our pockets, for teachers, we cannot pay for aides,” Johnson said.
Emil Pietromonaco is interviewed by NY1′s Mara Montalbano
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