Judge Stops School Closings

In a setback to the Bloomberg administration, State Supreme Court Justice Joan Lobis last week blocked the city's decision to close 19 New York City public schools for "poor performance", finding "significant violations" of the state law governing mayoral control of city schools.

Justice Lobis warned that the entire mayoral control law must be enforced, not just the part that gives the mayor control of the schools.

The lawsuit was filed by elected officials, parents, the United Federation of Teachers, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The DOE, said the Judge, has to go back to square one and make its case to close the schools again, with “meaningful community involvement".

The city says it will appeal. Unless the decision is reversed, the 19 schools on the Department of Education's hit list, including Brooklyn's Paul Robeson High School, will stay open for at least another year.

The lawsuit held up some 85,000 high school acceptance letters. Those letters are now going out to 8th graders citywide, including about 8,500 to kids who had applied to the schools proposed for closing and were told they couldn't go there.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein blamed the United Federation of Teachers for bringing the lawsuit, accusing the UFT of saving their jobs on the backs of kids consigned to "failing schools".

Twelve of the schools scheduled to close this year were graded “proficient” on their last quality review.

Calling his closure process "robust", Klein contended that the DOE had allowed thousands of people to express their views -- it just didn't agree with them.

Klein, who argued that the DOE's legal errors didn't justify blocking the closings, promised a re-do. Bloomberg has said he will close the schools in the lowest decile by the end of the school term.

The Bloomberg administration has closed 91 public schools since 2002, moving clusters of smaller "boutique" schools and charter schools into their buildings.

According to the Bloomberg administration, closing public schools has improved graduation rates. The boutique schools average 70% graduation compared to 63% citywide.

This year for the first time, the mayoral control law required a significant public role in closing decisions, including hearings, detailed impact statements and a vote by the mayor's Panel for Educational Policy before the decisions were final.

In January, the panel affirmed all 19 closings after a public hearing at which hundreds of teachers, students and parents delivered 9 hours of angry comments.

The article from the New York Times.

The aftermath of the decision, from Gotham Gazette.