Where We Stand

Our schools and our city now face their greatest crisis. Yet, during this crucial time, efforts to obtain adequate financial support have been undermined in the editorial columns of The New York Times and by Mayor Lindsay, who should be leading the fight for the city.

A few weeks ago, New York's schools averted major reductions in services when, in the face of a scheduled march for a million children by teachers, parents, unions, community school boards and students, the city "found" a way to cover a projected deficit of about $30 million. It was fortunate that a crisis was averted, but it was averted at great cost. 

Recent incidents of violence and disorder in public schools have focused attention on the need for school security measures to protect the overwhelming majority of students from the disruptive fewwho turn what should be a place of learning into a place of chaos and terror. Essentials as such measures are, they are of course one-sided in purpose. We must simultaneously work at improving the schools and the educational programs they offer.

By the time the holiday recess in our schools is over, one month will have passed since two teachers were raped in their classrooms and another teacher brutally assaulted by the leader of a publicly funded community group in the Bronx.  The question, after this new round of violence, of whether this time action will replace earlier promises remains unanswered.

If there is a single idea, which is most under consideration in educational circles today, it is the idea of accountability. But, unfortunately, there are almost as many definitions of educational accountability as there are supporters of the idea. To some militant local groups it means the grant to them of total power to fire and hire professionals on whatever subjective basis suits their purpose. To those concerned with rising education costs, this term means an accounting for money spent how much learning output for each dollar of input.

School fiscal crises are occurring all across the country. Educational programs are being abolished and services to children are curtailed. Only in New York City have the cutbacks so far been averted, thanks to the strength of an unprecedented coalition of forces which included parent groups, elected community school boards, the entire labor movement, the civil rights movement and high school student groups. Credit must also go to the central Board of Education for continuing to operate the schools with a full level of services until the money ran out and to Comptroller Abraham Beame, who resolved the crisis with a bookkeeping device which other governmental agencies were already using.

For many decades the New York Civil Liberties Union was admired by many as an organization which fought to preserve the democratic rights of all citizens, especially those whose rights were threatened by "the mob" because of unpopular views and affiliations. Unfortunately, within the last few years, the NYCLU seems to have abandoned its traditional role as defender of democratic procedures and has instead become involved as a combatant in substantive political struggles.

The announcement by the Board of Education that it will have to cut back $45 million in services for the rest of the school year has shocked the city. The freeze on maintenance and repair alone must inevitably lead to school closings since disrepair creates physical danger. The dismissal of 6500 teachers regularly employed in the schools and another 5000 per diem substitutes who replace absent teachers cannot be viewed as just another governmental economy move. 

School Chancellor Harvey Scribner stirred up new controversy when he recently advocated that parents, teachers and students be given a greater voice in the selection of high school principals. The suggestion was made in an after dinner speech on "participatory democracy in the schools" in which the Chancellor made numerous criticisms of the schools, supervisors and teachers.

When the Urban Coalition was formed in 1967, there was great hope. For the first time, many of us thought, the full strength of the labor movement, the business community and the civil rights organizations would be used to reduce poverty, improve education and fight racial discrimination. 

The Newark teacher strike continues, though it has disappeared from the headlines. The press reported the start of the strike, the clubbing of a group of teachers by a uniformed band of young men, the arrest of the teacher leaders and the fact that the Mayor, the president of the Board of Education, the teacher union president and the local "community" leader are all black. Beyond that, the public has been told little or nothing about this major struggle.

The school fiscal crisis deepens every day. In the New York area, New Rochelle has announced it may have to close schools. The district has run out of money and cannot raise taxes since the legal tax limit has been reached. New York City has imposed a job freeze, and the Board of Education is making cuts to head off a projected $50 million deficit. Newark teachers are on strike following a Board of Education demand that teacher's sign a four-year pact providing no salary increases over the contract period.

When the school decentralization law was passed, all the parties made many compromises. As a result, Republicans and Democrats, school supervisors, the majority of black and Puerto Rican legislators and the UFT supported the bill. Now, less than a year after its passage, there is a concerted effort to reopen one of the basic compromises in the law: the question of whether the Board of Examiners shall continue to license professional personnel on the basis of civil service-type examinations.

Charles Silverman's book Crisis in the Classroom is enjoying well deserved success. The book, the result of a $300,000 Carnegie Foundation grant for study of teacher training, is broad in scope. Far from limiting itself narrowly to the area of teacher training it raises basic philosophical and scientific questions: How can we train teachers unless we know what it is that teacher's do which brings about desired changes in students? What are these desired changes?

The school budget is more than a financial prospectus; it is a reflection of educational philosophy and a measure of how much we really care about children. Looked at in this way, Chancellor Scribner's proposed budget leaves much to be desired.

Every year sees some new educational idea advance as the answer to our school ills. This year is no exception. The Office of Economic Opportunity is spending millions of dollars on "performance contracting." 

Budget time is here again, and it is going to be difficult to get school improvements. The reasons are easy to see. 

School violence may not be the most appropriate holiday season topic, but it is hardly avoidable. While parents, teachers and pupils enjoy their winter vacation, Frances Glick, the teacher-victim of an assault at George Washington High School Annex, remains in the hospital. At last report, her head injuries we so severe that she could not recognize her father five days after the assault occurred.

The U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity has been pressing for the adoption of a voucher plan. While there are many versions of the voucher plan, the basic idea is to give the children ( or their parents) the money which the public schools now spend on their education and permit them to spend that money for education in public, private or parochial schools. 

The teacher's job is filled with frustration. There are the day-to-day struggle to reach and educate the children, the endless petty chores, the effort to get special help for students who need it, the difficulties of getting the right books and supplies and now the near-impossible task of coping with school violence. This column is our way of telling the parents and the public where we stand on the important educational issues facing our city.