This is how to save public schools

I was walking on West 84th and saw a group of teens acting out. I was wondering where they went to school. After further investigation I discovered they go to Louis D. Brandeis High School, a school that takes in some of the city's most disadvantaged students. Shockingly after more research, I found out the school struggles and will be closed very soon. My question is when will the city realize that grouping up poor disadvantaged students isn't going to help them succeed? It will just increase the performance gap in the city.

Ruby Bridges recently celebrated her 62nd birthday. Ruby Bridges became the first African American child to desegregate an all-white elementary school in the South. While we've made some strides in this country regarding segregation in public schools, more than 65,000 students in the Bronx are in failing schools. There are more than that number of students who are in failing schools in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens.  What's happening is black and spanish students are being shut out of getting a quality education because of their economic  level.  To add to the problems our mayor wants to close charter schools which are the only option for kids in underserved schools.  

The problem is that schools in New York City are separated by race and not equal. Michael Mulgrew, President of the United Federation of Teachers, when you de-segregate public schools then you can bash charter schools.  Maybe we need to re-visit Brown vs Board of education and force schools to accept more minority students that live nearby.  This solution was discussed in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal on August 28.

This is in response of Michael Mulgrew's Be Our Guest column on March 18, 2016.  Its shocking that even though schools were desegregated in the 1960's, it still exists and it exists in Manhattan, one of the most diverse cities in the nation and the world.  The worst examples of this are PS145, which is almost entirely black and Spanish, where as P.S. 199 on West 70th Street has scores twice as high as the city average and most money than most schools combined. The majority of the students at PS 199 are white. Yet P.S. 191 has the complete opposite make up and their test scores are far below the city average mainly because of the disparity of money between PS 199 and PS 191.

The same disparity in race can be seen in PS 84 Lillian Webber which has 60% population of black and Spanish and only 35% white, yet the school around the corner PS 333 has 64% white 27% black and Spanish.  One might ask why two schools, PS 84 and PS 333 have such different racial make ups, and the answer lies is PS 84 accepts all students and PS 333 has a lottery which is closed to the public so they can pic and choose the students that attend their school without any oversight.   You might expect a school named after ‪#‎BookerTWashington, who was an African American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States, between 1890 and 1915, ‪#‎btwhspva to have at least the same amount of black students as white students, but just like others in zone 3, the school, MS54, located on West 107th street has 65% white students and only 10% black and 14% Hispanic students ‪#‎D3equity, ‪#‎D3equityineducation.  This is also true about schools below 95th Street on the Upper East side, which are all white.

Natalie Russo, the principal of ‪#‎PS145 put together a great panel on the lack of diversity in Manhattan's district 3 public schools. Michael Alves, Controlled Choice Pioneer, Lisa Donlan, District 1 Parent Leader, Rene Kathawala District 3 parent leader, Clara Hemphill Inside Schools Editor and Kim Watkins, Community Education Council district 3 were very informative. Also thank you to Councilmen Mark Levine for attending. 

Dr. Russo is nice enough to select students from anywhere in zone 3, even students who were zoned for PS 87 but weren't given a spot there.  But when those students leave pre K they go to PS 87, PS 452, PS009 the same schools that didn't have a spot for them in pre k, leaving Dr, Russo's school, PS 145 under its capacity and therefore not entitled to certain funds.  The ironic thing now is that PS 87, PS 87, PS 452, PS009 aren't even selecting some students for kindergarten who were zoned for those schools and therefore they need to either attend PS191, a low funded school or forget going to public school. I suggest those students remain at PS145 and help Dr. Russo get the funds she needs to improve the school. 

You have schools like PS199, PS333, PS87 and PS452 that accept few if any black and spanish schools, so those minority students are put into low performing school like PS145 (which is a great school for pre k but then when students leave after Pre K the school loses money and the students suffer), PS 191 (a terrible school), PS185.  What needs to happen is that schools like  PS199, PS333, PS87 and PS452 need to de-segregate and if they can't do it on their own, the city should take all funds designated to those schools that have donors who have given those schools millions and give the money to schools that need it.

My solution is to ban donations to a specific school like PS199, PS333, PS87 and PS452 and evenly distribute the money to every NYC school.  Schools should all get the same money no matter where they are.  That's what public education means.

Another solution would be to revisit Brown Vs Board of Education and allow black and spanish students from schools like PS191, PS185 etc to enroll in schools like PS199, PS333, PS87 and PS452.  

I'm supporting Ted Cruz's decision not to endorse Trump

During the republican convention most republicans supported Donald Trump even though most are against the racist rhetoric that comes out of his mouth.  Forget the fact that Trump made money in construction, hotels and bars and restaurants, fields dominated by illegals.  Trump was also recently reprimanded for hiring illegal polish workers.

Ronald Reagan, champion of the republicans party supported giving immigrants a pathway to citizenship and even supported tougher gun laws.  Why is it okay for Trump to be a total hypocrite?  If Trump deport 11-20 million Mexicans that would put a strain of businesses that's never been seen before. Could you imagine the strain it would put on all construction sites, agricultural companies and bars and restaurants if they had to fire all their illegal workers.  This would put this country into a depression not a recession.  Trump knows this, which is why he probably hired more illegals than anyone in the country. 

Trump is trying to pander to the lowest common denominator to get elected.  He's trying to use hate, and anger to win an election.  It isn't a Mexicans fault that some of his supporters don't have jobs or earn less than they think they should.  It’s the employer’s fault for hiring those that are not legally here.  If illegals weren't given jobs by top American companies, they would come here.

I keep hearing from republicans that they don't support what Trump says but will vote for him anyway.  This is just stupid.  Why elect someone you don't like just because he's running as a republican.  This is why I'm supporting Ted Cruz's decision not to endorse Trump.  

Ted Cruz said, "I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father.  He went up on stage and said ""Don't stay home in November," Cruz said toward the end of his otherwise very well-received speech. "Stand and speak and vote your conscience."  After that his wife needed a police escort out of the convention.  Stay classy republicans.   

I don't support much of Ted Cruz's rhetoric, but by not endorsing Trump like the other sheep, I can commend Cruz for this.  

Why are athletes, sports announcers and team owners held to a higher standards than politicians?

Rep Steve King appeared on MSNBC in a panel with Chris Hayes and others.  During the telecast, it was observed that the Republican Convention attendees were predominately white and it didn't  represent an example of diversity.

But then Steve King really put his foot in his mouth saying  "I'd ask you to go back through history and figure out, where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you're talking about, where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?"

What shocked me is that that not one of the other panelists took Steve King to the wood shed.  Where were Chris Hayes and the other panelists?  I understand that MSNBC is trying to become a more balanced network, but by letting Steve King make these comments without blasting him, the network is not being more balanced, but being Fox News. 

If ‪SteveKing was an athlete, a sports commentator, a coach or an owner and said such a racist thing, he would be banished from the league or fired.‪ MargeSchott, ‪DonaldSterling ‪Jimmythegreek were either forced to sell or fired after making racist statements. But because SteveKing a politician, he isn't held to such a high standard. 

Public Schools must de-segregate or lose their city money.

Elite school’s ‘exceptionally racist’ diversity head will not return by Paul Sperry ignores the bigger issue. Yes, private schools have diversity issues but public schools do also.  PS333 is right around the corner from PS84, yet PS84 is almost entirely black and spanish and PS333 right around the corner is almost entirely white.  PS 199 is entirely white and PS191 literally a few blocks away is all black and spanish.  My daughter attended PS145 which was entirely black and spanish and was a great school.  Schools in certain areas Brooklyn  also accept few if any black and spanish students. I walked by the school yard at PS87 and didn't see one black or spanish student playing there.  PS 87, PS199, PS333 look like suburb school schools not schools in the most racially diverse districts in NYC or maybe the country.  Where are the calls to force principles of public schools that only accept white students to step down? Does the city need to close those public schools that only accept white students?  Should black and spanish students be bussed to "white" public schools like they were in the 1960's to force them to de-segregate?

California liberals can't have it both ways

This is for the California liberals who blame global warming for their water shortage but then don't get their kids vaccinated.  How can you be so two faced?  Do you only use science when you want to?  If you want to say global warming is causing your lack of water you need to take advantage of years and years of science proving that getting your kids vaccinated prevents diseases that have been dormant for hundreds of years. Thanks to your ignorance diseases that have been long gone for hundreds of years are back and your stupidity is putting babies too young to get vaccinated in harm's way.