The reason I chose to look into the Department of Education is because I recently read Punished for Reading: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal (2023). Because of this book I wanted to understand how schools get funded, in this instance, public schools (K-12) in New York City.
Through my research, I stumbled upon the “Guide to the Records of the New York City Board of Education.”1 The records cover a time frame between 1805 and 2002.
There is a lot to cover within the topic of education policy, but during my research found two dates which I found interesting.
1970: Decentralization legislation (see quote below) goes into effect2
The central Board of Education retains many general powers, especially regarding budgets, and exercises direct responsibility for high schools. The central board consists of two members chosen by the Mayor and one by each Borough President. The central board appoints a Chancellor as chief administrator.
The 1969 New York Education Act' grew out of a movement demanding decentralization of the New York City school system. The ultimate goals of this movement were to: (1) encourage community awareness and participation in the development of educational policy, and (2) create sufficient flexibility in the school system to enable administrators to resolve the diverse needs of the varying communities within the city. Support for the plan arose out of more than a decade of dissatisfaction with the centralized system by educators, school administrators, and parents. Supporters of decentralization had pointed in particular to the failure of the centralized system to achieve racial integration and to raise the achievement levels of black and Puerto Rican students.3
2002: The Board of Education and the elected Community School Boards are abolished. The schools are to be governed directly by a Chancellor appointed by the Mayor to be head of a new Department of Education. 4
Clearly there was opposition to the abolition, which can be found here: Resolution urging the State Legislature to reject demands to dismantle or abolish Community School Boards in the City of New York.
Reform of NYC public high schools started during Giuliani’s mayoral admin and accelerated in 2002 when the Bloomberg admin began to review performance of schools and closing those that consistently showed poor performance.5
This is an excerpt from Mike Bloombergs website, “Under Mike Bloomberg, New York City’s public school system underwent a renaissance. High school graduation rates increased 42 percent, and the City opened 654 new schools, including 173 charter schools. Students and their families had more top-quality school options than ever before.” 6
This excerpt makes it seem like these changes are a good thing, but based on Love’s book “Punished for Dreaming,” closing down underperforming schools and increasing charter schools actually hurts students who are POC or low-income. Historically, public schools that serve Black/Brown children tend to lack funding, thus they don’t have the resources to increase their school rating, which leads to the school’s getting shut down.
Guide to the Records of the New York City Board of Education https://www.nyc.gov/assets/records/pdf/featured-collections/board-of-education-records.pdf
Guide to the Records of the New York City Board of Education https://www.nyc.gov/assets/records/pdf/featured-collections/board-of-education-records.pdf
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2386&context=mjlr
Guide to the Records of the New York City Board of Education https://www.nyc.gov/assets/records/pdf/featured-collections/board-of-education-records.pdf
https://manhattan.institute/article/the-transformation-of-public-high-schools-in-new-york-city
https://www.mikebloomberg.com/mayoral-record/education/school-improvement/