Critic Pans DOE Move to Merge Failing Schools With Thriving Schools

Move Ignores Evidence of Smaller Schools’ Success and Threatens to Throw Neighborhoods in Turmoil

New York, NY – After academic researchers last week again confirmed findings validating the academic benefits of creating smaller schools after shuttering failing ones, Families for Excellent Schools released this statement in response to a Daily News’ report Sunday morning indicating Chancellor Fariña’s plan to combine dozens of failing schools with successful ones by the end of the year:

“By defying evidence that smaller schools educate students better and at lower cost, the Chancellor’s politically motivated decision comes at the expense of the city’s children. Masking the depth of failure by combining good schools with bad ones and diluting statistics is a move designed to shirk accountability and keep special interests satisfied.

The Chancellor should reverse her decision immediately and work instead to create more high-quality options. Parents at schools like M.S. 51 and P.S. 321 would be surprised to learn that their schools might be rewarded with mergers with failing ones, upending their learning environments,” said Families for Excellent Schools’ CEO Jeremiah Kittredge.

Families for Excellent Schools harnesses the power of families to advance policy and political changes that create and sustain excellent schools.