State test results for third- through eighth-grade public school students are out, and once again, New Yorkers will be disappointed.
Statewide, more than half the kids flunked yet again: Just 45.4% were deemed proficient in reading and 46.7% in math. In the city, 47.4% passed the reading test, while 45.6% got by in math.
Think the problem’s skimpy funding? Sorry: In 2017, the Empire Center’s E.J. McMahon reported in May, New York shelled out 89% more per kid than the national average. And that gap has been growing fast: In 1997, per-pupil outlays here were just 45% above average.
Meanwhile, results on the nationwide test (the National Assessment of Educational Progress, considered the gold standard in student testing) has placed New York kids only near the middle of the pack.
Of course, school officials and their political bosses want folks to believe the schools are fine and, heck, getting better.
In the city Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza tried to spin the results positively. The pass rate in English, they noted, is up 0.7 percentage points — and three whole points in math.
Huh? That paltry uptick is what they’re proud of? Even though more than half the kids bombed? Please.
Notably, kids in the one category of public schools de Blasio and Carranza (and their union pals) don’t run — i.e., the charters — beat their counterparts in the regular schools by more than 10 percentage points in both English and math.
Sadly, de Blasio & Co. have tried to squash charters, in part because they make the city-run schools look so pathetic.
Yet let’s face it: Public education in the city, and throughout the state, is never going to improve unless officials like de Blasio first admit their own failures.
© 2019 New York Post
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