The DOE has a slogan "Children First. Always.". However, the DOE's slogan rings hollow when thevery policies they have practiced during the Bloomberg Era and has continued under Chancellor Carmen Farina show otherwise.
Just look at all the policies the DOE has placed on the schools that has had a negative effect on a student's academic achievement. Large class sizes, the largest in New York State and now our disappointing "its a beautiful day" Chancellor put her foot in her mouth again by saying that we don't want class sizes to be too small. At the District 15 Town Hall meeting on May 6th. Here is her exact quote.
"I have a particular feeling there’s such a thing as too small a class size. I feel sometimes class sizes creates cliques, other kinds of non-social relationships ".
This despite study after study that shows that smaller class sizes are correlated with increased student learning. In addition, over the last seven years the DOE has reduced school budgets by an average of 14% while the DOE budget has increased by billions of dollars. The result is few resources are being directed to the classrooms while the DOE bloated bureaucracy is bursting at the seems with non-educators and managers, especially, accountability experts and lawyers. Moreover, the schools, in an effort to save scarce funds, are asking teachers to take a "sixth period"which eventually wears out the teacher and reduces their effectiveness. The result is a less inviting academic environment and a failure to provide the proper conditions for students to reach their academic potential.
Combine that with the"fair student funding" that requires principals to hire the "cheapest"and not the "best teachers" and the DOE's "education on the cheap" policy and you have not "Children first" but in reality its "Children last".