Back in April 1995, the New York City Partnership, an organization of NYC-based business leaders, released a report on overhauling Gotham's public education system. ????Titled "A System of Schools," the report has held up remarkably well over time, bordering on prescient in places. ????(This link--to a scanned version of an old hard copy--might be the only place you'll be able to find it. ????Thanks to Charter King, Nelson Smith, who played a role in that project and owns this collector's item original.)
The report not only called for mayoral control of the city's schools, it includes this amazing line: "Within five years, every New York City school should function as a charter school." ????(I made a similar argument in Education Next, and I'm currently writing a book along these lines.)
However, today's slow????proliferation of charters in urban areas????in the face of continued opposition and the ongoing debate about mayoral control in NYC????demonstrate again the????endless recycling????of many ed reform issues.????
Along those line, if you'd like a shot of humility, read this short article from the NYT on the report's original release. It's fascinating to read Mayor Giuliani's and Chancellor????Ramon Cortines'????thoughts on the city's "educational mediocrity" and the familiar position taken by the union.
Sometimes the education reform world seems like a repeating play with a new crop of actors stepping in every decade or so to deliver well-worn lines.
These????guys????had it right...
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Getty Lee image from????Wikipedia.????Shakespeare image from????Money-Guy.Com.
