By The Editors | New York Observer
“There’s no question that New York’s public schools have shown signs of improvement over the last few years. It’s also true that former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his education team achieved important reforms, especially in the growth of charter schools.
But it is equally true that much more work needs to be done. The question is whether politicians, administrators and union bosses understand this simple fact.
An advocacy group called Families for Excellent Schools released a report the other day that should sadden any New Yorker who cares about quality public education. The report documents abysmal failures in 371 city schools, nearly 25 percent of the total. In that so-called “forgotten fourth,” more than 90 percent of students cannot read or do math at grade level.
As the group noted in its report, if a quarter of the city’s subway trains were chronically late, or if a quarter of the city’s police precincts failed to solve 90 percent of crimes, the outrage would be all-consuming.”