Manhattan families are at their breaking point with the DOE. As Elizabeth Green reports today in the New York Sun, the DOE is considering rezoning. What this means is that the one given in this city, that your child can attend your zoned or neighborhood school, is on the table.
I don’t understand how much more the DOE thinks families can take. Every year, every few weeks it feels like, we read news about changes to the school system, making us feel more than ever that it is difficult to entrust our children to this chaos. To now be rethinking zoning, a system that has been in place for decades, is enough to drive many middle class families over the edge, or at least out of the system.
I know that as a school consultant many of my clients and prospects are now saying they will not consider public schools. One family, in the renowned 234 zone, told me the other night that the school is out of the question given overcrowding and now the uncertainty of admission.
I don’t know the answers to these serious questions but I do know that private schools and suburban schools will see even more demand from ambitious, educated families. The DOE causes families too much stress.