Unfortunately, some parents of incoming Manhattan public school kindergarteners are receiving wait list letters. According to The New York Times,
The lists are longer this year at some schools on the Upper West Side and Upper East Side in Manhattan. Public School 87, on West 78th Street, has space for 130 kindergartners, and 111 children are on the waiting list. Across Central Park at Public School 290, 91 students are on the waiting list, nearly as many as the school admitted.
Other schools with long waiting lists include Public School 183 and Public School 6 on the Upper East Side, each with more than 50 students, and Public School 199 on the Upper West Side, with 47 students.
Now that it is already late March, how difficult for parents, and young children, not to know where they will be going to elementary school this fall. Families’ fallback–their local public school–is no longer necessarily there. That makes it impossible to plan for the future.
How can a young family buy an apartment if their children can’t necessarily attend an acceptable private or public school? A lot of people will be heading for the suburbs.