It's a Red-Tape Jungle for Schools Joe Williams
New York Daily News, November 30, 2004 Summarizing the findings of Common Good's Over Ruled study, the New York Daily News reports:
A student can be arrested for bringing a gun to school--but it could take as long as 105 days before he is officially suspended.
A principal trying to get rid of a lousy teacher could be forced to jump through as many as 32 administrative hoops just to successfully get a note placed in the teacher's personnel file.
And if you want to have a school athletics program, you had better make sure you have the right-size earflaps on your helmets or the team can't take the field.
The city's public schools are so constrained by red tape that educats have a tough time with basic, common-sense tasks.
David Bloomfield, a former top city schools lawyer and a professor at Brooklyn College, told the Daily News that "[m]ost of the volumes of rules and regulations make sense when viewed alone, but put together with everything in a typical school day, they are a recipe for disaster."
The Daily News points specifically to Common Good's "How Do I Replace a Heating System?" chart, which shows that while "state law ... requires schools to be heated in the winter, ... the same laws make it almost impossible to get heating units replaced if they break down in the city."
Jerry Russo, a spokesman for New York City schools Chancellor Joel Klein, said Common Good's study is "on the mark."
Read more about the project, including Common Good's press release.
Visit our Over Ruled page now.
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