In Mr. Bloomberg's New York, the motto is "Children First." So naturally, when cuts are to be made, they're the first ones to feel them. Now if you're going to make cuts to services for children, the easiest way to do it is with those whose parents are least likely to complain.
That's why, for example, students of English as a Second Language are often taught in closets, hallways and even bathrooms (I know a woman who taught in a bathroom for years, and who was pictured doing so in the New York Times).
But in fairness, ESL students are not the only ones on the receiving end of New York City's educational "reforms." Special education students are having buses cut, and very few of them have SUV's waiting outside their doors to drive them to convenient subway stops (like Mayor Bloomberg does--you didn't think he really took the train all the way to work, did you?).
After all, with the city training principals at near 6-figure salaries, spending tens of millions on computers that don't work, and hiring accountability officers like Jim Liebman who literally run away from concerned parents, you don't think they're about to toss away money sending special education kids to school, do you?
Of course not, And now that there are fewer buses, there'll be even less chance of anyone catching up with Mr. Liebman.
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