Here's a picture that brings back a lot of memories. The ubiquitous trailers that education-mayor Mike Bloomberg and his cronies have deposited all over the city have this certain something.
And wherever these eyesores are dumped, people talk about them. They say things like, "Why the hell can't my kid be in a classroom instead of one of those things?"
But according to this story, it'll be a while before that happens. After all, times are tough, the economy is down, there's no money, and we've never done things that way. Of course, when times were great, when the real estate market was booming, when everyone was making money and not even the indispensable Mayor Bloomberg knew the crash was coming (Odd, ain't it?), we still couldn't get rid of them.
I'm struck by a remark in this story:
“From an exterior point of view they may not look nice, but from the interior, they’re great,” Ryan said.
I don't know precisely who this Ryan character has for an interior decorator, but our trailers look like Kansas after the twister carried Dorothy away. And what's going to happen to these trailers?
...Chancellor Joel Klein, who originally said he hoped to eliminate all TCUs by 2012, has put the issue on the back burner. Tsavaris-Basini said that in a recent meeting, deputy schools Chancellor Kathleen Grimm said elimination of TCUs is no longer a priority.
I'd originally read that it was Mayor Bloomberg who made that promise, later "clarifying" his remarks by explaining that he wasn't going to do it after all. I can tell you that if parents were to tour these miserable facilities, they'd certainly question the Chancellor's priorities. Of course, since the Chancellor serves at the Mayor's pleasure, you gotta suspect priority number one is doing whatever the hell the Mayor wants.
And giving kids a decent, clean place to study, clearly, is not a priority at all.
Update: If you want to see the interior up close and personal, don't miss these photos, courtesy of the inimitable Pissed Off Teacher.
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