Nearly half of all New York City public school graduates who attend local community colleges are forced to take remedial classes to survive their first semester, troubling new data obtained by The Post show.
Between chronic shortages, price inflation and students unprepared for college, inner-city school students are being pushed through the revolving door of education without actually learning, according to experts at The Post.
"Most of the kids we get from New York schools are not ready for college yet," said Muhammad Alam, associate dean at Manhattan Community College.
In fall 2022, 5,046 Department of Education graduates were scheduled to take remedial math courses and 4,250 remedial English courses at the City University of New York's seven community colleges -- 47% of all new DOE high schools . Graduates, a CUNY spokesman said.
Lack of college preparation leaves students, and some now parents, frustrated and angry.
"I don't think high school, especially Bronx public schools, prepared me well enough for college," said Priscilla Walker, a Bronx mother of two who is still awaiting her BMCC diploma. "The public school system is like, 'These aren't my kids, I don't care.'
Sáleenal Butler, 20, complained that teachers at her former high school, Millennium Arts Academy in the Bronx, "got angry when people asked questions" — so she had to start her career at Bronx Community College -it in teaching mathematics.
Nathan Ortiz, 18, said his classes at Mott Haven Village Preparatory High School in the South Bronx "were neither educational nor motivating. New York's education system is just outdated.
"Most are overwhelmed by the number of students," Butler said.
Julian Espinosa, 24, said he was "not given the tools to be successful" at A. Philip Randolph High School in Manhattan. The Bronx native had to take math lessons when she first enrolled at BCC in 2016 — an experience so disheartening that she quickly gave up.
"I don't remember anything I learned in high school," admits Elian Luna, 21, a 2019 Bronx Academy of Software Engineering graduate who loved her teachers but had to take math classes in BCC.
Cracks in the system appear long before students reach high school.
K-8 public schools across the city have seen test scores drop in the wake of the pandemic, and chronic absenteeism reached 40% last year. This means that 352,919 children were absent from school for 18 days or more, or 10% of the entire year. Chronic absenteeism among high school seniors in the Bronx has reached 58.2%, according to the DOE.
However, high school graduation rates rose again from 73% four years ago to nearly 84% last year, and low standards are leading the way.
"Shut up until they all come," said Wai Wah Chin, founder of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York and a school choice advocate.
Lowering the bar in the name of "fairness" — just to get students through the system — is bad for both quality and society, China argued.
Former mayors have claimed annual increases in the number of graduates to fuel their political ambitions. As a result, DOE rating inflation—and even fraud—has increased.
In 2015, Dewey High School in Brooklyn placed hundreds of underachieving children in ghost classrooms without certified teachers. Principal Kathleen Elwin called the program "Project Graduation." The kids called it "Easy Pass."
At Maspeth HS, the school, under former principal Khurshid Abdul-Mutakabbir, created fake classes, gave failing students loans and set grades to keep kids away, outraged teachers told the Post in 2019. Students have a failure policy. "The Maspeth Minimum." According to Abdul-Mutakabbir, he will give a struggling student a degree "not worth the paper it's printed on."
Last year, teachers at William Cullen Bryant HS in Queens accused the administration of pressuring them to promote students who were absent, absent and doing little or no work. At DOE, kids can pass or graduate without taking a course.
At the same time, the DOE bureaucracy grew. According to the Independent Budget Office, the number of managers, analysts, supervisors and specialists — educators who don't step foot in the classroom — rose from 3,500 to 5,100 between 2014 and 2021.
Chancellor David Banks pledged to reduce the burden, but in the first six months, DOE headquarters and district offices cost $725 million in fiscal year 2022, or more than $100 million over budget, even with school budgets that offered the signature IBO. CUTTING
The coronavirus pandemic has given new reasons to restore graduation standards. The State Regents tests were completely canceled in 2020 - and when they came back, the new rules allowed kids to 'pass' them with a 50% score.
This drastic academic decline wreaks havoc in the university.
A 2022 survey of graduate students conducted by State Superintendent Thomas DiNapoli found that only 57% of DOE graduates "graduated" and 37% of those who attended graduate school dropped out in their first semester.
Many DOE graduates fail the CUNY entrance exams in English, math, or both, forcing them to take classes at a community college to learn subjects they should have mastered years ago. Those who fail the exams are barred from attending CUNY four-year colleges.
"Kids coming out of high school unprepared go to community colleges," says Ray Domanico, a professor at the Manhattan Institute. "And these two-year colleges have terrible graduation rates, like in the 1920s. A lot of these kids don't make it past their first year."
At BCC, more than 50% of new high school graduates who enroll are unable to pursue college-level work, an admissions officer told The Post.
To fill that gap and keep students enrolled, CUNY is now placing students who need relief into "emergency" credit courses to make the system "fairer," officials said.
While enrollment in DOE schools has declined — 121,000 students have dropped out since 2017 — charter schools promise a superior education for children who fall behind in reading and math in DOE-run schools.
"DOE schools have demonstrated in state assessments their ability to advance students through grade levels or complete a full system degree, regardless of classroom performance or even meaningful school attendance," says Emily D' Vertola of the Empire Public Policy Center.
"Public charter schools, on the other hand, must meet statutory standards for achievement, reporting and student achievement as set forth in the Charter Act," he said. If they don't pass, they'll be shut down." At least 20 New York "Zombie Charter" supporters have lost their licenses at other schools.
Publicly funded but privately operated charters offer options that reflect the DOE's best schools.
When 17-year-old Shontai Gillard, a junior at Brooklyn Lab Charter Academy, left the DOE's It Takes a Village Academy for her 10th year, a new world opened up. “I have serious classes now, I take a lot of AP classes,” she said. Her new teachers are "very supportive and always push us forward."
At Brooklyn Lab, "there's more discipline, more order," said classmate Jamiyah Snipes, 16, another public school refugee.
Students say the charters also require accountability. At Brooklyn's MESA Charter High School, for example, every teenager meets with the school counselor twice a day, reviews weekly reports from each class, and communicates with parents, including suspensions.
"Self-control was very important to me," said Cynthia Estevez, MESA 2020 graduate. "I'll talk to my counselor later today."
Relationship agreed - responsibility is the key to success.
"What the statutes do is hold kids to a higher standard once they're in," he said. "It's not like when a child doesn't do well, you lower the standards to meet the children's needs. Raise the child according to the standards".
A decade of absurdity
From 2012 to 2022, New York public high school graduation rates rose even as chronic absenteeism increased and standards fell amid the coronavirus pandemic.
| 2012 | 2022 | |
| completion rate | 65% | 84% |
| Not chronic | 25% | 40% |
| Regents degree prerequisites | 65% on five State Regents Exams | 50% on five Regents exams with passing grades in the relevant subjects |
Meanwhile, the city's spending per student nearly doubled:
2012: $18,620
2022: $35,941
