Dear Editor,
A look at how Kids First handled the Hola program shows why they should not be leading our school district.
To re-cap, dual-language programs exist across the country. NYC, at the forefront of one of the most successful school-district turnarounds in history, has been growing their dual-language offerings. Most dual-language programs have huge waiting lists. Why? Because research shows children in such programs tend to perform as well as or better than their monolingual counterparts. And we all know what an attractive school program could do for property values.
When Hoboken had a chance this year to implement – at virtually no extra cost – this innovative, proven program that could have benefited children and taxpayers alike, what did Kids First do? They fought against it. Hola would have cost $30k a year for only the first eight years and would be open to all children entering certain grades. By contrast, the Johns Hopkins program costs taxpayers over $300k a year and benefits only the 50 or so elite students with high scores.
Here are the relevant facts:
Incumbent Theresa Minutillo had a responsibility to bring thoughtful contribution to the internal BOE Hola meetings she attended. If she had concerns, she had a duty to voice them and constructively help shape the program. Instead, she sat silently at those non-public meetings. (This was revealed during the February 10 meeting in which she and Frank Raia sparred about this.) Only when she had an audience at public meetings did she raise issues.
Maureen Sullivan, also on the Kids First slate, was opposed to Hola because, as she stated publicly, she traveled the world as a journalist and never needed to speak anything but English. This from a woman who flipped the bird during a public meeting (as reported in this newspaper).
And Kids First candidate Ruth McAllister filed a complaint with the ACLU over Hola. She thought a program that would embrace cultural and socio-economic diversity would be discriminatory. She ignored the fact that dual-language programs lift the test scores of otherwise disenfranchised children. Who exactly she was trying to protect? Certainly not the 65 percent of our public-school children who are Hispanic.
Kids First calls themselves reformers. Their actions over Hola show they are anything but. With Hola they didn’t “reform” anything – they simply hurt the city and its children. And taxpayers lost, too.
Every year hundreds of parents line up for a small number of spots at the charter and private schools. Clearly, they are looking for more than what the district offers. Instead of embracing a low-cost way to bring in more kids (and lower the per-pupil costs) and increase test scores (which should be a major goal), Kids First destroyed a fabulous, value-generating opportunity. That’s nothing to be proud of.
I leave Kids First and its supporters with one of President Obama’s apt inaugural messages: In the end, you will be judged on what you can build, not on what you destroy.
Sincerely,
Barbara Martinez