S1 E5: The Disappearing District

School Colors

Brooklyn Deep

Politics, Education, Government, News

5 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 25 October 2019

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Since 2002, the number of students in Bed-Stuy’s District 16 has dropped by more than half. There’s no single reason why this is happening, but the year 2002 is a clue: that’s when Michael Bloomberg became the Mayor, abolished local school boards, and took over the New York City school system. In this episode, we’ll meet parents trying to reassert collective power and local accountability in District 16 after years of neglect from the Department of Education; parents trying to save their school from being closed for persistently low enrollment; and parents trying to do what they believe is best for their children by leaving the district altogether. In a Black community that has struggled for self-determination through education for nearly 200 years, what does self-determination look like today?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Previously on School Colors.
0:07.2	The plan for community control was.
0:09.9	We knew that black people were capable of running schools.
0:12.5	They will burn the city down.
0:14.3	It was a beautiful thing that got destroyed.
0:16.4	We changed our whole world.
0:18.0	You welcome?
0:18.7	But that change was resisted with passion, with tenacity,
0:23.7	with money. The government was hostile. The pressure that we went through as children killed many
0:29.6	of us. Everybody was not corrupt. It was perfect. It was perfect for my mind, body, and spirit
0:34.4	to be able to be someplace where I could feel like a human.
0:39.1	This is what goes on when you let them run the schools.
0:45.9	You're hearing the music of U.B. Blake, the legendary ragtime and jazz composer who lived most of his life
0:51.6	right here in Bedford-Stuyves and Brooklyn.
0:53.9	U.B. Blake has a school named after him in Bedstey's Community School District 16,
0:58.4	PS25, and PS25 is in crisis.
1:05.0	PS25 was built for 1,000 students.
1:07.6	Last year, there were less than 100.
1:09.7	So the New York City Department of Education
1:11.3	decided to shut it down.
1:17.6	No, you're not having deja vu. We've been here before. This is where we started our series
1:26.5	on a cold February night in 2018
	...

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