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Releases
& Statements
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 5, 2007
Contact: John Collins, Press Secretary
(212) 669-4193; (917) 496-4587
Release #: 009-2007
Public
Advocate Gotbaum Visits Queens High School; Calls for DOE to Invest
in Additional High School Seats
QUEENS
– The Department of Education (DOE) will need to create
nearly 16,000 more high school seats in Queens to meet its four-year
graduation goal, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum said today during
a press conference at Newtown High School. Newtown is one of many
high schools in Queens that is already overcrowded. It is currently
operating at 133 percent its capacity – nearly 900 more
students than intended for the school.
Public
Advocate Gotbaum called on the DOE to invest in additional high
school seats to help reach its graduation goals and curb overcrowding
in New York City’s high schools.
Public
Advocate Gotbaum said, “By failing to plan now, the Department
of Education is planning to fail in the future. The City simply
cannot expect children – in Queens or anywhere in the city—to
learn if it is going to force them into overcrowded classrooms
or make them take classes in trailers. In the greatest city in
the world, we have the responsibility to give students the resources
and tools they need to succeed.”
Public
Advocate Gotbaum released an analysis earlier this month that
documented how the City’s plan to build new high schools
falls tens of thousands of seats short of the capacity needed
to meet the DOE’s graduation goal. Under its current five-year
school capital program, the City will need more than 50,000 new
high school seats city-wide to meet its 70 percent four-year graduation
goal. However, the DOE has budgeted for only 26,000 new high school
seats by the 2009-10 school year – barely half of the seats
needed to meet its graduation goal.
According
to 2006 – 2007 DOE numbers, the schools in Queens already
face gross over-crowding:
Reg
|
Dis
|
Name
|
Enroll
|
Bldg
Cap |
Bldg
% Cap |
3
|
26
|
Francis
Lewis |
4,433
|
2,571
|
172%
|
3
|
26
|
Bayside
|
3,841
|
2,331
|
164%
|
4
|
24
|
Queens
Voc |
1,119
|
719
|
156%
|
4
|
30
|
Long
Island City |
3,354
|
2,317
|
145%
|
4
|
24
|
Newtown
|
3601
|
2,722
|
133%
|
The
Public Advocate's analysis also found that to meet its four-year
graduation goal, the City will need to create 10,835 new seats
in the Bronx and nearly 6,000 new seats in Brooklyn . Currently,
the DOE’s plans for new capacity are based on only 51 percent
of students in Queens making it from ninth to twelfth grade, 42
percent of students in Brooklyn , 50 percent of students in Manhattan
, 64 percent of students in Staten Island , and only 36 percent
of students in the Bronx .
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