ENGEL CONDEMNS CHANGE IN SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION; November 13, 2006

Rebecca Gale; 202 225 2464

ENGEL CONDEMNS CHANGE IN SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION

Congressman Eliot Engel condemned a report that the City Department of Education was cutting some 1,500 proposed seats for District 10 out of its school construction program. The Congressman cited a report in the Daily News that said the City was now going to build 100 news schools instead of 107, and cutting District 10 from 4,032 new seats to 2,520, the largest cut of the 32 districts citywide.

Rep. Engel said, “District 10 is already the most overcrowded school district in the city and now instead of getting more seats, its proposed seats are going to other areas, such as southern Manhattan. The Bronx as a whole is loser,” he said. “District 11 is losing 820 proposed seats and Districts 8 and 9 are gaining 629 seats, leaving the borough with a net loss of 1691 seats.”

Calling this intolerable, Rep. Engel, a former teachers and guidance counselor himself, said the Department of Education must back away from this change and not shortchange the children of the Bronx, especially the heavily overcrowded District 10.

Rep. Engel said, “We have to do away with teaching children in gymnasiums and other non-classroom spaces, and with serial lunch hours stating in some cases at 10:30 in the morning. We cannot allow the school system to take from Peter to educate Paul.”

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