Rich, White NYC Parents Enraged by Plan to Increase Diversity in Local Schools

[GameShrink]

Excellent article from The Root. Shout out to the principal featured in this video, Henry Zymeck, who verbally lays waste to these vile parents when most administrators would simply cower.

This is why the power of parents needs to be reduced in modern schools, so teachers can advocate for themselves, their institution and all of their kids. School faculty and staff need to be able to shut these morons down without fear of reprisal.

In an effort to fight [academic segregation]... schools on the Upper West Side—one of the wealthiest and whitest sections of Manhattan—are looking to adopt a plan that would require all local middle schools to reserve a quarter of their seats for students who score below grade level on state English and math tests.
Local TV station Spectrum News NY1 captured footage of a contentious meeting during which rich, white Manhattanites shouted, ranted and complained about the perceived disadvantages their children would face.

Click to shrink...

District officials didn't take the parents' heated comments lying down. As News NY1 reports, virtually all of the district's principals and many of the elected parent-leaders support the desegregation plan. During the meeting, middle school principal Henry Zymeck clapped back at the angry parents.

"There are kids that are tremendously disadvantaged," he said. "And to compare these students and say, 'My already advantaged kid needs more advantage; they need to be kept away from those kids,' is tremendously offensive to me."

Click to shrink...

 

[Slayven]

Time is a circle, watch HBO's Show Me A Hero.

The same arguments different decade

 

[earthsucks]

those parents are fucking gross. i'm sure their kids will grow up to be shining beacons of humanity as well.

 

[VenomousCoffee]

Wonder how many of these parents do their kids' homework, demand teachers stop assigning challenging work, hold their kids out of school to avoid tests, and want their kids to be on tech devices in class, but suddenly get concerned about lowering the quality of education now.

 

[zero_suit]

Those parents are pure trash.

 

[Woolley]

Wonder how many of these parents do their kids' homework, demand teachers stop assigning challenging work, hold their kids out of school to avoid tests, and want their kids to be on tech devices in class, but suddenly get concerned about lowering the quality of education now.

Click to shrink...

More like how many of these parents like to claim that they're liberal and progressives.

 

[zero_suit]

More like how many of these parents like to claim that they're liberal and progressives.

Click to shrink...

Exactly. Liberal in name only.

 

[Courage]

god forbid my privileged child doesn't get into their top choice MIDDLE SCHOOL but merely a VERY GOOD one instead ohhh noooooooo

 

[DrROBschiz]

what the fuck are they so scared of

Should we show them the history of other communities that have engaged these programs successfully?

Wasn't there a damn Southern State that did this and had an uproar in the opposite direction when they tried to reverse it?

 

[VenomousCoffee]

More like how many of these parents like to claim that they're liberal and progressives.

Click to shrink...

No it isn't.

 

[CellarDoor]

Won't please somebody think of the children!!!

If this goes ahead they may have to think about someone other than themselves and their mollycoddled lives they live.

 

[FriedConsole]

More like how many of these parents like to claim that they're liberal and progressives.

Click to shrink...

Yep. They only want busing programs that bring in a few gifted students and not any that may be "problems".

 

[Biggersmaller]

Does anyone have other clips that show more than just that one woman? I've watched that clip three times, but frankly without other people interpreting what point she was making, I'm totally lost on where she was going with that rant.

 

[Poj]

If they are that rich, send your kids to private school.

 

[GuyIncognito]

I would be furious if I was one of those parents.

This isn't just a matter of more students getting into the school. There are limited seats at these nyc schools, which means students are getting bumped to make room. If you are a parent in this district, it now means there is a 25% chance your kid won't have a spot in your own district.

 

[Slayven]

Does anyone have other clips that show more than just that one woman? I've watched that clip three times, but frankly I'm lost on the point she was trying make.

Click to shrink...

That is usually what happens at local public meetings.

 

[Brinbe]

fucking abhorrent

 

[GuyIncognito]

If they are that rich, send your kids to private school.

Click to shrink...

Because they aren't that rich, despite what this article tries to make it out as. If you are rich in NYC your kids don't go to public school in the first place. UWS public schools are filled with the kids of doctors, college professors, etc who aren't poor but definitely aren't loaded either, and they are already payin crazy local and property taxes as is to fund their local schools, which now their kids might not even get into.

 

[siddx]

I would be furious if I was one of those parents.

This isn't just a matter of more students getting into the school. There are limited seats at these nyc schools, which means students are getting bumped to make room. If you are a parent in this district, it now means there is a 25% chance your kid won't have a spot in your own district.

Click to shrink...

It's almost as if to rectify centuries of racism and inequality in world where white Americans have had every advantage, some of us white folks need to sacrifice and do the right thing to help end the incredible injustice that plagues the disadvantaged.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Yep. They only want busing programs that bring in a few gifted students and not any that may be "problems".

Click to shrink...

No, they want their kids to be able to go to their local school. Even busing in rich kids from tribeca would be problematic.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

I'm sure those parents' future hedge fund manager and assistant VP of business development children will be able to handle being around a poor kid in school for a year or two before they graduate and spend the rest of their lives doing everything in their power to make their lives worse.

 

[Dude Abides]

Wonder how many of these parents do their kids' homework, demand teachers stop assigning challenging work, hold their kids out of school to avoid tests, and want their kids to be on tech devices in class, but suddenly get concerned about lowering the quality of education now.

Click to shrink...

Not many. I live in this district. Our daughter applies to kindergarten next fall. These parents are the type to send their middle schooler to school sick and demand extra homework ecause if he gets behind in 7th grade science he won't get into Princeton.

You guys should have seen the meeting last year when they were proposing rezoning PS 199 to encompass the Amsterdam Houses NYCHA project.

 

[i_am_ben]

Classim is very very very much alive.

 

[Biggersmaller]

That is usually what happens at local public meetings.

Click to shrink...

I've been at school district meetings where suburban school boundaries are being drawn. Those parents put what I've seen so far of this Manhattan meeting to shame. Usually the rich parents who want to keep the rich schools rich are clear in the points they are making. Their points are awful, but (literally) understandable.

Even the posted article is written poorly and has grammatical errors. The transcription of this woman is unintelligible.

I assume there has got to be more quotes to this story than the one woman?

 

[ItIsOkBro]

I would be furious if I was one of those parents.

This isn't just a matter of more students getting into the school. There are limited seats at these nyc schools, which means students are getting bumped to make room. If you are a parent in this district, it now means there is a 25% chance your kid won't have a spot in your own district.

Click to shrink...

if you're a parent in this district that will utilize that 25% there was a 100% chance your kid wouldn't have a spot in their own district

 

[legacyzero]

That principle was lit. "This is offensive to me!"

Every single one of those mother fuckers in that room need to be ashamed of themselves.

 

[siteseer]

if i were them i'd be angry too. i'm sure the taxes there are exorbitant. to pay such high taxes and then have someone else take the seat you paid for. its one thing to give opportunities to under served communities which is noble and should be done, but to harm another community (in this case the immediate community) to make such opportunities available is not ... optimal.

 

[ItsBobbyDarin]

Fucking disgusting.

 

[mutantmagnet]

It's upper west side. Zoning rules had to be manipulated drastically to ensure a white majority. If you want to gentrify traditionally non white neighborhoods you gotta suck up the trade off that you haven't driven everyone out to maintain your racial purity standards.

Their kids will pick up some habits they won't like but it's not the end if the world if they act like parents and teach them the value of how to pick friends.

Not many. I live in this district. Our daughter applies to kindergarten next fall. These parents are the type to send their middle schooler to school sick and demand extra homework ecause if he gets behind in 7th grade science he won't get into Princeton.

Click to shrink...

This is believable. Not everyone can simply but there way into a school. Someone making 6 figures can't compete with those who make 7.

 

[Journey to Drangliec]

Anti-Segregation laws finally come to the North!

 

[mutantmagnet]

if i were them i'd be angry too. i'm sure the taxes there are exorbitant. to pay such high taxes and then have someone else take the seat you paid for. its one thing to give opportunities to under served communities which is noble and should be done, but to harm another community (in this case the immediate community) to make such opportunities available is not ... optimal.

Click to shrink...

They are both exactly the same thing. The difference is the perspective of the person saying it.

 

[$10 Bagel]

They are both exactly the same thing. The difference is the perspective of the person saying it.

Click to shrink...

How are they the same thing? One situation is you paying for the school and not being able to reap the benefits and the other situation is paying for the school and reaping the benefits

 

[SDBurton]

God I wished we had the full clip of that video. Principal was going in.

 

[Taco_Human]

Those parents can get pissed off. Good on the principal.

if i were them i'd be angry too. i'm sure the taxes there are exorbitant. to pay such high taxes and then have someone else take the seat you paid for. its one thing to give opportunities to under served communities which is noble and should be done, but to harm another community (in this case the immediate community) to make such opportunities available is not ... optimal.

Click to shrink...

That probably means these parents are already well off...they'll be ok.

 

[entremet]

Hidden racism always reveals itself in these situations.

For those that don't know NYC schools are amongst most segregated in the country.

https://www.thenation.com/article/new-yorks-separate-and-unequal-schools/

 

[1.21Gigawatts]

Ah, the "I voted for Obama twice"-crowd.

 

[Deleted member 6230]

This is required reading for anyone looking at this thread

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/06/1...s_latest_school_integration_battleground.html

 

[CHC]

As someone who lived in the Upper West Side for 3 years, I am so, so, so thoroughly unsurprised to see that it's that neighborhood. Bar none the rudest neighborhood in NYC, I have literally been shouldered out of the way by rich white people who want their shitty fucking kid to have a window seat at Shake Shack. Beautiful part of town filled with comically awful people (sorry to any UWSer's, I know not everyone there is horrible).

 

[t26]

They tried this kind of thing in San Francisco and it hasn't make the school any better. In the end anyone with money will send their kids to private school or to the suburbs where they don't have to deal with this.

 

[VenomousCoffee]

Not many. I live in this district. Our daughter applies to kindergarten next fall. These parents are the type to send their middle schooler to school sick and demand extra homework ecause if he gets behind in 7th grade science he won't get into Princeton.

You guys should have seen the meeting last year when they were proposing rezoning PS 199 to encompass the Amsterdam Houses NYCHA project.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for the response. I teach at a private school in Florida where parents try to make us teach less so their kids can get into elite schools. I would love to be able to cite this as an example when we are told "no one can do this," "you can't make people learn," and so on.

 

[Deleted member 29676]

Seems like a pretty good way to get charter schools in your area. Rich parents aren't happy with the public school this kid goes to opt for private instead (or move back to suburbs). Then vote for laws allowing charter schools and reimbursement of private school fees.

 

[Biggersmaller]

if i were them i'd be angry too. i'm sure the taxes there are exorbitant. to pay such high taxes and then have someone else take the seat you paid for. its one thing to give opportunities to under served communities which is noble and should be done, but to harm another community (in this case the immediate community) to make such opportunities available is not ... optimal.

Click to shrink...

I've addressed this argument a lot in my neighborhood. It's understandable that even liberal people paying out of their nose to live in an expensive neighborhood expect higher performing schools to be part of that package. Many people move to a new house just for the schools alone. People get real pissed about about paying for that expensive home only to learn your child is going to attend a lower performing school in a much cheaper area of town.

That said, the way many parents look when they get amped up and spit that perspective is just ugly. Most just want the best for their kids, though some of those parents are plain racist fucks.

 

[Parthenios]

Here in Louisville, we integrated the rich and poor areas pretty effectively through a few means like busing and intentionally putting the best magnet schools in poor areas, as well as making sure the richest and poorest areas were connected by a freeway so that it's only a 10 minute drive between the two. It's worked wonderfully and we're often cited as an ideal standard for other areas.

So it won't surprise you to learn that the rich people (now lead by Gov. Shithead himself, Matt Bevin) want to end busing, end the magnet programs (the state is trying to take over the Louisville school system for this purpose) and have even tried to tear down the fucking interstate connecting the East and West Ends so that poor people can't afford the 40 minute drive tobruch areas anymore.

 

[Biggersmaller]

Seems like a pretty good way to get charter schools in your area. Rich parents aren't happy with the public school this kid goes to opt for private instead (or move back to suburbs). Then vote for laws allowing charter schools and reimbursement of private school fees.

Click to shrink...

I was on the board of a charter school. Nearly all pay teachers a worse wage than that of district schools. Many are corrupt. Some are scams.

I'm not a fan.

 

[jetpacks was yes]

What was that quote again? Something about when you're used to privelage and there is an attempt to create equality, it makes the privelaged feel oppressed?

What selfishness.

 

[i_am_ben]

How does the school system work in New York?

 

[entremet]

How does the school system work in New York?

Click to shrink...

Look at infinite article above. It explains it.

 

[Elandyll]

More like how many of these parents like to claim that they're liberal and progressives.

Click to shrink...

Probably very few.

Same thing we're seeing in Maryland.

Overall very liberal/ Democratic state but
Huge bastions of very wealthy/ ultra conservative areas with white dominant counties and parents who would die (figuratively) rather than allow kids from poorer districts/ areas be mixed in with their highly succeeding/ wealthy schools.

The issue needs to be forced, because research shows that it is beneficial to all (including privileged white kids) to mix social/ economic/ cultural (and of course racial) identities at school.

 

[Y2Kev]

Wow at the principal telling these racist fucks off.

 

[Deleted member 14002]

Not many. I live in this district. Our daughter applies to kindergarten next fall. These parents are the type to send their middle schooler to school sick and demand extra homework ecause if he gets behind in 7th grade science he won't get into Princeton.

You guys should have seen the meeting last year when they were proposing rezoning PS 199 to encompass the Amsterdam Houses NYCHA project.

Click to shrink...

As someone who lived in the Upper West Side for 3 years, I am so, so, so thoroughly unsurprised to see that it's that neighborhood. Bar none the rudest neighborhood in NYC, I have literally been shouldered out of the way by rich white people who want their shitty fucking kid to have a window seat at Shake Shack. Beautiful part of town filled with comically awful people (sorry to any UWSer's, I know not everyone there is horrible).

Click to shrink...

Thanks for posting, always great to hear from people who have first hand experience.