New York City to Open 78 New Schools
NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced last week that 78 new schools would be opened in the city this fall.
Along with other educational officials, Bloomberg expressed his pride in the city’s progress in bringing quality education to students that meet the demands of the future job market. The city’s administration has opened 656 schools since 2002.
“One of our objectives is to make people well rounded and educated so that they can understand and participate in the great American dream,” Bloomberg said at a press conference. “But also, we have a responsibility to make sure kids learn the skills they’re going to use either directly after school or after graduate education to go into the workplace. “
Of the 51 elementary and middle schools and 27 high schools, seven schools will be committed to providing specialized career and technical education.
Using the city’s Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-Tech) as an example, Bloomberg said the city is leading the way in providing the current generation with the skills they need to be viable in the increasingly competitive international marketplace.
“These schools connect high school student directly to the working world and give them a foot in the door in the fast growing industries that are creating jobs in the future,” Bloomberg said.
One such school, Energy Tech High School, will have a six-year energy technology-driven curriculum from which students will graduate with a high school diploma and Associates degree.
Other career and technology high schools will concentrate on health occupations and research, emergency response, software engineering and global commerce. Bloomberg said these schools would build upon the legacy that the city has created in the past 11 years.
“Cities have to respond our kids need better educations the demands of industry are growing faster than we ever thought was possible and we’re struggling to keep up,” Bloomberg said. “We’ve made enormous progress in New York City but we still are struggling to keep up, however, with the increased demands and the competition from overseas.”
Since 2002, 28 new career and technical schools have opened in the city.
The wide variety of school options in all five boroughs have created many exciting opportunities for the city’s students and are driving the force to bring more specialized education facilities, said Dennis Walcott, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education.
“The bottom line is quite simple: new schools work,” Walcott said. “As the mayor indicated, we’ve had individual evaluators who have said that, teachers feel it, our parents say it and the data actually shows it.”