(From the New York Post, May 7, 2009)
By CARL CAMPANILE
Harlem state Sen. Bill Perkins claimed this week that mayoral school control has been a “failure,” but test data tell the real story: Students in his district have improved significantly under City Hall’s watch since 2002.
Fourth- and eighth-graders at schools in Perkins’ district registered double-digit percentage-point gains on state reading and math exams during Mayor Bloomberg’s tenure, according to an analysis obtained by The Post.
Perkins took the lead in slamming mayoral control when Schools Chancellor Joel Klein testified Tuesday in Albany, calling it a “disaster” and a “failure” and demanding it be ended.
But the percentage of fourth-graders passing the reading test jumped to 50.4 percent in 2008 from 36.7 percent in 2002.
On the math exam, the percentage of kids passing shot up to 71.4 percent last year from 39.8 percent in 2002.
In the eighth grade, the number of kids meeting the state reading standards increased to 33.6 percent from a measly 23.4 percent.
And the number of eighth-graders passing the state math test more than doubled, to 52.8 percent from 21.5 percent.
Meanwhile, the number of district pupils graduating high school rose to 65.7 percent in 2007 from 55.6 percent in 2002.
Perkins’ district has more charter schools than any other in the city, serving 6,000 students.
Of the 26 charters operating in Manhattan, 17 are in his district.
And charter kids in the district are excelling.
For example, 79 percent of sixth- and seventh-graders at Democracy Prep in Harlem passed state math exams, compared to 63 percent in surrounding public schools.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” said David Cantor, spokesman for Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.
Perkins yesterday sought to ignore or minimize the progress made by kids in his district under Bloomberg’s tenure. He argued that if district public schools were succeeding, parents wouldn’t be leaving them in droves for charters.
“Why are they fleeing the schools above 96th Street? You got charter schools uptown and regular schools downtown. That’s polarizing,” Perkins said.
“These schools are drowning in failure and people are fleeing them,” he said. “They don’t accept that as progress.”
Perkins also belittled the popularity and success of uptown charter schools.
“Why don’t we fix traditional public schools?” he said.
But charter-school advocates were perplexed that Perkins wasn’t backing opening even more charters, given parental support for them.
“It doesn’t matter so much whether Senator Perkins finds it groovy,” said Joe Williams, of Democrats for Education Reform. “His constituents are voting with their feet and flocking to schools they find desirable.”