There’s gossip afoot that the Education Department has plans to redraw PS 321’s boundaries. Just this morning my own sister told me that she heard it was happening. I told her that it’s not happening. At least for now. However, the Brooklyn Paper reports that some parents at PS 321 are advocating for that.
I for one haven’t heard anyone advocate for that. Although, parents are wondering what will happen when all those apartment towers on Fourth Avenue fill with families? Will PS 321 become even more over-crowded. Limiting the catchment would certainly aggravate a lot of people who moved into the neighborhood for the school. It would also aggravate those who like the extra value placed on their real estate because they are in the catchment. The Brooklyn Paper does say:
The Department of Education says it has no immediate plans to redraw the school boundaries in District 15, which includes PS 321, though agency spokesman Andrew Jacobs told The Brooklyn Paper that the city is looking at all options to reduce crowding. These measures include cutting back on variances that allow out-of-district parents to send their kids to popular schools like PS 321.
Currently, children who live in the area approximately bounded by Third Avenue, Prospect Park West, and Fifth and Union streets can attend PS 321, a K-5 school
Call it what you will. Gossip. anxiety. jitters about overcrowding. It’s definitely in the Park Slope Zeitgeist.
I like your blog a lot Louise, and I admire your passion for Brooklyn. And I also wish you and your daughter all good luck with finding the middle school that you’re both looking for. But I’m afraid that I can’t let this blog entry go without passing comment.
Since when exactly should the views of parents looking to make a quick buck on their home (or those just happy that their investment has gone up) because of the school catchment area in which they live, even VAGUELY be a consideration in the formulation of school policy?? You said it yourself: schools are suffering from overcrowding, and authorities have to act if they are to preserve the quality of education that you and your friends have been true beneficiaries of. Would you rather that class sizes went up and standards went down, as long as house prices remained buoyant in the area? Kids in the catchment area of the future have every right to the same quality of education that your child/children had. And that comes before ANY bourgeois worries about house prices, or the concerns of unfortunate parents who moved to beat the system rather than fighting from within to develop other schools.
Of course the real issue is that there needs to be greater investment in education in the borough. But that doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be change in the meantime.
Sorry for the rant, but it seems that the not-in-my-backyard brigade is as alive and well in the US as it is in the UK.
Best wishes
dylan