SENATOR KRUGER HAILS VICTORY IN MARINE PARK JUNIOR HIGH BATTLE

             Senator Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) is hailing the Marine Park community’s victory in keeping a charter school out of its neighborhood junior high, and said the current school governance system must be changed so that “every issue doesn’t have to become an unnecessary David vs. Goliath battle.”

            In testimony delivered last week, Sen. Kruger, Chair of the Finance Committee, lent his voice to those of the hundreds of outraged parents who packed the auditorium of Marine Park J.H.S. on Stuart Street in opposition to the Department of Education’s controversial plan to place a new charter school within the junior high. Parents had lobbied to expand Marine Park JHS to a grade six-through-12 school with a performing arts program but were told there wasn’t enough space to do so.

            On Friday, Sen. Kruger learned that the DOE was looking for a different site for the charter school. He said the entire episode illustrates why he’s introducing legislation to change the current system of school governance, which is set to expire at the end of June.

            “While victory is sweet, the fight never should’ve happened in the first place,” Sen. Kruger said. “The Marine Park community -- or any community, for that matter -- shouldn’t have to go to these lengths to be heard. The Department of Education shouldn’t have the power to ignore the community’s input or force the community’s hand. Yet unfortunately, they do. Under the current system, the end result could have easily been a different one.”

            Back in 2002, Sen. Kruger led a lawsuit against mayoral control of the school system on the grounds that centralization “would eliminate parents’ voice.” He said the result was exactly what he feared it would be. “It’s why the people of Marine Park were made to feel like pawns in a chess game where the outcome was decided before the match even started,” he said

            Sen. Kruger’s proposal – one of several currently under discussion – would “restore much-needed balance and accessibility to the educational process,” he said. “The measure also gives power back to the community school districts and assures that when you pick up a phone to ask a question about your local school, the call is picked up by a human being in your neighborhood and doesn’t end up in Manhattan,” he said.

            “Parents and the community have been robbed of a meaningful role since 2003. It’s time to give that role back,” Sen. Kruger said.