This Week In Your Public Schools

Enhanced 311 Service Answers Your School Questions

Do you want to find out your child's bus route? Are you wondering how to apply to a Gifted & Talented program? Need to find out whether school is closed for a snow day?

As of this week, one number can answer all of these questions: 311.

To access answers to a variety of public school questions related to topics like enrollment, transportation, and admissions, parents can now dial 311 and select a new option on the menu to reach an expert on education issues. The parent coordinator at each school is still a family's first point of contact, but 311 operators are now able to answer conveniently the questions schools cannot address.

What People Are Saying

About a New Curriculum Guide for Film Education

"New York City wants to encourage interest in film and TV work among the Big Apple's youngsters."

"City officials on Thursday unveiled a 'Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts: The Moving Image,' a guide that outlines expectations for the study of film, TV and animation from early elementary school through high school graduation."- Hollywood Reporter, October 15, 2009

About National Incentives Promoting Real Education Reform

"When Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan came to office, they created a $4.3 billion Race to the Top fund. The idea was to use money to leverage change. The administration would put a pile of federal money on the table and award it to a few states that most aggressively embraced reform."

"The news is good. In fact, it's very good. Over the past few days I've spoken to people ranging from Bill Gates to Jeb Bush and various education reformers. They are all impressed by how gritty and effective the Obama administration has been in holding the line and inciting real education reform."- New York Times Op-Ed, October 22, 2009

About Newly Knighted Principals

"The French ambassador on Tuesday knighted four city public school principals with the Order of Academic Palms, first awarded by Napoleon."

"All four - including Brooklyn's Public School 58 Principal Giselle Gault McGee and the Bronx's PS 73 Principal Jean Mirvil - were recognized for creating dual-language programs at their schools, offering academic instruction half in French, half in English."- New York Daily News, October 21, 2009

About the Key to Economic Recovery: Education Reform

"While the subprime mortgage mess involved a huge ethical breakdown on Wall Street, it coincided with an education breakdown on Main Street — precisely when technology and open borders were enabling so many more people to compete with Americans for middle-class jobs."

"Those with the imagination to make themselves untouchables — to invent smarter ways to do old jobs, energy-saving ways to provide new services, new ways to attract old customers or new ways to combine existing technologies — will thrive. Therefore, we not only need a higher percentage of our kids graduating from high school and college — more education — but we need more of them with the right education."- New York Times Op-Ed, October 20, 2009

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