Ramon Cortines spoke last night about the problems he has encountered and the goals he maintains as chancellor of the New York City school district, which is the largest in the nation.
After shifting from Dartmouth Hall to Silsby Hall and waiting a half hour due to technical problems, the more-than-60-person audience heard Cortines discuss educational and social issues in the schools.
"New York City has the very best schools in the nation ... and the worst," he said. He said although some of New York's schools boast strong programs and computer facilities, others lack competent teachers and basic scientific materials.
As an example, he cited that the city has 7,000 elementary classrooms with some sort of computer technology and 5,000 complete computer labs, but 17,000 elementary classrooms deficient of technology.
"I've never lost my enthusiasm," he said, regardless of the problems he faced.
Politics of the system
Although he has only been chancellor for 14 months, Cortines has already had to deal with four budget cuts. Currently, he is wrestling with a $190 million cutback requested by New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and has had to lay off 1,800 administrators. He said he foresees laying off about 1,300 more employees and struggling with $133 million more in cuts this year and $110 million next year.
"New York City is a political place," he said. "The mayor and I are often head-to-head.
"One of the major problems with the system is there are no standards. One reason education is so poor is that blame is put on the students," Cortines said.
He said he wants to establish a high set of standards and expectations that schools should strive for through improved bilingual programs, better trained teachers and responsible funding.
English a second language?
Cortines said he was undaunted by the large population of foreign, poor and minority children within the schools.
He expressed concern that the bilingual programs in the city's schools, which try to compensate for the 144 different languages and dialects, are not sufficient. Instead of teaching students English, teachers will often educate completely in native languages through the third grade.
After first or second grade, the students should know English well enough to be taught in English, he said. But he added that the programs should not rush the English and must offer foreign language support for students. Unfortunately, most bilingual teachers are not fluent in both languages, he said.
"Is the system too big?" Cortines asked in regard to the one million students, 68,000 teachers, 1,200 buildings, and 32 districts within America's largest school system. "No -- that's a cop-out," he said.
Crime, drugs, pregnancy
Crime, drugs, teenage pregnancies, gangs and other social problems are not indicative of an overextended system, he said.
"The whole issue of crime isn't a school issue, it's a community issue," he said.
But Cortines cannot avoid handling crime relating to the schools. He said he has "beefed-up security" and enhanced the training of security officers so they can provide safety off of the campus. He said he is recommending rules, such as that students who bring a gun or knife onto campus forfeit the right to attend that school.
He told the audience that more guns are in the schools this year, but fewer major gun incidents -- four this year -- have occurred in the first month-and-a-half of classes.
Making improvements
Cortines expressed his desire for more technological education. He said math and science courses need to be more available and be more extensively required in curriculums.
"I believe you care about a student if they know how to read, compute, think, make decisions, use judgment," he said.
He also stressed that parents should get involved in their children's education. "The parent is the first teacher. They don't just hand over the baton at pre-school," he said.
Cortines said teachers and administrators have discouraged parent involvement in the past because many of the parents were poor and did not speak English.
He called for more community involvement and support from all members of the city.
"Education is the first line of defense for the community. You can't have good quality of life without a good education system," he said.
Putting experience to work
Cortines has led an educational career for more than 30 years. He said he has taught every grade level and held every administrative position in schools throughout the United States.
Cortines was superintendent of schools of the Pasadena School District in California, the first northern school district to desegregate. He was superintendent of the San Jose Unified School District, which he said was the first American district in 40 years to go bankrupt. He also headed the San Francisco Unified School District and was a consultant professor at Stanford University, serving as Associate Director of the Pew Charitable Trust Forum on School Reform.
To accept the position of chancellor in September of 1993, Cortines left his office as assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs in the U.S. Department of Education.
