PEDRO NOGUERA: I think what makes New York unique and different is the size – it’s just so much bigger than any other place. [The public schools have 1.1 million students at 1,400 schools. The 220,000 students in the middle grades represent more students than comprise the entire public school systems of Philadelphia or Houston.] So there’s the size and the scale of the problem. We also have a high degree of poverty. The New York City public schools disproportionately serve the poorest children, and poverty creates other needs – health needs, emotional, social, psychological needs. We’ve not been very good as a city at addressing the needs of the whole child. And I think that makes the challenges that face New York in some ways greater than other cities, just because of the sheer number of kids we’re dealing with.
- Ray Hainer
