Even without the armory space, there will be room for all high school students in the Bronx once the current capital plan is built out, Feinberg said, adding that this capital plan is more reliable than most because for the first time in recent memory it is fully funded. The Bronx will have 10,000 new high school seats when the current capital building plan is completed – enough, by its calculations, to serve all the Bronx students who need them. "Our graduation rate is 60 percent," Feinberg said. "We will continue to closely monitor high school graduation rates, as well as birth, immigration and migration rates."
The students and neighbors who have focused their energy on school overcrowding and the armory's redevelopment for more than a decade don't accept the calculation of demand on the current graduation rate, however. They say overcrowding helps push students out of chaotic schools, thus contributing to the low graduation rate. The current capital plan, even when it is fully built out, won’t provide for all the students who deserve a seat in the public school system, they argue.
"They are expecting a third of us to drop out. We need a 100 percent graduation rate," said Melvin Rogers, 17, a voluble junior at the Leadership Institute, a small high school sponsored by Sistas and Brothas United under the New Century Schools program.
"I don't think the Department of Education understands how we feel. If they don't put enough schools here, they are taking away from our education," Rogers said.
