Harlem — On September 30, 2009, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, running hard for re-election, committed his administration to developing two new Children's Zones in New York City's outer boroughs—specifically, in the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn. The mayor's Children's Zones were intended to be patterned on Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children's Zone, a project Bloomberg has supported with upwards of $600,000 in personal donations and multiple millions of dollars in city contracts.

Bloomberg's 2009 proposal came as the Obama administration was ramping up its Promise Neighborhoods program, also built on the Harlem Children's Zone template.

Related Coverage

Charter School Favoring Virtual Instruction Pulls Back 09.29.10

Harlem Program Scrutinized, Obama Initiative Cut 07.29.10

Opponents Mobilize Against New Harlem Charter School 07.16.10

News Topics
The Economy
Justice
Education
Housing and Development
Government
Author
Helen Zelon
Helen Zelon
About | RSS
That federal program awarded development grants earlier this month. Two New York City organizations were among the nation's 21 Promise Neighborhood winners—central Harlem's Abyssinian Development Corporation, which geographically overlaps with Canada's Harlem Children's Zone, and the Lutheran Family Health Centers, in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

But to date there is no sign of the two independent, local programs the mayor promised. Representatives for the mayor were unaware of the national Promise Neighborhood initiative on repeated inquiry, and could not provide details on whether or how the mayor's 2009 promise will be realized.

Meanwhile, the federal program has shifted from the model that the Obama administration first proposed—and that the Harlem Children's Zone has made famous.

Traditional Schools Dominate

From the outset, potential Promise Neighborhood grantees were encouraged to anchor their proposals with high-quality schools. Charter schools are central to the administration's main education policy initiative, Race to the Top. But in the awards were made this September, traditional, non-charter public schools took prominence. *

Among the winners, 90 percent of the schools at the center of Promise Neighborhood proposals are traditional publics. The remainder was mostly charters. (Some unsuccessful applicants, like the local Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, proposed a hybrid of charters and traditional schools.)

Sheena Wright, CEO of the Abyssinian Development Corporation, tells City Limits, "We are firmly invested in and committed to working in public schools. The charter movement spurs innovation, it pushes the envelope, but charters alone will not save us. Quality schools have to be the focus."

"Education—really great educational opportunities for our children—has always been a part of a sustainable, successful community," says Wright, who said that Abyssinian's community development efforts predate the creation of Rheedlen Family Centers, the nonprofit that gave rise to the Harlem Children's Zone. "We've been at the school business for 17 years," she adds. (Canada's charter schools, the HCZ Promise Academies, first opened in 2004.) The Abyssinian Baptist Church, now led by the Rev. Calvin Butts, has been active for over 200 years.

In Harlem's school district 5, "there are 39 schools, including eight charters," Wright says. "Some [do] well, some [do] terrible. The vast majority of kids go to the 31 public schools. If we're really serious about community development, we have to be focused on these 31 schools and figuring out how to turn them around. School closure is not going to save us, either. You can't shut down an entire system."