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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]“Manhattan Country’s “radical commitment to socioeconomic diversity” created financial challenges that required “sustained philanthropy” from the community, the note said. This ought to have been self-evident, but significant fund-raising was consistently difficult in a context that was not flush with the kind of money floating around other Manhattan schools.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/nyregion/how-a-manhattan-private-school-with-a-utopian-mission-suddenly-collapsed.html

Article today about Manhattan Country School closing down suddenly due to financial problems. Seemed relevant to the discussion of the weight schools give/should give to financial need of the admitted class. [/quote]

I'm a Democrat who is to the left of most of America. I live near this school. And I read the NYT religiously and tend to agree with most of their perspectives (but definitely not all). But reading Ginia Bellefonte constantly twist stories in the most woke way possible is truly agonizing. This is typical of her.

This school is a disaster. The level of financial mismanagement is off the charts. They clearly bit off more than they could chew. The article throws in that they wanted to remain remote in September, 2021. That is craziness. In 2020-2021 schools gradually pivoted back to being at least partially in person. In the fall of 2021, all schools were almost completely in person, usually with some masking. By going overboard on this, they did not help themselves.

More importantly, these people are obsessed with diversity and equality. The school is a block from an incredible public school (PS9). It is next door to a very well run Success Academy. And it is several blocks from other public schools that are quite good, such as PS166, 84, etc. Those schools seem to accomplish what this school was trying to do, for free. PS9 and PS166 are fairly upper middle class but also draw a percentage of students from nearby NYCHA and similar situations. Both enrolled migrants. As do most other NYC public schools. So these parents are a bunch of hypocrites.

Hopefully that beautiful building in a prime location will be put to better use.[/quote]

Well, the school was founded on a mission of racial and economic equity goals in the 1960's, when other institutions like this DIDN'T exist. What does "obsessed" mean?  Further, progressive schools usually have classroom engagement that is far more interactive than the average public school classroom. This school also has an active farm. How to manage under COVID presented difficult challenges for many schools. In hindsight, everyone wants to pretend the choices were obvious. They were not . . . especially for a school that likely gave serious consideration to its teachers.  I am happy that there are charters and other public schools that have organically evolved that mirror some aspects of this school's mission. But it is still unfortunate that it is closing.[/quote]

Obsessed means that people are going overboard. This is why we unfortunately have Donald Trump. Diversity is a good thing. But making it all that you care about and overly sacrificing other things to have it is not OK. If these families care so much about diversity why don't they send their kids to public schools in Harlem or the South Bronx? Or, as I mentioned, public schools a block away. Nope. They want "curated diversity."

Regarding Covid, I was fully supportive of being conservative and safe. Remaining remote in Fall 2021 was way beyond conservative. I'm not saying have kids sitting on top of each other with no masks and no cleaning plans. But everyone was back to school by then. I am now seeing the loss in learning and social development for my kids who went to a school that erred on the side of caution. And I don't fault the school for that. But by then it was obvious that they needed to be together. So who wanted to pay all that money to be remote when every other school was largely in person?

This school is the perfect example of the saying "we're so open minded our brains fell out". I will take people like that over MAGA any day of the week. And I don't wish ill upon this school or its students. I think the world would be a really boring place if we were all the same. But sometimes it is smarter to be a little more realistic and pragmatic and mainstream.[/quote]

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