School Over-Crowding and Birth Control...

How best to deal with surging school populations? A rapidly expanding school population is not something that I am going to have to worry about at Collarenebri Central School. There is undoubtedly some fluctuation in student numbers. But, as I understand it, those fluctuations are up and down 10 - 15 students. Then again, Collarenebri is a town of just 250 people. It goes without saying that New York faces a whole raft of different challenges. One of those is overcrowding in its school system.

It is estimated that by 2015 that the lower Manhattan school area will need to find an additional 1000 spaces for children wanting to attend school. This poses an enormous challenge to officials and city administrators. Do you build new schools or expand existing schools? Or is there some other alternative. According to, the recently appointed Schools Chancellor, Cathie Black perhaps birth control would be a good option.

This tongue in cheek comment has caused considerable offense. The Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, has had to come to her defense and state, what to me seems obvious, that it was a joke. For offense to be taken it would mean that those taking offense must have believed that she was seriously contemplating birth control as a means of resolving what will become a significant burden on the education budget of the city. Hmmmm....

Nevertheless, the tongue in cheek comment has garnered more press than what the city actually plans to do. So, how are the New York City bureaucracy going to deal with the 1000 extra students that will need to be educated by 2015? Aside from needing extra schools or classroom space at existing schools to accommodate the additional students, there will be a need for additional teachers, won't there? Or is the expectation that class sizes will continue to expand?