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Boro wary of proposal to privatize building schools

By Jyoti Thottam

A proposal by City Council Speaker Peter Vallone (D-Astoria) to privatize school construction is getting mixed reviews in Queens, where school overcrowding has reached crisis proportions.

Vallone focused on education in his State of the City speech last week, and the centerpiece of his plan for schools was to privatize school construction. School board representatives in Queens, which will need more than 53,000 new schools seats over the next five years, agree that the existing system could be better, but they are not sure privatization is the answer.

While Vallone has offered few specifics so far, he advocated earmarking $150 million from this year