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‘Don’t Close the Schools, Fix Them’

A crowd of 2,000 angry people packed the Brooklyn Tech High School auditorium to send a message to the city Panel for Education Policy that the people are opposed to the mayor’s plan to close 23 schools.

The meeting was called so the panel could get public input before voting on the plan. The people attending this meeting and others who could not get in were opposed to the plan.

It did not matter. The panel, led by city Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, is nothing but a rubber stamp. The vote to close the schools was a foregone conclusion.

The mayor is convinced the people do not know what is good for them. He did not listen last Thursday night and he has not been listening all along. He does not understand what these schools mean to the communities they serve.

Walcott blamed the teacher’s union for disrupting the meeting. He is wrong. The plan to close and reopen the schools as four new schools, in some cases, does not make sense. The way we Why not use the money to address the problems in the schools?

Among the speakers who took the microphone to address the panel, one man hit the nail right on the head.

“Don’t close the schools,” he said. “Fix them.”

Although Walcott serves “at the pleasure of the mayor” as chancellor, his first obligation is to do what is best for the city’s children. Opposing the plan to close the schools might cost him his job, but it would make him a hero after Bloomberg is gone.

High-tech Cops

Cell phones, laptops and iPads have become the No. 1 target of the city’s lowlifes. Robberies of these items take place every day in nearly every precinct. But a quick-thinking cop in the 105th Precinct has shown that the technology sword cuts both ways.

A 27-year-old man reported that his wallet, iPhone and iPad had been stolen. The robber allegedly pulled a gun and then beat his victim over the head with it.

One of the responding officers quickly used a computer program called iCloud to track the stolen iPhone. In a short time, the thief was arrested.

Hopefully, this program and others like it will take the profit out of stealing gadgets.