Every Queens student should get a chance to succeed

Failing, charter, specialized, zoned, achieving — whatever a public school is labeled as should not matter when it comes to making sure every student has equal access to resources and a chance to graduate with the skills needed to succeed in college, should they want to attend.

This is not happening in Queens, and Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Walcott should be ashamed. Let’s hope that as the new school year begins in September, our city leaders remember that parents who send their children to institutions that the city plans on closing in several years, like Jamaica or Beach Channel high schools, are not doing so in defiance of the mayor, as he sometimes seems to think, but for a multitude of reasons.

Perhaps the schools are close to home, or the parents are new immigrants working two or three jobs and speak little or no English, leaving them potentially confused or unaware of the choices available for their child’s education. Jamaica has a large number of Muslim students who live in the neighborhood and have always been able to work with school officials so they could take part of Friday off to attend religious services — something they worry may not happen if they’re in another school where leaders may not understand their needs.

Whatever the reasons for wanting to stay at a school the city has labeled as failing and is now phasing out — meaning closing over the course of several years, they should not matter when it comes to a student’s chance for a good education.

It has been well documented that the students at the smaller schools housed within Jamaica High School’s building receive far more resources than those at Jamaica High School. Students, teachers, parents and area legislators have all said this — and it is unacceptable.

In our supplementary education section this week, one of Jamaica’s top students, who graduated second in her class last year and is attending Columbia University on a full scholarship this year, said she could not conduct any lab experiments in her Advanced Placement biology class because of a lack of equipment.

Again — unacceptable.

The mayor, the chancellor and the DOE need to get their acts together and figure out a way to close schools, should they insist on doing so, without leaving students with far less resources than those attending the new schools.

If they cannot figure this out, then why phase out a school at all? Why not completely close it after deciding a school will be shuttered? This is not something we advocate, but what sense does it make to phase out a school over several years if the city plans on giving almost nothing in terms of resources or support to that institution?

And let us not forget about PS 30 in Rochdale Village — another school discussed in our education section.

At that elementary school, almost every teacher signed an affidavit saying DOE officials did not give the school the support they said they would prior to announcing PS 30 would be phased out.

Now PS 30 is being replaced by one school, PS 354 —but why? The city labeled PS 30 as failing, though the state has placed the school in its “in good standing” category. Why the discrepancy? Why is just one school replacing PS 30? Why not put resources into PS 30 to make that school work instead of disrupting children’s education?

When the city plans to close a school, it should have to issue a plan detailing how it will continue to support the students in the institution, as well as show what resources will be provided there. Let no child be left behind.