What’s Clean, Safe And — Most Of All — Free Of Charge Across New York City
How about a Take Back The Tap campaign for city schools? Maybe they know something we don’t . . . or not:
Posted: August 6th, 2008 | Filed under: Class WarParents who sent their toddlers to the well-regarded Mandell preschool on the Upper West Side used to count on getting into the private school of their choice.
But with the recent boom in the city’s under-5 set, the competition for kindergarten places can rival that of Ivy League admission. This spring, for the first time, several of the 43 Mandell preschool graduates found themselves without anywhere to go. So Mandell, which has been around for generations, decided to do its part to ease the kindergarten crunch by opening its own $2 million elementary school, in a 17,000-square-foot storefront on Columbus Avenue at 96th Street.
“I think we’ve reached a crisis level in terms of capacity,” said Gabriella Rowe, Mandell’s head of school. “Although the majority of our families are still going to be able to send their children to their first-choice school, it’s clear that it’s going to become more difficult every year if these numbers continue to increase.”
The new school, financed through bank loans, will start with 50 kindergarten students in two classes. Ms. Rowe plans to expand to 450 students through 8th grade by 2017. Tuition is $28,000 for the 2008-9 school year, rising to $30,000 the next year.
Despite mounting layoffs on Wall Street and the broader economic downturn, private schools in New York City continue to thrive, with administrators and consultants saying this year has been the most competitive yet for admission to kindergarten. Some estimate that several hundred children were rejected from every place they applied.
About 150,000 students are enrolled in private and parochial schools in New York City; about 1.1 million attend the city’s public schools.