June 14, 2006
Magnet High Schools Screwed Poor Students
Bad, elite high schools, bad! Investigators found out that Brooklyn Tech, the Bronx High School of Science and Stuyvesant all made low-income students pay for AP exams, while the schools received NY State grant money to fund them. Some of you may remember that AP exams are expensive - $82 a pop nowadays (we think they were around $70-some circa 1993), and the NY Times explains that students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches qualify for free AP exams. But the schools would charge those students $20-52 an exam. The whistle was blown on the operation when Brooklyn Tech's AP coordinator, Margaret Blau, wanted to refund the students after receiving the state's reimbursement of $13,000. Brooklyn Tech principal Lee McCaskill told her "he did not wish to be troubled issuing 259 checks to students, and that the surplus should be kept in the Brooklyn Tech account to be used for student activities."
Blau told the Daily News, "I was horrified. For many of these kids, [test fees] are a tremendous hardship, especially in their senior year when they have many expenses like ... the prom, the ring, the yearbook. To add to that a couple of hundred dollars for AP exams when they can't afford them is criminal." The NY State Department of Education investigator said that it should be investigated whether the overcharging occured at other high schools in the city.
McCaskill retired this year when it was revealed he put his daughter - a New Jersey resident - in a Brooklyn public school. Brooklyn Tech owes over $76,000 to students, while Stuyvesant owes around $73,000; Bronx Science has started issuing refunds for the $31,000 it owes.
Photograph of Brooklyn Tech from Satan's Laundromat
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pile everything on mccaskill!!
I agree tien, I agree!
maybe, if they got rid of their cellphones that everyone claims "they need while in class" then they could afford the test.
McCaskill was an a-hole and was the cause of a mass exodus of great teachers from the school. His departure is long overdue. Having recently gone back to see the school, there didn't seem to be many dramatic changes given the level of donations that the school had been receiving (I believe the CEO of Barnes and Noble gave a million $+ donation) and the ranking of the school has dropped down considerably. I'd be more surprised if the AP allegations against McCaskill aren't true.
Stuy definately advertised free APs for students with free/reduced lunch during whenever AP money was due.
I love it - huge corporations donating money to schools that need it the absolute least.
The B&N CEO at the time (unsure if the CEO is the same) is an alumn.
SCIENCE!!!
As an alum, Brooklyn Tech was horrible. The TEACHERS were fantastic! But the administration let me, and tons of other students, fall through the cracks. They just didn't care, and it showed in the fact that despite being an "elite" private school, gang activity was rampant inside and out of the building.
Even once saw McCaskill grab a student and hold him up against a wall (yes, UP, as in he was off the floor). He's a big sumamabitch.
How much is really owed by each school?
the NYT article lists Stuy as owing the 31K, and Science as owing the 73K, while this is switched around in the Daily News article. (And completely ignored in the Post.)