NYC School Chancellor Resigns
By Douglas Marolla
The New York City Department of Education is the largest city public school system in the United States. Serving around 1 million students, the NYC DOE effectively teaches, houses, feeds, and services a population bigger than most cities.
On Friday, October 11th, David Banks, the Chancellor of the DOE, resigned from his dream job. As a parent with a daughter in the NYC system, Banks was one of the chancellors who seemed to have at least an idea as to what had gone horribly wrong in the DOE over the past few decades. His resignation email showed up in my inbox.
Banks’ boss, NYC Mayor Eric Adams, is under indictment. Some say Adams has become a target. One of the conspiracy theories floating around is that the Federal authorities are going after Adams because he spoke poorly about the migrant situation in NYC, saying that they were going to “destroy the city”. Not only did Adams tell the truth about the ‘migrant’ situation, but people forgot that during his campaign, he went on Tucker Carlson’s FOX show and spoke about how he always carries a gun, and that he was pro 2nd Amendment. These are cardinal sins for the NYC liberal. Magenta-haired college kids in Washington Square Park and Upper West Side Prius owners were apoplectic.
When Adams won, his first major appointment was David Banks as DOE chancellor. Banks is a product of the NYC school system. He grew up in Queens. Banks did what many school “leaders” rarely do; he taught in the bad neighborhood school in Crown Heights for 6 years. No one survives in a school like PS 167 for that long unless you’ve got teaching chops. There aren’t any weak people teaching in a school like that, or acting as dean of students for a year – as he did in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Years ago he opened the Bronx School for Law Government and Justice and was the CEO of the Eagle Academy Foundation, a network of all-boys schools.
As Mayor Adams made the mistake of speaking too much truth, perhaps Banks is guilty of doing the same. I know it’s risky going Full Conspiracy, but you could make an argument that Banks pinpointed the two main problems in the DOE, low levels of literacy and numeracy, and attacked them immediately. This attracted the proverbial Eye of Sauron and put a target on his back.
Literacy and Numeracy are at all-time lows among our young people. Basic arithmetic is a mystery to them, and literacy barely gets past text message shortcuts. Banks’ two programs, NYC Reads and NYC Solves, went for the jugular of the systems’ flaws.
NYC Reads focused on phonics. Whole Language, one of the worst ideas in the history of pedagogy, was trendy and sounded good. Education schools pushed Whole Language for years. Countless young readers were intellectually stillborn trying to recognize words and ‘sight read’ past 3rd grade. Whole language allows the student a cap of around 300 words, then the child has trouble figuring out how unrecognizable new words might sound. Phonics is the key to the mystery, allowing students to sound out words. Banks’ decision to go hard on phonics was the right one, and coming from the top, it had clout and momentum.
Banks’ math program, NYC Solves, focused on numeracy. Our students have trouble doing basic arithmetic. Ask the nearest high school student what is 10% of 450, or some other basic math, and you’ll see what I mean. At the younger ages, it’s perhaps worse. While you and I had to memorize our times tables, and do problem after problem to see that we were skilled in basic math, today’s students, thanks to the mental poison known as Common Core Math, know no basic math at an innate level. When you had 27 – 14 = ___ in your math class, did you have to “find a ten”? Welcome to grade school-level Common Core math.
Banks hitched his wagon to Illustrative Math. IM focuses on numeracy, and while it is a bit light on practice material, it is grounded when it comes to making young students work with numbers. Go to the Illustrative Math website and do a word search for ‘common core’. You won’t find it. That’s good.
So why did Banks resign? Is he simply escaping a sinking ship? Adams’ transgressions are minor and tacky upon further analysis. Banks had his devices seized – but he wasn’t charged with anything. What does he know and why the sudden exit?
Perhaps it is a bit farfetched – even for someone like me, but it looks to me like Banks did the thing you’re not supposed to do in Progressive NYC: educate the people at the bottom of the pyramid. As a 16th-century bishop said, the poor are a goldmine. If those at the bottom of the social scale are able, through education, to climb off the garbage heap and vault into the middle class, a huge stream of government dollars disappears.
Failure, in the school game, attracts money. Success does not.
Banks, like Jaime Escalante, Frank Mickens, and Marva Collins knew what the problem was, came up with some fixes, and implemented them. You would think that there would be media outlets jumping to his defense. He’s a locally raised black man, with a blue-collar background, a Democrat, and has a solid record in the school business .. but that’s not happening.
As Escalante was run out of Garfield HS, Mickens, and his success was ignored as principal at Boys and Girls HS, and Collins barely registers as a footnote in American Schooling history, Banks seems to have fallen victim to the same fate. The Democrat / Progressive machine seems to be ecstatic about time-wasting nonsense like anti-racism programs, amorphous ‘social justice’ initiatives, and seeing to it that the LGBTQAI+ activists get their programs and books into grade schools. Why no one is stepping up or even asking questions about David Banks is downright strange. As the NYC public school system continually lowers standards for teachers and students, it is a dark day when someone like Banks is run out of town and no one seems to know why or is even trying to figure it out.
