Not much has changed in co-location or availability of real estate for public schools in more than 110 years. Our friend Nelson Smith recently perused through the history books and found an interesting quote from 1898 about our public schools in NYC – long before charters were part of the public school landscape.
“The number of school buildings was 170, there being in many cases two or even three district school organizations or departments, each having its own principal, in one building.”
While the number of school buildings has increased over the years (we now have 1,400 facilities) so too has our student population. Co-locations are still a necessary and important part of our education system.
As we work to get every school an adequate facility, let’s just make sure school quality doesn’t remain in the industrial era!
(Source: The New York Public School by Archie Emerson Palmer, p. 284. Full text available on Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=a4gWAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA284#v=onepage&q&f=false)
