Education: Playgrounds or Teachers?

On the southwest fringe of congested Harlem, New York City’s Public School 113 has a 33,600-sq.-ft. playground, a modest enough open space for 1.150 children through sixth grade. Last week the board of education cut the playground by more than 10%. Instead of being filled with children next fall, 3,600-sq.-ft. of the playground will be used by teachers to park ten cars. The experiment—which may spread throughout the city—is founded on the notion that teachers will not work in car-choked New York City unless they can steam up to the school in a car (rather than by bus or subway) and light as close to the door as possible. Since the board of education cannot pay enough to attract teachers (it is dropping 900 teaching jobs in September), the theory is that easy parking may turn the tide. Explained a board spokesman: “Which is more important, 3,600 feet of playground space or more teachers?”