CROWN HEIGHTS—Any society which does not care for its children is no nation at all,” contended the late great anti-apartheid revolutionary and former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. Mandela who died four years ago in December, made Boys and Girls High School his first stop while visiting Brooklyn in 1990. A year after his death, The Nelson Mandela School for Social Justice opened in his honor, alongside Boys and Girls in Bed-Stuy.

Less than thirty years after Mandela’s pilgrimage to New York City, the Department of Education (DOE) is now closing schools. In an effort to “make America great again” an historically black public high school in Crown Heights is scheduled for closure. W.E.B. Dubois Academic HS is named after the scholar who became the first Black man to earn a doctorate from Harvard. A supportive institution of learning, W.E.B. Dubois HS, has become a vital part of the community.

Located at 402 Eastern Parkway at Bedford Avenue, the high school is in the heart of gentrified Brooklyn. Several luxurious new developments are sprouting up all around it, including the controversial Bedford Union Armory. Next year, DOE is planning to push students presently attending W.E.B. Dubois into Brownsville Academy High School.

“Aren’t we good enough for this neighborhood anymore?,” question distraught students.

According to a Kings County Politics article, the high school is to receive part of a $1.7 million state Liberty Partnership grant and compulsory funding through the Learning to Work Program from 2012. Before slamming the school doors shut forever, isn’t there another alternative — like investing in our children?
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Assistant Principal French broke down in tears. “Just thinking about the dismantling of our school, our family, breaks my heart. You don’t do this for the money, you do it because you love it. Our principal, faculty, and staff want to see our kids become part of society’s solution not part of the problem.”

The Panel of Educational Policy takes a final vote on closing the school January 24 at P.S. 20 (The Anna Silver School) located at 166 Essex Street in Lower Manhattan. We encourage anyone who cares, to attend this public vote.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” Mandela once said.