A couple of very quick points in the aftermath of yesterday's post about the Harlem school that has become so dangerous that even Teach For America won't let its teachers in:

1.) NYC Chancellor Joel Klein said yesterday the school will be made safe or it will be closed down.

2.) I love that TFA displayed their kahuna's on this one - not just their decision to pull their teachers out of the building, but the decision to leak the whole thing to the press, whether it was sanctioned at the top or not. My experience with TFA as a journalist is that it is an organization filled with great people, all of whom know PRECISELY where the problem spots in the system are, but who often shy away from ever being critical of the system that sustains those same problem spots day after day. (Their mission is to bring radical change to public education, but they often don't seem to want to say out loud specifically what needs changing.) Several TFA'ers used to complain to me about outrageous things going on in their schools, but when it came time to go on-the-record, they clammed up out of fear it would hurt Mayor Bloomberg's re-election efforts. We'll Bloomberg isn't going anywhere now, and if you really want to help Joel Klein take care of point #1 (above) he's going to need help in the form of pressure from below. The chain of command between Klein and this particular school is filled with people who have no intention of carrying out Klein's wishes. This is a clear case where a well-informed squeaky wheel will help the Chancellor who wants to lead, the teachers who want to teach and the students who want to learn.

3.) Best line in today's Daily News story on this: "The worst part is students are still going there," said a Teach for America member who once taught at IS 172. "I think about those children all the time."

4.) It was implied in yesterday's post but not explicit: Some of those students (see #3) who are stuck in this crappy and dangerous school were forced to enroll there after Reisenbach Charter School was closed by the state in 2004. Just goes back to my point about how we have to remember that closing bad charter schools may be good for the charter school movement, but doesn't always do the kids we're trying to help much good as long as our larger educational crisis persists. It's an awful situation, and I don't think the average citizen understands just how bad it is.