Last year, after a court order forced the Board to repair the decaying school buildings, most of the dangerous structural deficiencies were fixed. But despite a few rounds of renovations, other problems remain. They replaced doors, lights. But they didn't replace any of the boards. The floors are in really bad shape.
Schools still lack basic amenities.
In Queens Vocational's electrical shop, many of the outlets don't work, and the cosmetology lab lacks adequate ventilating fans. The school doesn't even have a gymnasium, so kids have gym class outside all winter. The long-running neglect of vocational schools stems partly, of course, from the powerlessness of the 27,200 kids they teach. Not only do vocational schools overwhelmingly serve poor students, but since the 1970s, budget cuts, changes in education theory and the ascendance of the information economy have turned the system into a kind of detention room for kids with academic or behavioral problems. Today, some kids do go on from these schools into technical colleges and even four-year programs, but junior high guidance counselors don't generally steer their best pupils into voc ed.