His plan is for principals to have the power to hire and fire personnel, and to set their schools' standards. At the same time, he says the public would have to be better informed about individual schools' track records, from attendance figures to truancy records to test scores. He would hold parents responsible for their children's school attendance. Because some families move very often, children have to change schools too frequently to allow for instructional continuity. We need to figure out a way to keep kids in the same school for the whole year, maybe even by providing bus service.
Teachers are in charge, and students are there to learn.
We need alternative programs for students causing discipline problems, but ninety-five percent of the students are there to learn, and we need to make it a safe learning environment. We'd also have to evaluate how the money is being spent, and compare that with other systems, and we have to have a facilities analysis of all the schools. Teaching is a real mission. As for his own three daughters, the oldest recently graduated from McDonogh School, and the other two are students at Friends School. Mr. Tufaro says he would not remove his daughters from their private school and place them in public school if he were elected Mayor.