From Moscow to Manhattan: The Soviet Logic Ruining NYC Schools

Emmanuel Peralta Castro; Antoine Peralta Castro

In 1988, I visited the Soviet Union on a high school trip during the heady days of perestroika. Trying to buy matryoshka dolls in a Moscow department store, I reached for my rubles, only to be redirected by the saleswoman to a second line to pay, and then a third line to collect them. It was a frustrating, inefficient system, but it kept many people employed and busy-seeming.

As a New York City public school parent, I too often see our school system run on that same make-work logic: employ as many adults as possible—at ever-increasing salaries—regardless of whether their services are redundant, unnecessary, or failing students.

Case in point: on October 28, the Panel for Educational Policy voted to retroactively pay $8.7 million to the United Federation of Teachers for supposedly creating “positive, nurturing environments” during the 2020–22 school closures and remote learning.

Set aside the grift of paying people again for work done years ago—they did no such thing. “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command,” Orwell wrote in his novel 1984. The UFT clearly took notes.

Every parent who had children in NYC schools during COVID knows there was no “nurturing environment.” Raising four kids in city schools throughout the pandemic, I saw student disengagement fueled by absentee teachers, canceled extracurriculars, rank hypocrisy from union leaders, and the complete abandonment of educational standards: tests and grades canceled, homework and attendance optional.