Court Rules New York City Cannot Close 19 Schools, Including Metropolitan Corporate Academy

(July 2) -- A state appellate court has ruled that New York City cannot close 19 schools it had deemed as "failing" in December. In its decision, the court agreed with a lower court ruling that the city had failed to provide adequate information to the public about the impacts of the closings on students and communities, as mandated by law.

In its ruling Thursday, the court said the city provided "nothing more than boilerplate information about seat availability" and that it abused its power "by limiting the information they provided to the obvious: that students at phased-out schools would be accommodated at other schools to be determined."

"What it means is that there is a whole bunch of kids that at least for one year will get a terrible education that they'll probably never recover from," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday at a news conference.

School Closing, NYC, Metropolitan Corporate Academy, New York Public Schools

Jennifer S. Altman for AOL

Iyanta Simon, 18, wipes away a tear as seniors from Metropolitan Corporate Academy attend graduation. This may have been one of the school's last graduating classes because it is one of 19 under consideration to be closed by New York City.

Technically, the decision means that schools like the Metropolitan Corporate Academy, the subject of an AOL News series on school closings published last month, will graduate classes for at least the next four years. Still, MCA's current incoming freshman class has only eight students enrolled, and the court's decision does not preclude the city from closing the schools next year.

Part 1: Did 'Failing' School Get Failed by the System?

Part 2: Champion Debate Team Rejects City's Verdict

Part 3: How Education Reform Can Turn Into a Shell Game

Part 4: When a School Year Ends in Purgatory

Many of the 19 schools that were slated for closure face the same hurdle: Few eighth-graders applied to them last year because they assumed the schools would be closed.

The ruling is a major victory for the United Federation of Teachers, the city's public school teachers union, and a check on what some believe is Bloomberg's unfettered mayoral control of the city's public school system.

"No one is above the law, and every court that has looked at this issue has ruled decisively that the Department of Education violated the law when it tried to close these schools," UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement.