IRCD Bulletin, Volume 4, Number 5 and Volume 5, Number 1, November 1968-January 1969

The articles in this double issue of the "IRCD Bulletin" deal with the proposed decentralization of the New York City school system. Edmund Gordon argues that decentralization can provide the best organizational structure--(1) to make the schools accountable to the parents and communities they serve, (2) to place the responsibility for the child's learning on the teachers and the school, and (3) to make the educational experience relevant to the child's life. He also feels that although it may delay integration, which has a positive effect on the child's school performance, decentralization will improve the ghetto schools, which in turn will help develop individual communities and permit them more power in the larger society. Other articles--"Ghetto Schools Need Black Power" (Edward Gottlieb), "The Brooklyn Dodgers" (Jason Epstein), and "The Mason-Dixon Line Moves to New York" (I.F. Stone)--deal with the conflict in the fall of 1968 between the decentralized Ocean Hill-Brownsville demonstration school district and the United Federation of Teachers. Also included are summaries of the positions of various governmental and professional organizations, excerpts from a statement of an ad hoc committee contesting the position of the New York Civil Liberties Union, and a selected bibliography. (EF)