NEW YORK
City Council members presented three community college students here with a special proclamation this month, congratulating them on winning a national chess championship.
It was the first time in weeks anyone had uttered a kind word about the City University of New York's (CUNY) community college students. And that was partly because it had all been prearranged before Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani began taking potshots at the six two-year institutions -- blasting them for rock-bottom graduation rates and proposing the privatization of remediation.
But the hot-button issue resurfaced amid the staged niceties when a college official asked the Borough of Manhattan Community College students how many had ever taken a remedial class.
All raised their hands.
It was a poignant moment in what has become a pitched debate here in the nation's largest city over what to do about ill-prepared students and ill-informed politicians.
But why should community college administrators and instructors elsewhere care how the story plays out in this megalopolis that seems so far removed from them?
* Because over the past five years, a growing number of state legislators and universities have shoved responsibility for remediating students off onto two-year institutions.
* Because developmental courses are the education world's "dirty little secret." Even many community college leaders privately complain about such classes.
* Because Giuliani's rampage on remediation -- no matter how distorted some contend it may be -- has played well with the public, which has been largely sympathetic with his position.
* Because New York City's Republican mayor, some believe, has presidential aspirations, and his views on remedial education now could become a harbinger of things to come.
* Because experts believe the hysterial here over the expense developmental courses easily could spread across the country faster than you could say "quadratic equation."
