Panel Decides to Shutter 19 NYC Public Schools

After more than eight hours of shouting, protests, and pleas to spare them, a city panel gave the go-ahead to shut down 19 under-performing schools.

The final votes for each closure from members of the Panel for Educational Policy were met with boos.

Many concerned students, teachers and parents in the packed auditorium at Brooklyn Technical High School in Fort Greene stayed until the final decisions came down after 3 a.m. Wednesday morning -- for a hearing that began early Tuesday evening.

"Save our schools!" shouted the crowd, in a deafening chant that echoed across the cavernous room. Some carried signs. 'New Utrecht says don't close the schools, fix them,' read one.

One parent stood up and shouted: "Parents should be involved, we should be sitting where you are! We're not gonna sit on the sidelines and let you do a hatchet job on our children! This is not a dictatorship!"

The city claims schools on the list have poor performance records that include low graduation and attendance rates.

Michael Mulgrew, the head of the United Federation of Teachers, said the vote shows the city is "not listening to the community at all".

Mayor Bloomberg, who was granted control of city schools, issued a statement after this morning's vote saying in part, "I've listened to the arguments carefully and I appreciate the traditions of these schools, but we cannot continue to send our children to schools that have failed them for years."

There were initially 20 schools on the list, but the Alfred E. Smith School in the Bronx was pulled off the list at the last minute. Its fate will be decided at a separate meeting next month.

Here's the full list: