Metro Briefing New York: Manhattan: Weiner Announces Plan For Schools

By Nicholas Confessore (NYT); Compiled by Anahad O'Connor

United States Representative Anthony D. Weiner, a Democratic candidate for mayor, unveiled new proposals yesterday for bringing order to city classrooms and called the public school system ''the single most important issue'' facing the city. ''Too many hard-working, middle-class New York families who used to see public schools as a pathway to success now see them as a fundamentally unsafe place for their children,'' he said outside the Tweed Building on Chambers Street, which houses the city's Education Department.

Mr. Weiner said that principals should have the right to transfer students suspected of engaging in gang activity, which he called a ''divide and conquer'' approach to gang violence. He said he would ban nonstudents convicted of gang-related crimes from coming within 500 feet of a school, and increase penalties for students convicted of assaulting teachers. Nicholas Confessore (NYT)