The Hoboken, New Jersey, Board of Education has appealed to the State Education Department in the Chris Christie administration to stop the privatization of their public schools.
The DOE is likely to render its decision by Friday about the expansion of the Hola Dual Language Charter School.
Please be sure to read the link with the letter to Commissioner Chris Cerf (now leaving to work for Rupert Murdoch’s Amplify, no friend of public schools).
I received the following letter from a public school activist in Hoboken:
The Public School District is expecting by Friday the DoE’s response to the application for expansion of the Hola Dual Language Charter school.
Here is the District Superintendent’s, Dr. Mark Toback, impact statement to Commissioner Cerf asking him to deny that expansion. The Hoboken BoE has also supported Dr. Toback’s impact statement with a board vote.
Unfortunately, with little understanding of the issues and the financial impact on the programs of our neediest students, Mayor Zimmer, Councilman Mello (NYC public school teacher), and Councilman Bhalla have decided to take a side against the public school children.
Other political pressure comes from former State Assemblyman Ruben Ramos and his replacement State Assemblyman Carmelo Garcia both of whom have children attending the Hola Dual Language Charter School.
-Hola has 11% free and reduced price lunch students while the district has 72%.
-Hola has 61% white students while the district has 25%
-Hola has 29% Latino students while the district has 55%
Hoboken is only one square mile yet we currently have 3 Charter schools that have led to dividing our community between the haves and the have nots. Currently $7.8 Million is diverted for Hoboken Charter Schools.
Since all of our public meetings are videotaped, if you had the time, you could watch a parade of Hola parents get up at the microphone begging the Superintendent not to oppose their charter school expansion. Because they are so proud when they’re summering in Spain that their children can speak spanish. Many of our public school students have never left the “projects” let alone the country. You can view the meeting here, http://www.boarddocs.com/nj/hoboken/Board.nsf/Public#
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Are they even pretending anymore?
This is BASIS charter school:
“BASIS’s challenging curriculum—students may start algebra as early as fifth grade—fits poorly with students who are far behind, but can be an excellent fit for kids who need a challenge. While as charters they must accept every student, their students also self-select: Nearly 10 percent of students at BASIS’ DC campus left the school in its first year, and one of its Arizona campuses lost almost 25 percent its first year, DC head of school Paul Morrissey told the local charter board. The DC campus is their only with a large proportion minority and poor students.
“Selectivity isn’t the issue: the issue is one of expectations,” Reford said. “At BASIS.ed, we believe that students rise to the expectations you set for them. We believe young minds are ready for the challenges of material not usually taught in typical grade school settings, public or private.”
What do we do when public schools are gone? Does any planning or forethought go into the system as a whole, or is it just every man for himself? It seems extraordinarily reckless to create a parallel system and just ignore the fact that the existing system is inevitably affected.
http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2014/02/21/high-achieving-charter-chain-start-private-schools
Posting this on recent DR blogs:
Not sure where to post this, but the Cincinnati Enquirer had a pretty lame “balanced” section in its Forum section about the Common Core. 4 of the 5 editorials supported the Common Core (one of those 4 did attack the tests). No teacher editorials. They are seeking public feedback:
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20140223/EDIT01/302230039/FORUM-Getting-heart-Common-Core-debate
This post is clear discrimination against intellectually capable students. If you can’t bring up the bottom, slow down the top. That’s the philosophy of the public schools. No wonder parents feel unserved. It’s clear government tyranny in which equal ignorance is more important to the teachers than excellence. People just won’t accept that any more.
It’s like the people of Ukraine rebelling against corruption in the Russian supported government. Or like young people rebelling against Venezuela’s Cuban-like dictatorship in which the lowest, least rational segment of the public support socialist tyranny. It’s about time that we have an analogous movement in this country which won’t accept any longer the socialist tyranny of a government run school system conducted exclusively in the interests of those least able to function in schools.
It isn’t those kids’ fault they don’t do well, but to suppress aspiration in others is immoral.
“It’s clear government tyranny in which equal ignorance is more important to the teachers than excellence. People just won’t accept that any more.”
And they never have because your first sentence just isn’t true. It’s an opinion and we all have them just like ___(fill in blank)___ but that doesn’t make them true or in this case “a ten percent” truth.
HU,
Methinks you enjoy such tirades!