This article, which I wrote for the New York Review of Books, connects the dots that I have been writing about these past few weeks.
It shows how the charter lobby spent $5 million to attack Mayor de Blasio, completely derailing his own progressive reform agenda of universal pre-kindergarten and afterschool programs for adolescents.
The charter schools serve 6% of New York City’s children, 3% of New York state’s.
Yet because of the power of the billionaires funding their movement, they are on the verge of getting state law changed to guarantee that can get free space in public schools.
The charter lobby’s generous campaign contribution to Governor Cuomo made him their ally.
All in all, a shabby demonstration of the power of money in politics, now intruding into education, where the wants of the few trump the needs of the many.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The money story remains outrageous….but it is only one part of the problem. It is horrendous in Missouri……there is virtually no media coverage of facts challenging the charters…..especially from supposedly liberal publications. It is a free ride for them, with an absence of basic information.
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Eva Moskowitz has a doctorate in American history and was a teaching professor and lecturer for about ten years before she ran for city council. She isn’t a lawyer, no matter how many times you call her one.
There’s a logical dissonance at the core of this op-ed: charters only educate 3% of the kids state-wide, yet they are driving us to the brink of a dual school system. How does that work?
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It is the views and policies behind this minority that the majority have to deal with. Their influence in the upper reaches have a huge negative effect on the everyday work that is done by public educators.
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Because you, as an unquestioning (paid) supporter choose to overlook her actual work history for convenience. Albany is clearly stepping to the charter tune and ignoring the parents, students, and teaxhers for money. You support that. You are a partisan player.
We know know matter how many times you say otherwise.
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I missed the “lawyer” jab. Does Moskowitz even have a law degree?
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FLERP, you are right. She is not a lawyer. I will fix the error.
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I urge all viewers of this blog to access Diane Ravitch’s article.
And read the comments under it as well.
😎
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Ravitch raises this question, “The underlying question remains: How did a privately managed school franchise that serves a tiny portion of New York’s students manage to hijack the education reforms of a new mayor with a huge popular mandate?…
Big business has our politicians and leaders on puppet strings right now and democracy is surely under threat given this circumstance. So sadly this is exactly how things are going to be UNLESS corporate money and megamillionaire money are not allowed to “buy” policy.The governor of NY with full monied corporate and mega millionaire support is trying to trump DeBlasio. Ugh!
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What do you think would happen if the public schools took all the students who are in Ms. Moskowitz’s private/public charters along with the extra funding from private sources and segregated them in public schools away from all those “other” public school students? Do you really think the assessment outcomes would be radically different? Now, what if Ms. Moskowitz had established well-funded charter schools with innovative programs , with small class sizes and plentiful support staff , educating only those students who have “left” her schools, would she have similar assessment results to the supposed failing public schools or not?
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Absolutely wonderful, this should be required reading for every parent and teacher in America. Some of my favorite pieces among all your work have appeared in the New York Review of Books…something about the style over there, maybe.
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NY parents MUST be a LOUD and united voice against this attack on public schools. In spite of being overwhelmingly outresourced, Florida parents killed Parent Trigger. TWICE. It CAN be done. We have 50th No More and Fund Ed Now – two groups founded by outraged mothers.
It takes leadership, cooperation between advocacy groups. Parents must be unwilling to accept this assumed victory as inevitable. NY has NYSAPE, Long Island Opt Out, NYSUT, Carol Burris, Tim Farley, Dr. Joe Rella, Beth Dimino, Teresa Snyder and so many more… and you have Diane Ravitch.
As the stakes have escalated, and as the Opt Out movement has grown across the country, we in Florida continue to look to NY for inspiration. You light the way for all of us. NY is one of the finest examples of Educators and parents holding hands against the Deform movement.
How can you NOT prevail? Because on this issue, like so many other crucial issues, you must. I pray you will.
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I have been reading several of your articles, and I think you have an excellent point to make in regard to the new standardized online testing. I am also concerned about the cost of having every child on a computer, and then having to buy new computers every 3 or 4 years when the public education system already has so little money. It is refreshing to hear a voice of reason in regard to this, and as a parent I am outraged.
At the same time, I do not agree with your stance on charter schools. I am a former charter school teacher, and by law it is illegal to not accept students because they have lower test scores or disabilities as you have implied in your article, In fact, I would argue that charter schools, at least the one I worked at, had proportionately MORE students with learning difficulties than other public schools in our area due to the fact that parents of children with learning difficulties tend to put their children in charter schools when they perceive that the mainstream way of learning has not worked for their child.
Attached is a recent article that both the American and Canadian Academy of Pediatrics are calling for limits in regard to computer use due to their harmful effects on children, yet the current state educational mandate is calling for untold sums of money to be spent on computers so that children can be TESTED on them. Obviously someone is profiting from this.
http://www.waldorftoday.com/2014/03/10-reasons-why-handheld-devices-should-be-banned-for-children-under-the-age-of-12/
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I appreciate your speaking out on the outrageous mandate that all schools must now test online. The implications are so far reaching in regard to the billions of dollars that must now be spent to get every child in front of a computer to test, and then having to buy new computers every 3 or 4 years. I must not fail to mention that in addition to the enormity of the monetary cost of doing this, both the American and Canadian Academy of Pediatrics recently came out with several points as to why technology use for children should be limited due to its ill effects. Here is a link to an article on this:
http://www.waldorftoday.com/2014/03/10-reasons-why-handheld-devices-should-be-banned-for-children-under-the-age-of-12/
While I have been reading several of your articles of late because you are one of the few voices who are speaking out on the subject of common core and most especially the new mandate for online computerized testing, of which I am wholly opposed to, I must disagree with your statement that charter schools do not accept students with disabilities or low test scores. I am sure you know that it is illegal to turn any student away from a publicly-funded school. And I would argue, having been a charter school teacher, that we actually receive a higher proportion of students with learning difficulties, since parents often look to alternative methods of schooling when their child has trouble in regular public schools.
Do you see any avenues or can you suggest any groups to me that are currently working to address the issue of requiring computerized testing in all of our schools? My child attends a charter school that limits technology use, and even excludes it in the early grades. Here is an article that does a fairly good job of explaining why that is:
http://www.waldorftoday.com/2013/01/the-sorcerers-apprentice-mind-over-machinery/
Thank you,
Monique Verdin
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Irispeter,
I admire the fact that the Waldorf schools limit or exclude the use of technology in the early grades. I am flabbergasted that the new Common Core tests will be offered only online, as the costs will be staggering for the nation.
It is a fact that charters do not take students with disabilities and ELLs in the same proportion as neighborhood public schools. There are exceptions, there are even charters devoted to students with disabilities, but there is no question that Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy 4 has NO students with disabilities in self-contained classrooms while the neighborhood public school–whose space she covets–has 14.1%. And she has half as many English language learners.
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Once again, I will post my hope that even relatively poor students who could benefit from a Waldorf education can have access to one. I look forward to a day when a Waldorf education is not a private school education.
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In regard to the comment about the day when ALL students can have access to a Waldorf education, I must say that this is the reason that I completely support the charter school movement. Because of charter schools, my son is currently receiving a Waldorf education. There is no way we would be able to afford it otherwise. My husband and I have made many sacrifices to move to a city that has a Waldorf charter school. I am so grateful for this. I know that not all charter schools are perfect, and that some may even give the charter movement a bad reputation, but that has not been my experience with the Waldorf charter school my son attends in Orangevale, CA.
I found this website and Diane Ravitch’s articles because the new state laws that mandate computerized testing will dramatically affect our schools, and she is the only voice that is speaking up about this that I have yet found. While I agree with so much that she says, I have to disagree that all charter schools support and helped to establish common core and computerized testing, since the charter schools that are truly Waldorf-inspired would never support this and stand strongly against it.
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Dr. Ravitch: I LOVE your last statement: All in all, a shabby demonstration of the power of money in politics, now intruding into education, where the wants of the few trump the needs of the many. Well said but with horrendous implications for everyone because of its implications in all sectors of American life. Will Rogers said it: Best government money can buy.
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