The city of New York appealed to a judge to overturn the the decision of an independent arbitrator, who said that the city should keep open 24 schools it planned to close.
After only 40 minutes, the judge said that she would not enjoin the arbitrator’s ruling.
This means, for now, that the city must reinstate the hundreds or thousands of teachers who were fired at the “turnaround” schools.
If you read the article, you will see that the city is not at all happy and is mulling other ways to get free of the “binding” arbitration.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
You know they are going to drag this out and from my readings and experiences they stil try to get what they want, but they strategize and find some backdoor way to circumvent the system. They are masters of deception.
Now there is another court date, July 24th…with only one month to school. They will make everyone’s lives miserable and the kids be damned. The rules and standards they set for everyone else never apply to them.
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I agree with Linda. Until the court makes a final determination, teachers will be on the edge of their seats. And sadly new teachers that were hired for these turnaround schools will also be on the edge of their seats.
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It would be inappropriate for me to say in detail what I think should happen in NYC because I live and work many miles from there. I don’t understand all that happens (though I am troubled by city’s the elite high schools, and would not permit them if I had the power). I am a big fan of what Deborah Meier, Sy Fliegel and others did in East Harlem some years ago.
But I thought the new report from Schott Foundation about NYC was interesting: http://schottfoundation.org/publications-reports/education-redlining
From the press release:
“In New York City public schools, a student’s educational outcomes and opportunity to learn are statistically more determined by where he or she lives than their abilities, according to A Rotting Apple: Education Redlining in New York City, released by the Schott Foundation for Public Education.
Primarily because of New York City policies and practices that result in an inequitable distribution of educational resources and intensify the impact of poverty, children who are poor, Black and Hispanic have far less of an opportunity to learn the skills needed to succeed on state and federal assessments. They are also much less likely to have an opportunity to be identified for Gifted and Talented programs, to attend selective high schools or to obtain diplomas qualifying them for college or a good job.”
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The Schott Foundation report certainly reflected very poorly on ten years of school reform under Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein.
But the question I asked you was about the aggressive charter schools that create academic apartheid in poor neighborhoods, where the charters get free public space, create beautiful facilities, have the latest technology, take half as many children who are ELL and special education, and boast of their higher scores. And then demand more free public space. Bruce Baker’s studies have shown that charters in NYC spend far more per pupil than the public schools. Their CEO typically is paid about $400,000 to oversee a small number of schools. Why won’t you admit that these aggressive entrepreneurs are giving the charter industry a bad name? I would feel a lot better about charters if they were not permitted to create chains, but were one-off good schools that accepted all kinds of children.
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Possibly because Joe doesn’t think or doesn’t care that they are giving charters a bad name. I don’t know. I guess we will have to wait and see what he says. He seems quick to defend them based on his experiences in his state which is very different from what is happening in NY, RI, CT, NJ and Mass.
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Bloomberg won’t give up so easily. He will continue his attack on public education. May he do it 31,32, 33 times ad infinitum, as those “jobs jobs jobs” Repubs and five Dems in the House of Representatives have continued to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Hey, Bloomberg, take your money and get out of NYC.
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