A much ballyhooed California-based charter chain school called Citizens of the World opened in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in New York City despite community opposition. It hoped to attract white and middle-clsss families in the gentrified neighborhood.
It was supposed to open with 107 kindergarten and first grade students.
The Wall Street Journal reported that only 56 appeared.
The school may be closed due to low enrollment.
It probably didn’t spend enough to market its promise as a direct pipeline to college.
“The school’s experience demonstrates that charter schools, which often say parents need more choices, can be stung when parents’ decisions don’t fall their way. It also bolsters opponents who say that, despite claims of long wait lists and tales of parents craving alternatives, there isn’t as much demand for charter schools as supporters say.
“The school was put on probation because of low enrollment in October by State University of New York trustees, who oversee some New York charter schools. If Citizens of the World 1 doesn’t reach 100 students by Dec. 6, it could be shut down. Alternately, the trustees could accept a slimmed-down version of the school with about 80 students.
“That is because when it comes to a school’s operations, students equal money. Schools receive funding from the city and the state based on how many students they teach—about $13,500 per head at Citizens of the World 1.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
WAITING FOR SUPERMAN turns into WAITING FOR GODOT….
The claim that parents are demanding more choices is not true. Parents–even charter school parents–overwhelmingly prefer investment in the improvement of neighborhood schools over more choice. A national survey of public school parents provides concrete evidence of what many of us have known anecdotally. http://www.aft.org/pdfs/press/publicschoolparentsurvey0713.pdf But many policymakers are deaf to what voters are asking for and the giveaway of public resources (buildings and funding) for these deregulated schools continues.
Go WAGPOPS! Those are an amazing group of parents in Williamsburg/Greenpoint who have stood up for their neighborhood schools. They fight powerful forces with intelligence, esprit and bravery! If they defeat COTW, it will be a huge victory for parent activism…
The article got a few things wrong. The school was supposed to open with 126 students, not 107. SUNY approved TWO schools for our district because they believed that Citizens of the World had more than enough support for enrollment. When they discovered that that wasn’t the case, they put one of the schools in D17.
CWC opened with less than 1/2 their required students, so SUNY put them on a pre-probation to close. CWC waited months to tell parents they were at risk to close and they didn’t tell any of the families they recruited – nothing on their marketing materials about probation either. In fact, their website said, “Hurry. Spots are filling fast!” At last count, only 4 students live within the two zip codes of the school.
It’s ironic that the Executive Director of CWC who just moved from New Orleans would call us a “silent but vocal minority” when we live and school in Williamsburg/Greenpoint.
Also not mentioned in the article is the IRS investigation into the national organization that heads (and is the “sole member”) of their board, their history of racist marketing practices, their neglect of children with special needs, and their financial mismanagement. We’ve compiled a short list here http://www.scribd.com/doc/177238056/CWC-Parent-Informational-handout though there’s plenty more.
As happens in similar cases with charter schools—how about the instability and disruption in the lives of children and parents?
Oh, I forgot: this will “toughen up” those “coddled” tykes” and their “indulgent soft” parents so they can get used to a future of being kicked around like just another piece of eduproduct that no longer serves a purpose.
English-to-English translation of the edujargon of the leading charterites/privatizers: rigor = rigor mortis.
😡
What caused charters to fail is its transparency of informing the public of their purpose.
One liners like “Give your child choice, charters can offer what public schools can’t, etc., are disappointing when parents and the public discover the real truth. Reformers forgot to mention many things such as not all children fit its philosophy, your taxes dollars pay to keep them open, etc.
I remember when our state put charters on the ballot and people had no idea EXACTLY what a charter school really was about. So they signed the petition outside of stores located even in poverished areas. I witnessed many uninformed people signing that petition w/o question. The petitioners did not have any literature on them.
Before voting day, the TV ads weren’t enough to weigh the options.
My solution is to continuously teach our students how to question a petitioner when confronted by deceitful rhetoric. I related the recently posted blog topic on the Gettsburg Address of how the colonists protested taxes imposed by British rule. Emphasizing how important it is to hear both sides before making a decision empowers our students. It is amazing how much kids can articulate a senario when playing a patriots & loyalists.
Probably would help a lot if charters didn’t go after all the same kids, have selective admissions, and avoid special education students—-in other words if they played by the same rules as public schools.
I think admission policies are determined by state or local laws. The admission policies I have most often heard used us a lottery, though some public magnets have admission tests. Perhaps some charter schools have admission exams as well.
There is nothing in either TE’s post nor in twinkie1cat’s post that is mutually exclusive. Most charter schools see the local and state laws as flexible. As with most things, if we follow the data, it is clear that there is a certain truth in both your posts.
Hi Teachingeconomist:
As you likely well know, even “lottery-based” charter admissions can be tilted to bring in the charterite’s preferred demographic, which will help them be $$ucce$$ful. Here’s a link to an article on the actual recruitment planning for Citizens of the World’s Brooklyn school. Apparently, white kids were preferred.
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2013/04/citizens-of-what-world-recruiting.html
As a longtime resident who had to move for job reasons before kids entered public school, I have been nonplussed watching NYC parents’ interests bulldozed for yrs by Bloomberg & Co. It is heartening to see there is still a remnant of democracy operating at the ground level. Privatization paymasters have perhaps forgotten that if you’re going to turn education by fiat into a consumer good PEOPLE CAN STILL VOTE W/THEIR FEET!
While I would think that some charters have sizable waiting lists, the overall number for a state is inflated. For example:
A. Parents place their two children in three charter lotteries. They do not get in any of the schools. Since there are two children on three school waiting lists, they equal 6 names on total waiting lists.
B. Parents place their two children in three charter lotteries. They get into a charter. They either keep their kids on the other two waiting lists just in case the first charter doesn’t work out or they never notify the other two charters that they are already enrolled elsewhere. Even though they are in a charter, they count as 4 names on charter waiting lists.
Again, some schools have long lists but when a newspaper article says “there are 23,000 on charter school waiting lists” that doesn’t mean 23,000 different students.
What??? You’re saying that someone (the charterites) would game the numbers?? Please tell me it isn’t so!!