Now that the New York state legislature has passed a law written specifically to permit Eva Moskowitz to expand her elementary school–presently co-located inside PS 149 in Harlem–into a middle school, students with disabilities will be removed from PS 149. No one knows yet where they will go, but the city has to find a place for them.
That $5 million ad campaign attacking Mayor Bill de Blasio was all about the “eviction” of Eva’s students. She was outraged because the mayor said she should open a middle school somewhere else and not push out the students with disabilities. But the billionaires wanted the space presently occupied by the kids with disabilities–the ones that would never be accepted into Eva’s Success Academy. After all, if they have serious disabilities, they might pull down the test scores, and that is not acceptable, is it? Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post and Mort Zuckerman’s New York Daily News chimed in to support Eva’s smart kids. They were not being “evicted,” they were expected to move from their elementary school to a middle school in a different building, as most children in New York City do. But most children do not attend Success Academy!
So here is another demonstration, this time by the supporters of the children with disabilities. They will be evicted to make room for Eva’s new middle school. Will any billionaire run ads to protest the genuine “eviction” of these kids? No, they are powerless. And they don’t have high test scores. And in this society, if you don’t have high test scores, you have fewer rights and privileges:
Media Contacts:
Julian Vinocur. 203.313.2479. julian@aqeny.org
* Media Advisory for Tomorrow, April 8, 9:15a.m.
Steps of Dept. of Education, 52 Chambers St., Lower Manhattan *
Harlem Parents to Protest Gov. Cuomo for Forcing Damaging Co-location With Success Academy
*Elected Officials, NAACP’s Hazel Dukes, Parents will Rally to Save Key Services for Special Needs Students at Mickey Mantle School*
WHO: State Senator Bill Perkins; Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer; Councilmember and Chair of the Education Committee Daniel Dromm; Council Member Antonio Reynoso; President of NAACP NYS Conference Hazel Dukes; Harlem parents to be co-located with Success Academy, at PS 149/811; parents and advocates from the Alliance for Quality Education, NYC Coalition for Educational Justice, New York Communities for Change and Make the Road New York.
WHAT: At a major rally tomorrow, parents and teachers from the Mickey Mantle school PS 811 and PS 149 in Harlem, will protest Governor Cuomo for strong-arming a damaging co-location with Success Academy that will severely impact 109 special needs children. Affected parents and teachers will detail the imminent loss of vital programs and services, resulting from a forced co-location previously rejected by Mayor de Blasio’s administration, but pushed forward by Governor Cuomo during state budget talks.
– Participants will be tweeting using #SavePS811-
WHERE: Steps of the Dept. of Education, 52 Chambers St., Lower Manhattan.
WHEN: Tomorrow, Tuesday, April 8th, 9:15am.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I have already written a letter to the editor about the Chicago Tribune’s myopic article on charters in which the De Blasio is castigated. I wish that I had had the info on this to include when I wrote my piece. It is too late, My letter has already been sent..
If anyone wishes to address the article and include the info in this blog in your letter, feel free to do so.
This is the article in today’s, April 7th, Chicago Tribune.
……………….
Charter envy
As N.Y. boosts school choice for students and parents, Illinois ponders a ‘death knell’
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been riveted and appalled by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s war on charter schools.
De Blasio rode into office on a promise to rein in charters, answering the prayers of teachers unions. He sought to deny space in public buildings to expand one of the city’s most successful charter school networks. He angled to charge rent to charters, a potentially devastating financial blow.
But then… de Blasio got schooled by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other charter supporters. Last week, Cuomo signed a bill that blunts de Blasio’s charter-wrecking measures. The law requires New York City to find rent-free public space for new charter schools or spend as much as $2,755 per pupil for charters to rent private space. It prohibits de Blasio from charging rent to existing charters. And it boosts many charters statewide with a $500 per-pupil spending bump over three years.
The law, The Wall Street Journal said, could make New York “one of the most charter-friendly cities in the country.”
We wish we could say that Chicago — and Illinois — led the nation in that metric: charter friendliness. They don’t. We wish we had a governor who routinely defied teachers unions and other school choice naysay-ers to stand up for schoolchildren and their parents. No such luck
The bill to scrap the commission sailed through the Illinois House and is now in the Senate. It is a red flag for charter operators nationwide, warning of an increasingly hostile environment here.
Other pending legislation seeks to cripple charters in other ways:
One bill would impose vast administrative burdens on charters and limit how they market their campuses to students.
Another would stop charters from opening in neighborhoods where a public school had been closed in the past decade.
Another would curb charters’ ability to set their own, often tougher discipline policies. And so on.
“This is the toughest environment we’ve ever seen in Springfield on charters/’ Andrew Broy, president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, tells us. If all the anti-charter bills passed, he warned, it would be the “death knell” of the charter movement in Illinois.
All those bills won’t pass. But the broader point is: Illinois should be welcoming top quality charters. It should entice them to educate students here, not belch out toxic anti-charter legislation.
Not every charter is superior to local schools. Some lag and should be shuttered. But check out a recent study by Mathematica Policy Research on the effects of charter schools in Chicago
Yes, we admit to a rare twinge of— ack! — New York envy.
But there’s much more to this battle than a case of Second City-itis. The New York charter war is important because great charter operators have options. They can open or expand in New York City. Or they can venture to Illinois… where, unfortunately, state lawmakers have introduced a spate of charter-choking measures.
One of the worst: a bill to scrap the Illinois State Charter School Commission. This commission has the power to override local school districts that thwart efforts to open innovative charter schools in their communities. In other words, the state commission can provide children and their parents more, and better, educational choices. Many school boards don’t want to give money to schools they don’t manage. And they fear that charters will outperform some local schools, leading to angry questions from parents.
and Florida The group found that charter high schools “appear to have substantial positive effects on students’ long-term educational attainment.” In Florida, researchers found evidence that charters may have “large positive effects” on students’ later earnings.
Bottom line: “Charter high schools seem to be endowing their students with skills that are useful for success in college and career but that are not captured by test scores.”
Success in college and career.
What parent or student reading that wouldn’t want a charter choice to consider? That’s why there are long waiting lists of students desperate to attend the best charters in New York, Chicago and elsewhere. That’s why New York lawmakers overruled de Blasio.
That’s why Illinois lawmakers should not press their own war on charters. The victims in such wars are always children.
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“The victims in such wars are always children.”
Perfect end to such a sycophantic letter!
Excuse me to go puke now.
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Arne? Melodie? Hello? Is anyone awake at OSEP?
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Mayor Deblasio may be willing to let Evil Eva smack him around, but we don’t have to. Let’s swing back. School rallies great idea. With Eva and her Governor and billionaires taking no prisoners and wiping up the floor with us, the only way to avoid depression and demoralization is to keep fighting back. I pledge $500 for our own TV ad against Eva, Cuomo and NY State Legislature to get word out that Eva is evicting special ed kids onto the street. $500 is peanuts in this money war, I know, but it may go viral, and we have a huge NPE group following Diane’s blog online so maybe if we all throw some cash into the pot, we’ll have enough for an ad worth broadcasting as a counter-attack. We and all the teachers and kids and parents in our public schools are not punching bags for the 1%.
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Why hasn’t de Blasio used the bully pulpit to inform the people? Isn’t it telling how the news media hasn’t fought for the special needs kids? I guess if you can’t make a profit off of them then why bother?? If hedge fund managers were going to lose some money then it would be on national media night after night and Obama would make a special speech.
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“When law becomes wrong, defiance becomes obligation.”
Not certain but I think this is what I heard Bill Moyers say recently.
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Yep, Moyers closed with this line, after his segments on restaurant workers and the Supreme Court’s McCutcheon ruling, just this past weekend, “When injustice becomes law, defiance becomes duty.”
http://billmoyers.com/segment/mccutcheon-means-%E2%80%9Call-the-free-speech-you-can-buy%E2%80%9D/
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I assume there will be blanket media coverage of this outrage, right?
Appearances with the celebrities on Morning Joe? Thousands of words in editorials and passionate pleas by politicians to Save These Children?
No? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
They don’t have any advocates in government, Diane. Their schools are unfashionable.
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Can our teacher unions spend some money to buy some commercials to expose the truth?
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Great idea! I’d like to see some high quality Public Service Announcements exposing the truth.
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DiBlasio should stall enforcement and go on TV explaining why its wrong to kick out kids with disabilities from school.
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All NYC kids should walk out of school in protest
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I would so love to march as many in my program as possible over there tomorrow.
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This is truly sick. Yet, it elucidates both the disdain and complete lack of understanding Eva and her billionaire supporters have for students with disabilities and special education programs. The fact that they do not see that the disruption and subsequent relocation of these students undermines familiarity with their campus that they need to feel safe; the services provided on their campus to address IEP goals; and the relationships they have developed within their community that is their school. I am hoping that at least alternative and local media are there to report that ” Eva and her billionaire supporters are relocating students with moderate to severe disabilities to make room for high achieving students.” To paraphrase Charles Bukowski, “humanity, THEY never had it from the beginning.”
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Each parent should file an ADA complaint with the Justice Dept.
http://www.ada.gov/filing_complaint.htm
The complaint form is here:
http://www.ada.gov/t2cmpfrm.htm
“You can file an Americans with Disabilities Act complaint alleging disability discrimination against a State or local government or a public accommodation (including, for example, a restaurant, doctor’s office, retail store, hotel, etc.) by mail, fax, or email.
To file an ADA complaint by mail:
US Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Civil Rights Division
Disability Rights Section – 1425 NYAV
Washington, D.C. 20530
To file an ADA complaint by fax: (202) 307-1197
To file a complaint by email: ADA.complaint@usdoj.gov
Please keep a copy of your complaint and the original documents for your own records.”
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Perfect advice! Thanks for the sanity.
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In all likelihood, any complaint filed at this juncture would be considered moot; the DOE would say that they have not yet placed the students, that until they have failed in that obligation, there is no case. When they do make placements, any filing would have to go through the process set up for disagreeing with the placement: CSE meeting, hearing, etc. Meanwhile, time will pass, and whatever the placement is, and however awful the transition experience is for one or more children the damage will already have been done. I suppose one could try asking for an injunction preventing the DOE from removing the students . . . I will look into this.
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I have emailed the Office of the Public Advocate, and I intend tomorrow to contact Advocates for Justice, the outfit which has had previous success reversing co-locations and school closures. Advocates for Children and the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest are also on my potential list of contacts. We need a lawyer who specializes in disability rights law who is willing to take this on pro bono, and reach out to the parents to discuss an injunction. We need to keep this actual eviction in the news; we need parents to be willing to come forward with their children; we must find a way to attach Eva Moskowitz, Governor Cuomo, and their ilk to the heartless, thoughtless, disgusting displacement of these students, with more surely to come. I want to thank disability rights lawyer Joanne Simon for her support and suggestions in my endeavors.
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The odds of gov intervention are slim to none. I’ve tried to go thru channels and it is equal to head banging. It is wise to file the report with ADA, but I think it helps to keep putting it out via social media, like Twitter and FB or blogs. Name names of schools and principals or other places that discriminate against children or adults with disabilities. People who are “bullies” don’t like to be exposed.
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Billionaire zombies giving Eva a gorilla cookie… absolutely disgusting.
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“students with disabilities will be removed from PS 149. No one knows yet where they will go, but the city has to find a place for them.”
No double these “Hearts of Darkness” will be setting up a “Warsaw Ghetto” in Harlem very soon.
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oops…typo……should be “doubt”
No DOUBT these “Hearts of Darkness” will be setting up a “Warsaw Ghetto” in Harlem very soon.
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As a parent of a child that has a disability, I can speak to the difficulty these students experience with transitions. Dealing with new situations can manifest in behavioral, social and emotional problems for these students. They rely on consistent routines throughout their day, consistent adult contacts(from the lunch ladies to the principal) and familiar surroundings(school building, classrooms, cafeteria, hallways, restrooms). We tried to keep the home life as consistent and structured as possible to avoid any unnecessary stresses for my child. Children with disabilities experience high levels of anxiety and don’t deal well with change or added stress. Their anxiety can cause physical symptoms such as headaches, stomachaches, and disturbed sleep patterns. Added stressors can cause them to become withdrawn, overwhelmed, shutdown, exhibit low coping skills, and negative behavior. Many children with disabilities can have other developmental disorders which compounds their ability to cope to change in routine.
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I forgot to mention the impact, a disabled student who does not transition well, can have on the classroom teacher, the other students in the class and the family. Because change in routines can manifest in negative behaviors and withdraw it can be taxing and exhausting for the classroom teacher who has to deal with these behaviors first, before academic content can be addressed. It can take an enormous time away from regular classroom routines if just one student is having a bad day, just imagine an entire class of students who may not be coping well with change. In addition students with disabilities may have low coping skills that transfer across environments. Therefore, if they are experiencing negative behaviors and withdraw in the classroom they may bring these behaviors into the home environment. This can also be exhausting and overwhelming for parents who have put in a full days work and are dealing with other family members in addition to the child with a disability. It can disrupt the entire home routine too.
I believe we already have a landmark case establishing “separate is not equal”. Brown vs. Board of Ed “We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. . .”
The Declaration of Independence stated that “All men are created equal. Where are the Thurgood Marshall’s ?
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With all due respect, the pushback against the bullying of special needs children should be called—
THE RESISTANCE.
Why? It’s a very very old idea. Viewers of this blog know I am not a religious person, but I think a bit of Matthew 25:40 should remind us of our obligations:
“Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” [King James Bible]
But why not soft peddle our outrage?
“Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.” [Frederick Douglass]
Time to start plowing.
😎
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“Time to start plowing.”
Not only that but to sew the seeds of truth all the while plowing, not letting the edudeformers reject those truth with such vapidity. Agitation, shake them up, agitate and shake up the complacent GAGAers. Poke their conscience if you believe they have one. Do it daily. We can’t allow them to hide behind the GAGA facade of fear, let them know that the other side of fear is strength in truth and our numbers. After all it really is for the most innocent and vulnerable that we agitate.
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A Missouri boy sewing seeds?! When I plant my garden, I sow the seeds; they grow better without holes in them. 🙂 (I couldn’t resist.)
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Ah, the English language. And my students think that learning Spanish is hard. It’s hard enough being a native English speaker and getting it all correct, hard to imagine an ESL taking those EOCs and other tests. Thanks for the correction!
I actually do know how to sew having grown up with sewing machines as my dad rebuilt and repaired shoe and sewing machinery in his shop. I ended up playing goalie in hockey because I could make my own leg pads, made and sold a few in high school. My brother and I made our team’s soccer jerseys one year because we couldn’t find any to buy that we liked. I am a master upholsterer which means being able to completely strip and rebuild an upholstered piece, which involves a fair amount of making patterns, laying out the fabric, cutting and sewing in addition to being able to attach the fabric to the piece.
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I am jealous of your many talents. My sewing skills are much more pedestrian.
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What is the specific piece of legislation that has done this? I’m having trouble finding it on the legislature’s website. I’d like to check how my representatives voted.
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These were provisions of the NYS budget bill. You can find it on the NYS senate website. You will be looking for who voted yes on the NYS budget.
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This disturbs me on so many levels of my being that no single emotion is capable of expressing what it feels.
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Pedagogical eugenics.
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Stephen Hawking is disabled. If we throw the disabled kids out of schools, we might lose another Stephen Hawking.
It’s believed that Alexander Graham Bell had some form of learning
disability, possibly dyslexia.
Napoleon’s hypersensitivity to touch and his military
strategic genius are two of the many symptoms that have led some modern
scholars to suggest that he was a high-functioning autistic.
Richard Branson, a billionaire businessman, credits his business
intuition and unique perspectives to his early struggles with dyslexia, which
affects the way he visualizes words.
Erin Brockovich is a former legal clerk whose success in
building a case against illegal groundwater contamination led to a major
motion picture starring Julia Roberts. Brockovich is dyslexic.
Agatha Christie was the most famous mystery novelist of her time
and developed a rich writing style that has impacted almost every mystery
writer of the 20th and 21st centuries. Christie had dysgraphia, a learning
disability that affected her ability to understand written words.
Cher is one of the most iconic performers, singers and actresses in the
world. She has a form of dyslexia that makes it difficult to remember numbers
or to perform basic mathematics.
Tom Cruise is among the most recognizable actors in the world. He
has dyslexia and has spoken publicly about his disability.
While no hard evidence exists, many scholars believe that
Walt Disney suffered from dyslexia or a related disorder due to his difficulties in
school. Disney eventually dropped out of high school and pursued a career as
an artist.
Albert Einstein parents once thought that he was mentally
retarded due to his odd habits and difficulties in school. If he were born today,
Einstein would probably be diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a mild form
of autism.
It’s likely that Benjamin Franklin, the eccentric, brilliant founding father
had a very mild version of autism.
Dr. Temple Grandin – A doctor of animal husbandry whose work has
revolutionized the cattle industry, Dr. Grandin was diagnosed as autistic at an
early age.
Louis Pasteur – Pasteur’s scientific work saved countless lives through his
discovery of the now-common technique of pasteurization. Pasteur’s learning
difficulties in certain fields indicate a possible disability.
George Patton – One of history’s most brilliant military minds, Patton did not
excel in school. It is widely held that he had some form of dyslexia or a related
learning disability.
George Bernard Shaw – Shaw was an Irish playwright with many
masterpieces to his name, including “Pygmalion”. He probably had attention
deficit disorder (ADD).
I think you’ll get the idea by now.
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What we need is a billionaire who truly does have a heart, to build these displaced children a new school. Any takers?
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The rally is during the school day. How about we grab a few buses and have public school teachers and students go over to the rally . . . oh, wait. Only “public” charter schools are allowed to do that. And they’re not audit able. And they cherry-pick students. And they can expel at will. Well, gee, I am just having so much trouble understanding how New York’s students (scholars?), are being treated equally. Oh, wait; maybe I just don’t get it because I’m disabled. Should’ve never been allowed to go to the schools and three colleges I’ve been to. Probably pulled them all down a few pegs. My bad.
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Blind Noise: what? you didn’t get the memo?
Charter schools are just like public schools except for employee rights and student rights and parent rights and administrative overhead and being able to counsel/push out test suppressors and engaging in political lobbying and displacing special needs children—
Exactly just like public schools! Not one bit of difference!
Rheeally!
But I must admit, I am surprised to read that you aren’t on the emailing list. Perhaps you aren’t “choice” enough.
Welcome to the crowd aka humanity.
Really.
😎
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I just don’t get how Judge Tom Breslin in Albany could rule that Charters can be exempt from audits. My taxpayer dollars and they’re allowed to spend as they wish? No law degree here but see no justification.
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Sheldon Silver, the Speaker of the NYS Assembly, noted that, while he opposed the giveaways to Moskowitz and the charter industry in the state budget, he had little support to back up his opposition.
Perhaps Randi Weingarten and Michael Mulgrew should be asked why.
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If mainstream media has been “bought,” use social media. Twitter is good, but film, photograph and place on every publishable site — YouTube, etc. so that families, children, and faces replace data. Keep doing it, too. Faces, people = quality of life, not quantity of data or dollars. Good luck, all.
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It is a frightening but “preventable” tragedy that children with disabilities are being scapegoated by “reformers” in charter schools. It is also a frightening but “preventable” tragedy that many children are developing disabilities in public schools as a result of the environmental chronic stress that is promoted by these same “reformers”. This causes me to need to vent again about the dark forces behind the “reform movement”.
It is clear that the “reformers” supporting this hostile corporate take over of the public school system intentionally designed the punitive performance data environment as a way to break the public school system by declaring it as “failing”.
Broken children are just “collateral damage” to the corporate “reformers”.
For children who are gifted with high spatial intelligence, this chronic stress is often chronic “traumatic” stress. And for all children who are trapped in this environment that keeps them in a constant state of hyper vigilance, it can change brain chemistry. It is psychological erosion in the form of “slow trauma” that is the worst kind of permanent damage. The emotional desensitization and anxiety will become “hard wired” into their personality.
Many of us can understand and relate to the psychological desensitization that often impacts the lives of military members functioning in chronic stress or chronic traumatic stress.
Many of us can understand and relate to the psychological desensitization for children and spouses who are trapped in covert Narcissistic families with alcoholism or other forms of codependency.
Many of us can relate to the psychological desensitization that often results from the chronic stress or chronic traumatic stress of poverty.
As adults, many of us can relate to the psychological desensitization that often results from work environments of chronic stress when the demands are overwhelming our ability to cope, and there is little support or relief in sight.
If we can recognize how desensitization from chronic stress affects mature adults who have developed adequate mechanisms to cope with stress, WHY can we not recognize how it is impacting children whose social and emotional development is immature, and they have not yet developed adequate coping mechanisms for this level of chronic stress. Their fragile sense of self (identity) and their brain is still developing. This punitive common core environment is shattering the healthy social and emotional development of so many children in elementary schools across the country, and ‘hard wiring” them with low self esteem – a permanent sense of “never fully measuring up” which becomes a self punishing thought disorder.
The political supporters of the “reform movement”, and others in the general population who will not acknowledge that children are being “broken”, must be continuously confronted about the psychological damage that is being done on such a grand scale. Nothing “intimidates” a “child abuser” more than “exposure”.
Could those who support Common Core and the “reform movement” please ask:
Is our denial a sign of insecurity that causes us to fear questioning the status quo?
Is it because we are ignorant about what constitutes a healthy learning environment for children and too detached to educate ourselves or listen to experts?
Is it because we grew up in a covert Narcissistic environment of fear and humiliation with domineering parents or teachers and we value this as “normal”? Have we become so self absorbed with our own victimization or entitlement that we can’t empathize with the children’s suffering, or we see ourselves as superior and it makes us feel powerful to control others and make them suffer. Can we recognize “desensitization” in ourselves?
It has been said that nothing angers a “bitter” adult more than to see a child having pleasure. Are the “reformers” bitter people? Do they have “gelotophobia” and think joyful creative imaginative learning is “inappropriate” because it is “fun”? Do they think only work and punishment is “normal”. I think that is the case.
There must be a way to protect all children from this “preventable” tragedy that is being perpetrated by the “reformers”, and especially these exquisitely sensitive children.
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