Want proof that charter schools are not public schools? Public school principals would be fired if they closed their schools for the day and put the children on buses to the state Capitol to lobby for more funding. Imagine if NYC principals brought 1 million students to Albany to demand money for smaller classes, libraries, and the arts. It will never happen because it is illegal.
But next week, Eva Moskowitz will close her NYC charter schools and bring 9,000 children (mostly elementary ages) to lobby for more charters. http://ny.chalkbeat.org/2015/01/30/success-academys-albany-rally-set-to-compete-with-uft-lobbying-day/#.VOyb4WS9Kc0
She may bring their parents as well. Certainly not to lobby for the children. They already attend a charter school. They can’t attend more than one.
The charters have chosen to lobby in the same day as the UFT. The UFT won’t produce their students; it would be illegal.
it is offensive to see children so callously used to promote “adult interests.”
Private schools can close their doors to lobby. Public schools can’t. The best private schools, however, would not use their students as political props. Their parents would never allow it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Are NY tax payers paying for the transportation? It’s hard to find out when you can examine the books because Success Academy is a private entity.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Diane,
You say it will never happen because it’s illegal. I think of so many things that have happened in our country’s history DESPITE their being illegal. Hey! You never know… I guess my contumacious nature is brimming over today!!
LikeLike
Love the new “word for the day”–contumacious:
TAGO!
Definitely one I’ll have to use, especially with administrators.
Definition of CONTUMACIOUS
given to resisting authority or another’s control
Synonyms balky, contrary, contumacious, defiant, froward, incompliant, insubordinate, intractable, obstreperous, rebel, rebellious, recalcitrant, recusant, refractory, restive, ungovernable, unruly, untoward, wayward, willful (or wilful)
Related Words noncooperative, uncooperative; insurgent, mutinous; adamant, adamantine, dogged, hardheaded, headstrong, immovable, implacable, inflexible, mulish, negativistic, obdurate, obstinate, opinionated, peevish, pertinacious, pigheaded, rigid, self-willed, stubborn, unbending, uncompromising, unrelenting, unyielding; fractious, restive, uncontrollable, unmanageable, wild; perverse, resistant, wrongheaded; bad, disorderly, errant, misbehaving, mischievous, monkeying, monkeyish, naughty; undisciplined; dissident, nonconformist; discourteous, disrespectful, ill-bred, ill-mannered, ill-natured, impertinent, impolite, impudent, inconsiderate, insolent, ornery, rude, uncivil, uncouth, ungracious, unmannerly
Near Antonyms acquiescent, agreeable, amiable, cooperative, deferential, obliging; yielding; behaved, disciplined, well-bred; courteous, polite, respectful; kowtowing, obsequious, servile, slavish, subservient; decorous, mannerly, orderly, proper; controllable, governable, manageable, trainable
Antonyms amenable, biddable, compliant, conformable, docile, obedient, ruly, submissive, tractable
LikeLike
Oh, Duane. The word was made for you!
LikeLike
And I mean it in the best of ways. 🙂
LikeLike
The cover for the trip was that students would have a civics lesson and not really be shorted on instructional time because they have a longer instructional period than public schools.
LikeLike
But will this be on the test?
LikeLike
Tests??? We don’t need no stinkin tests!!!
LikeLike
Will Ms. Moskowitz be referring to those 143,000 “trapped in failing public schools” that she claims she wants to help? Perhaps some reporter will finally ask her why Success Academy went to the SUNY Charter Institute in early 2012 to get special permission to drop lottery preference for students zoned for failing public schools (which of course SUNY immediately granted). “What motivated you to get special permission to change the charter so that Success Academy no longer gives lottery priority for students zoned for failing public schools, Ms. Moskowitz?” I guess we will never know. But since her earliest schools in Harlem — which DID give that priority — ended up with appalling suspension and attrition rates (the oldest Success Academy school suspended 27% of the students one year, and lost the majority of the ones who started in first grade), I think we can theorize on what might have been the motivation.
LikeLike
Unpaid child labor …
LikeLike
As stated in Chancellor’s Regulations: D-130
“Personnel may not be involved in any activities, including fundraising, on behalf of any candidate, candidates, slate of candidates or political organization/committee during working hours.”
Families For Excellent Schools is a political organization. This is completely illegal.
Click to access D130.pdf
LikeLike
If she had any brains, she would call it an interactive/experiential learning event for the kids. See how Eva gets away with stuff (closing schools, using students for props and lobbying, etc.) mere mortals would be fired for.
LikeLike
They are indeed positioning it as a civics lesson:
“Success is taking school on the road. As we did last year, teachers will provide instruction on the bus ride there and back, and the day will serve as a meaningful field study and civics lesson for scholars,” said Ann Powell, a spokeswoman for the network. “Because our scholars have a longer school day, they get the equivalent of 50 extra days (beyond the 180 for DOE schools) of instruction every year.”
Let’s not pretend that there isn’t any political activity going on in traditional district schools. When the UFT (the NYC teachers union) participated in a Twitter event earlier this month (#allkidsneed and #inviteCuomo), I saw several photos of student-made classwork that teachers had done to coincide with the event. This clearly violated the regulations regarding political activity inside schools, but it was justified as being part of a civics/social studies lesson.
I don’t have any problem with the Success event, as long as it doesn’t involve public funding and (far more importantly) if participation is optional for both parents and students. Some parents may not agree with the political message, some might not be able to take the day off from work, some might not be able to rearrange their childcare arrangements. Last year Success claimed that the event was not mandatory, but that was only after some parents at their more diverse schools (Upper West and Cobble Hill) complained about it—the flyers that I saw that went to the higher-needs Success schools did not make it seem like opting-out was an option. “NYC public school parent,” I sure hope that you were sitting down when you read that last part.
LikeLike
Tim,
Are you ok with using children for political events?
LikeLike
As long as it doesn’t involve public money and infringe upon the rights of others, I’m generally okay with parents making that decision.
If using kids as political props bothers you, you may want to book a vacation or out-of-town speaking event for March 12: http://www.uft.org/files/attachments/march-12-join-hands.pdf. Otherwise, I’ll look forward to your blog posts hammering the UFT.
LikeLike
We differ in this, Tim. You hate unions. I believe unions built the middle class. The destruction of unions coincides with shrinkage of the middle class. Unions are necessary to protect working people. Which side are you on?
LikeLike
Tim, if charters are public schools (which they’re not, but let’s speak hypothetically), then how can this event not have public funding?
Your comment is additionally disingenuous because it’s obvious that students are explicitly being compelled to attend, and parents indirectly so, via Success Academy’s requirement that parents donate time to the school if they want their children to continue attending.
Finally, you make a false comparison between a few, or even many, individual public school teachers having their students do projects related to this issue, and an entire school district (which is what SA essentially is) shutting down and doing so.
Better luck providing cover for Moskowitz next time.
LikeLike
“Tim, if charters are public schools (which they’re not, but let’s speak hypothetically), then how can this event not have public funding?”
Presumably the costs of renting buses, t-shirts, pizza etc. could be covered by a big sweaty wad of Daniel Loeb’s money. I hope they are. But what about the state funding that’s passed through to teachers and principals for the purpose of teaching students and running the schools? They’re not volunteering to go to this rally on their own free time, and I assume their paychecks aren’t being docked for this civics lesson. I’m not sure how that money can be disentangled.
LikeLike
Michael, another thing that Tim and other who are ok with kids being used as props is that that the school better have a release from parents that the kids’ likenesses be used in any media.
LikeLike
Yes, we differ in this. I think it is okay for children to participate in political protests with their parents’ permission. You are okay with children participating in political protests if it a cause that you agree with.
Your characterization of my thoughts on unions is inaccurate.
LikeLike
It is illegal in NYC for a public school to participate/facilitate a political protest during school hours, regardless of parents’ permission.
LikeLike
We differ in this, Tim. You hate America. I believe America is a shining city on a hill. Which side are you on?
LikeLike
Michael, I don’t expect you to be familiar with my entire commenting history, but if you’d read Chalkbeat around the time of last year’s rally, you’d be hard-pressed to find evidence I am giving anyone cover. If they are forcing parents and students to go, it should be brought to the attention of their authorizer and the Regents, who should decide appropriate sanctions.
LikeLike
Peter,
Charter schools in New York City are public schools that happen not to be controlled by the New York City Department of Education. The DOE chancellor’s regulations do not apply to charter schools.
LikeLike
Flerp, doesn’t the fact that they work well in excess of the state-mandated maximum for district schools take care of that issue?
(Although Success ought to give teachers the option of opting out, too.)
LikeLike
“Flerp, doesn’t the fact that they work well in excess of the state-mandated maximum for district schools take care of that issue?”
Possibly in theory, if the state’s funding is only meant to cover XX days per year. But that would seem to rely on a bright-line rule that doesn’t exist (to my knowledge) in either the law or the reality of how the schools are run. If the state’s funding is just meant to be applied generally toward the school’s operational expenses, and teachers and admin are paid annual salaries that the schools treated are part of their operational expenses, then I’m still left with the conundrum of how you can separate the public funding from an activity like this.
LikeLike
correction, meant to type “that the schools treat as part of their operational expenses”
LikeLike
“Last year Success claimed that the event was not mandatory, but that was only after some parents at their more diverse [i.e. affluent] schools (Upper West and Cobble Hill) complained about it—the flyers that I saw that went to the higher-needs Success schools did not make it seem like opting-out was an option.”
Tim, thank you very much for bringing that point up. What do you think of Eva Moskowitz’ chutzpah in professing concern for the 143,000 students trapped in failing public schools while at the same time dropping lottery priority for those very same students in her own charter schools? If she has no interest in teaching any but the most hard-working and compliant of those students (as the extremely high suspension and attrition rates in her earliest Success Academy schools certainly suggest) — and they must have involved parents as well — at least can she stop bashing the public schools that do educate those students who are NOT welcome at Success Academy?
There is something terribly unseemly in forcing low-income parents to act as props so Success Academy can pretend it is doing something it most certainly is not — educating the exact same students you find in those failing public schools without establishing educational parameters that “encourage” the majority of the low-income parents who most need better public schools not to enroll, or to leave if their kids aren’t up to snuff. There is something terribly unseemly in claiming that your “average” attrition or suspension rate of 6 year olds has improved because while suspension and attrition rates are high at high-poverty schools, they are balanced out by the fact that you keep most of the middle class and affluent students in your newest schools located in very wealthy neighborhoods.
Don’t you agree that if Success Academy is keeping more of its affluent students and losing more of its low-income students, there is something wrong with them claiming to have the solution to failing public schools? Unless their “solution” means to starve them of money and take over their space, while making sure very few of their students get to enroll in Success Academy.
LikeLike
“Unions are the only lobbyists the middle class can afford.” They carry the freight for the unrepresented working poor and middle class. I am profoundly thankful to the AFL-CIO, for getting the issues of the 99%, into the media and onto the political table.
At this point in the nation’s history, anyone who is against unions is anti-American. Unions are the only remaining firewall between the “divine right of kings to eat the bread for which others toil” (Lincoln) and the overwhelming number of citizens who actually contribute to the nation’s future well-being.
LikeLike
The point is not that we differ on this, but that you use fallacious and invalid arguments to make your point, which is demonstrated by your inability to provide any sort of rebuttal or refutation of my comment.
LikeLike
I assume that the Success Academy schools which are taking a day off from educating their pupils will also forego a days’s compensation from the state for each child they are not educating. Otherwise, there just stealing state money, aren’t they?
LikeLike
Paul Gottlieb: I see you are a fan of Ionesco—
“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.”
One of the neatest, if sad and morally bankrupt tricks used by the leading edge of the charterite/privatizer movement, is simply redefining things to suit their sales point du jour.
For example, like John Deasy of LAUSD got those graduation rates up by redefining the number of credits needed from 230 to 170—it’s magic, I tell you, magic!—and even more miraculously lowered the suspension rate by changing and narrowing what prompts suspensions—even more magic! Wizardry, pure wizardry! So, needless to say, I am awaiting the almost inevitable fatuous response to your pointed query—
“Well, you defender of the public school status quo and all its factories of failure full of union thugs and lazy LIFOs infested with the soft bigotry of low expectations, those $ucce$$ Academy students ARE engaged in classwork, it’s hands-on experiential learning at the political rally, er, lobbying demonstration, er, first-hand look in Albany at our political process in action.”
Double talk. Double think. Double standards.
In rheephormish [thank you, Bob Shepherd!] anything that advances corporate education reform is automatically good and sound and anything that advances a “better education for all” is bad. It literally doesn’t matter if we’re talking about the very same things like using/involving students and parents and schools staff in blatantly political activities—the “thought leaders” of the self-proclaimed “education reform” movement will find some annoyingly irrelevant and petty difference (real or, when pressed, imaginary) to make it seem that what they want is the good thing meant by the terms or phrases used and everything else is pure….er, I don’t want to violate the very sensible ‘Rules of the Road’ on this blog.
Just like Humpty Dumpty said to Alice: “When I use a word … it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
Hence, Eva Moskowitz of $ucce$$ Academy: at $57.50@student, is a selfless SAINT.
And it follows, then, as night follows day and as Michelle Rhee took “her” students from the 13th to the 90th percentile—Carmen Fariña, NYC School Chancellor, at 20¢@student, is a venal SINNER.
Can’t you just see that, plain as day?
Thank you for your question. It said a lot.
😎
LikeLike
Great point Paul Gottlieb. Can someone from NYC go to the police station and file a crime report? Take some snaps of the kids for more evidence of the crime and the crime scene.
LikeLike
The magnitude of the transparent cynicism and shameless manipulation of the leaders of the self-styled “education reform” movement is on display.
I have written before that I characterize the words of the thought leaders and promoters of the heavyweights in the charterite/privatization movement to be:
Double talk. Double think. Double standards.
Take just their “helpful competition” argument. Those cage busting charter innovators, with all their disruption and 21st century ideas, will show those public school “factories of failure” and “dropout factories” how you get the job done, and do more for less!
Rheeally!
In other words, charters and privatization are the rising tide that lifts all boats. I and other have contended that it is quite the opposite: corporate education reform is a disastrous tsunami that swamps, drowns and destroys almost everything in its path, to the detriment of the vast majority of students and parents and the rest of us.
The posting reveals what, in practice, all that fancy pr and marketing spin and high falutin’ rhetoric boils down to: pick a fight, tie your opponent down hand and foot, and mercilessly punch and kick him/her while he/she lies bound and helpless.
Am I exaggerating? Let’s riff off of Sherlock Holme’s famous observation about the curious incident of the dog that didn’t bark in the night-time. What aren’t we hearing?
If the movers and shakers of the self-proclaimed “new civil rights movement of our time” were genuinely and deeply sincere about a helpful competition then the likes of Barack Obama and Arne Duncan and Chris Christie and Cami Anderson and Jeb Bush and David Coleman and the rest, most particularly their “biggest” patron and backer, Bill Gates, would be beating down the doors at “Diane Ravitch’s blog A site to discuss better education for all” to put as much distance between themselves and this public display of furious bullying as they could.
They won’t. They can’t. Eva Moskowitz, in her heated pursuit of $tudent $ucce$$, does more than “speak their heart”—she is putting it out there for all the world to see and marvel at.
Want to know why the rheephorm crowd wants to avoid all that useless literature in CCSS? Maybe, just maybe, a student or parent or two might read something that makes them think “Hmmmm… this looks like déjà vu all over again.”
And we don’t even need an old dead Greek guy when a Roman will come in just as handy:
“For greed all nature is too little.” [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
$ucce$$ Academy. Not a typo.
😎
LikeLike
In South Carolina some high level district officials face fines and possible jail time for engaging in political activity on district time using district funds – in this case to push a bond referendum.
It is illegal for public employees to do political things on the taxpayers’ dimes. in South Carolina, that even applies to charters endorsing candidates. We’re not so backwards after all!
LikeLike
If Cuomo succeeds in breaking unions, the teachers will not be out of a Union long. Do you really think that 300,000 teachers won’t be scooped up by another, possibly, long standing union? That 300,000 teacher dues. Don’t you think that the teamsters, police or firemens union won’t make room for them? Once that is done, I wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of history if I were a politician and or PACC donor.
LikeLike
“…a meaningful field study and civics lesson for scholars,” said Ann Powell, a spokeswoman for the network.
I would like to see the lesson plans for this “field study and civics lesson.” Does it include giving young children pre-written picket signs and coaching them with slogans to chant? Interesting way to teach both sides of an issue.
LikeLike
Why does she constantly get away with this? Teachers are Not even allowed to wear campaign buttons for their favorite candidate during election periods. Why is she allowed to use our Tax Dollars for her political purposes?
LikeLike
Call, email or visit your state legislators to protest this “prote$t”!
http://www.nysenate.gov/
http://assembly.state.ny.us/
LikeLike
Moskowitzs philosophy in Success Academy: using kids as pawn for her political rally to demand more charcoal snake pits.
LikeLike
I am new to this forum or any forum on these educational debates so I can only speak from my observations and my heart. Last year my husband and I struggled with the reality that our child who we have poured so much time and effort into was zoned for a failing school. Private school was not an option because we have another child to consider so our options were gifted and talented programs and charter schools as well as apply to better schools and pray we got a seat. We were most fortunate that our kid got the best case scenario: he got two seats in two different g&t programs, we got a seat in a semi-detached public school (many parent there counseled us to not put him in the regular program there) and he got waitlisted for Success. Ultimately we chose Success because we believed they would challenge our child academically while also making learning a fun experience.
Fast forward six month in this brand new school and I couldn’t be happier with our choice. I see the hard work of the teachers, the dedication to the families and the scholars – there is an effort to go over and beyond to ensure everyone gets to succeed and move beyond the levels they came in at. There are events held and resources given to families to help them best help their children at home with their work. The classroom makeup as far as I see there are your brighter students and your average students in the classrooms; but there are also children with special needs in these classrooms and children with behavioral issues in the same class and yet they are all receiving the same instruction in most areas AND specialized instruction to meet their specific levels. This to me is what education should be about – meeting the needs of children.
I am a realistic and I know politics are being played on all sides – this is the flaw of the system because children were not being put first but rather protection of teachers jobs and retaining status quo was more important than fixing this nation’s educational dilemma. I worked in finance for 13 years and honestly if my company’s performance track record was that of the DOE there would be a severe shake up of the company’s management starting with the CO all the way down to day-to-day management. Anyway, that is my say on educational aspect.
As for the rally, the information is not correct – every child must be accompanied by a parent/guardian/care giver in order to attend the rally. And I support this rally because clearly if we as parent do not continue to voice our concerns and demand that the current failing schools get fixed, that schools that are succeeding be allowed to continue to exist and also allow for additional alternative schools other than DOE failing schools then children will suffer in the end because they will lost out on future opportunities and future careers.
As a parent, I don’t care about politics BUT I do care about the quality of education my child receives and I should not have to pay 30+k a year to ensure that happens. I support a school system that holds families accountable for some part of their child’s academic success because only as a community can we all be successful. That is the difference in better public schools and private schools – there exists a partnership between families and the school.
LikeLike
Miriam, your eloquence is only proving the point that charters schools cherry pick the savvier families in a neighborhood, leaving a disproportionally high number of kids from less motivated, less involved families in the public schools.
Obviously, these are the higher needs children, those whose parents did not enter them in the lotteries, and as an inner city teacher, I can confirm that these kids monopolize resources, slow down learning for everyone, and because we underfund whole-child services, don’t have their underlying needs addressed, even after years of failure in school.
As a parent, I share your desire for a calm, peaceful environment for my children. We moved out of NYC for just this reason. But the charter model for achieving tranquility is through an admission process of application/lottery that knowingly abandons the highest needs kids in NYC.
Michael Petrilli, one of the biggest spokesmen for charters stated plainly in a NY Times op-ed that disruptive kids are “classroom cancer”, and should not be their problem.
Your decision as an individual parent is a no-brainer, it’s great for your kid. But the long-term, societal questions for taxpaying voters are:
– Should we continue to open more schools that do not provide capacity for the highest needs kids?
– How can we allow comparisons of charters to the schools that actually do serve the highest needs kids?
LikeLike
Amerigus, are the schools in the town with the “calm, peaceful environment” where you chose to live serving their fair share of highest needs kids?
LikeLike
Tim, the public schools here serve 100% of the kids in the community, but if you are back-handedly trying to bring up urban vs. suburban economic segregation, white flight and massive inequity between NY’s highest and lowest funded districts, you only prove the point that Cuomo and SED have been derelict in funding equity across the state, reneging on court-ordered, agreed-upon payment schedules.
Nationally, we can discuss the failed policies of austerity, increase of poverty and rising disparity of a shrinking middle class, thanks to both parties. If we had pre-Reagan taxation policies, more families in poverty would be able to afford a move out of crowded, high crime urban districts and low performing schools. I attended these schools as a kid and returned to teach in them as an adult. How about you?
LikeLike
Well, that’s the first time I’ve seen that excuse–white flight wasn’t caused by racism, it was caused by school funding inequities?
No, the science is pretty settled on this. See, even when a black person has the exact same type of job, the same amount of savings, and the same downpayment, a variety of forces keep them out of those towns with “calm, peaceful environments” (beautiful code language, btw!). Governments at every level enforce the segregation, through zoning laws that thwart the development of affordable housing, or by looking the other way when it comes to blatant housing and mortgage discrimination. Local law enforcement agencies play their part, as do the overt and more subtle forms of racism expressed by private citizens.
In short, the flip side of the concentrated segregated inner city is the nearby non-integrated suburb that is effectively off-limits to blacks. They are a system, one can’t exist without the other.
What am I doing about it? Nothing, really, other than being aware of these facts and not standing in the way of something that lets people who society has crapped all over have some options in where their kid goes to school. Ideally a solution to this problem would involve all schools in the entire region, but we know that the folks zoned for PS 321 and PS 199 and in the town where you live would rather die than have something like that happen.
LikeLike
“Well, that’s the first time I’ve seen that excuse–white flight wasn’t caused by racism, it was caused by school funding inequities?”
Not only that, but apparently the problem with Reaganomics is that it *reduced* the number of people who could afford to abandon the cities for the suburbs:
“Nationally, we can discuss the failed policies of austerity, increase of poverty and rising disparity of a shrinking middle class, thanks to both parties. If we had pre-Reagan taxation policies, more families in poverty would be able to afford a move out of crowded, high crime urban districts and low performing schools.”
LikeLike
You know what? Most parents want a topnotch education for their children. I know you made your decision on more than the meme “failing public schools” because the data doesn’t support this manufactured horror story. Public schools in the U.S. are not failing by any standards. Are there schools that are severely underfunded that are also lacking in leadership at the administrative level? Yes! Maybe you are actually zoned into one. Why it wasn’t dealt with is anybody’s guess. The condition of some of the schools in Chicago is criminal. When teachers are buying toilet paper, you know there are serious management issues. When paint is peeling off in sheets, there is a problem. When schools do not have libraries, then there is a problem. When art, music, P.E., nurses social workers are cut, then there is a problem. Rahm has been running an ad touting his all day kindergarten initiative. The only thing is he didn’t provide any funding for it so principals have had to cut other programs to meet his mandate. Isn’t he special! I don’t fault you for finding a program you feel meets the needs of your child, but do yourself and all of us a favor and read some of the archives before you join the conversation here. There are too many people who have seen or experienced the damaging effects of reform policies. I suggest you educate yourself about the larger picture.
LikeLike
The “trapped in a failing school” meme is well-used, but easily countered. Just ask, if a school is failing and we simply abandon them to start building new ones instead, duplicating 100% of capacity at insane cost, what does it say about the problem-solving skills of our leaders?
LikeLike
2old2teach, when we bought our house we knew the elementary school was a failing school and never intended to send our children there (we bought in an area that we could afford). So, for us yes our initial decision was based on the fact that our zone school is clearly underfunded, producing poor test scores and seemingly poor leadership based on parent reviews.
That being said, no I have not read up on all the previous blogs but I came up in NYC schools, two of them classified as failing even now so many years later and I have always had a heart for public schools and public education. The difference for me was my family life where the importance of an education was discussed frequently and college was the expectation. I was also fortunate to have some great teachers at the different grades who poured their craft into me and nurtured my love for learning. Fast forward to the end of the 19th school year when the DOE packaged out most teachers who had more the 20+ years of experience and at that point I saw a significant decrease in the quality of education being provided to students and certainly a lack of care came with these newer teachers (I have mentored/tutored several kids in various public school levels).
Why am I saying all of this, yes I care about our personal choice for our child but my heart truly hurts for every child who do not have parents/families who dedicated the same amount of time we did for our child’s elementary school choice and quite frankly I am upset that I can’t send my child to the school two blocks away from our house. In this process I found out how convoluted the elementary school process was and how it disenfranchise these higher needs kids.
Again I will reiterate the war should not be between charter schools vs. DOE schools – war should be directed towards DOE and how can this antiquated, failing system continue to exist in the face of clear data showing our children are not getting even the basic foundation in some of these schools.
Another interesting observation I have made even within my friends circle – all of my teacher friends, many who are against charter schools have their children in either private school or high ranking public schools (they purposely buy houses those areas) if they live in NYC or they move out of the city after having children to suburbia so their children can get the best education(many go that route). So, if teachers do not want to have their own children exposed to NYC DOE schools then how do you think those of us who don’t want to or can’t leave the city feel when we see these slim pickings of decent schools. Charter only exists and thrive because DOE schools continue to fail – fix the root of the problem and these conversations would be mute points right now.
LikeLike
Miriam, I am sure you know that on the Common Core state tests, the NYC charter schools did NOT score better than the public schools that you berate. Many charters in NYC are “failing schools.” Success Academy schools do not have the same proportions of students with disabilities and students who are English language learners. Success also has high attrition, and when students leave, they are not replaced (that’s called “backfilling”). Thus, the student population becomes more selective with each passing year. That’s one way to produce high scores: accept fewer of those who might get low scores and don’t accept new students after third grade. Even so, when 32 of the first graduates took the citywide entrance exam for selective high schools like Stuyvesant and Bronx Science, NOT A SINGLE ONE passed the exam. All of those admitted to these highly selective high schools came from the public schools that you disparage.
LikeLike
Miriam,
One more point: did you know that every high-performing nation has a strong public school system? No charters.
LikeLike
I repeat you need to do some reading. You are actually making the case for supporting public schools something that NYC had not done for a number of years. As charters have proliferated funding for already underfunded public schools has decreased. Obviously very poor neighborhoods need more than neighborhoods with more resources. In fact, we know that the social problems associated with poverty are hard to overcome especially in neighborhood schools with over 25% of the school population living in poverty, so they need much more support than their wealthier counterparts. I totally understand wanting to place your children in a high performing charter (which according to the reports appear to be few and far between), but what you are not seeing is the conscious neglect of the public schools and the overt favoritism given to charters that continues to erode public education. I am not suggesting that your children have to suffer the consequences of poor public policy. I would not risk sacrificing my children on the public school altar in a high poverty school if I could avoid it. It is much harder to instill the value of education when they are surrounded by children whose lives demonstrate to them daily that education is not intended for them. Unlike others might, I see nothing hypocritical in protecting your children while still fighting for the values of public education. Just make sure you are not supporting the destruction of public education with advocacy for favoritism for charters.
LikeLike
Miriam makes two good points – the NYC DOE should be providing funding to meet the needs of it’s kids. Exactly why DeBlasio was swept into office proposing a tax hike on the highest incomes to meet the highest priority needs of school children, starting with pre-K. This was blocked by Albany along with a punitive law that makes NYC divert funds to furnish free rent for charters.
After withholding state funding, Cuomo’s Albany also diminished NYC’s ability to serve it’s own students by preventing NYC from raising taxes on the wealthy.
Next point is that the charters schools should not be undermining regular schools when the purpose of their existence, written into the law, was supposed to be focusing on at-risk students. A few loopholes later, they do the opposite, dumping high needs kids like this one: https://vimeo.com/88615316
Our first step as taxpayers should be to make the state enforce the existing law as written. Cuomo’s proposal actually claims to do this, calling it the “anti-creaming” provision. This to me ENDS the debate on whether charters have been cherry-picking, when your strongest ally says it’s time to stop, right in the middle of a huge attack on schools, it’s a problem.
So we’ll see if this translates into real life, and if charters actually admit the highest needs kids.
LikeLike
Miriam, is family participation in this rally mandatory? What happens if a parent can’t or simply doesn’t want to attend?
LikeLike
Tim, participation is not mandatory – if a family can’t/not willing to attend, then they can just decline to participate.
LikeLike
Thanks, Miriam. It’s too bad this information will be buried. Diane, perhaps you should do one of those “Reader: Participation in Success Rally Not Mandatory” style spin-off posts so that people are aware of it?
LikeLike
Tim,
I’m delighted Success Academy does not make participation in their rally mandatory for parents. It’s wonderful the parents have a choice whether or not they can attend a lobbying effort in Albany with their school during weekday school hours. Sadly, as a parent with a child in non-charter NYC public school, I do not have that choice, as it is illegal for my child’s school to attend a political rally during working hours.
LikeLike
Tim,
Whether Eva’s rally is mandatory or not, it should be illegal to use children and parents to participate in a political rally. I never said it was mandatory, so have nothing to retract. I said it was shameful. I stand by that. Its purpose is to bully legislators into granting more money and privileges to charters. Shameful.
LikeLike
But I assume that it’s not necessarily shameful to use children and parents to participate a counter-political rally in response to someone else who has shamefully used children and parents to participate in a political rally.
LikeLike
I’ll see you out there, brother!
Click to access march-12-join-hands.pdf
(I’m not taking any chances. The “WHO? Who doesn’t want to wear the ribbon?” spirit is running wild.)
LikeLike
After all these years, it still gets me:
[Kramer in the AIDS walk.]
WALKER #1: Hey, where’s your ribbon?
KRAMER: Oh, I don’t wear the ribbon.
WALKER #2: Oh, you don’t wear the ribbon? Aren’t you against AIDS?
KRAMER: Yeah, I’m against AIDS. I mean, I’m walking, aren’t I? I just don’t wear the ribbon.
WALKER #3: Who do you think you are?
WALKER #1: Put the ribbon on!
WALKER #2: Hey, Cedric! Bob! This guy won’t wear a ribbon! (Cedric and Bob turn around and glare at Kramer.)
BOB: Who? Who does not want to wear the ribbon? (Kramer is frightened.)
LikeLike
Peter, you can of course excuse your child from school and protest whenever and wherever you want. You could even lobby the DOE to add an instructional day to the calendar to be used for outside political and civic events.
The union that represents NYC teachers is making a full-fledged, multi-pronged, well-coordinated effort to make sure its opinions are being heard not only in Albany, but within schools–at parent body meetings, the upcoming protest on March 12 taking place at all 1800 DOE schools, etc.
LikeLike
Please Tim. My child’s school, or district for that matter, cannot put all of it’s students on buses to lobby with protest signs in Albany during a school day.
The union has its lobbying efforts, but it cannot have tons of students in Albany, as SA does for the cameras.
LikeLike
“My child’s school, or district for that matter, cannot put all of it’s students on buses to lobby with protest signs in Albany during a school day.”
Thank goodness.
LikeLike
Tim, the sad thing is you don’t realize that YOU are the “Who’s not wearing the ribbon?” guy in that Seinfeld episode.
The March 12 public school rally (advertised in the UFT flyer you linked to), has one important difference from the March 4 Success Academy rally: the former takes place during the appropriate and legal time of “before or after school,” and the latter un-ethically and gratuitously takes place during the school day.
What makes Success Academy (or Achievement First) so special that they’re exempt from Chancellor Farina’s eminently sensible and ethical regulation?
LikeLike
@Miriam – First, I recommend you read the chapter on Joel Klein and Eva Moskowitz in Mercedes Schneider’s book. It’s free and available online. Second, I recommend you step away from the Kool-Aid.
LikeLike
I read that there is a “Citizen Watchdog group” suing on behalf of taxpayers about this year’s forced lobbying by Moskowitz. Does anyone have details?
LikeLike
Seeking comments – in this video, Eva Moskowitz was asked if her charters serve their share of high needs kids. She said it’s “unknowable”. Can anyone on either side help her answer this question, it’s supposed to be her field of expertise…
http://bit.ly/1vDU6Y8
LikeLike