Parents can be hard to please. Read the correspondence from the parents of “scholars” who don’t like the new uniforms or the new vendor.

For example, why do we have to buy a new L.L. Bean backpack when last year’s backpack is still in good shape?

Categories Harlem Success Academy

51 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

Ellen says:

July 29, 2015 at 1:01 am

Looks like the link to the uniform company doesn’t work.

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- Jack says:
  
  July 29, 2015 at 12:43 pm
  
  Here’s a couple odd, perhaps funny
  stories about the inner-workings of
  SUCCESS ACADEMY.
  
  First, there’s the “Golden Plunger:”
  
  http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2014/12/success-academy-bensonhurst-golden.html
  
  In SUCCESS ACADEMY-land, a
  spray-painted toilet plunger is given
  as compensation to students who clean
  the bathroom. Apparently that’s a lot
  cheaper than hiring actual custodians.
  
  T.C.F.W. … too creepy for words…
  but I’ll try 😉
  
  And to be honest, I”m not sure
  if this brilliant idea originated with
  Ms. Moskowitz, or some other
  genius school administrator
  within her charter chain.
  
  This (BELOW) had been posted on
  the “Success Academy Bensonhurst”
  FACEBOOK page for the three months—
  September-December, 2014—
  
  However, when it started getting media
  attention in early December 2014, it was
  immediately pulled down.
  
  Thankfully, Norm Scott over at “Ed Notes”
  had the foresight to save it for posterity.
  
  Doing janitorial work may be okay for the
  kids of the the proletariat, but not so much
  for kids of the middle or upper classes
  that are being now wooed to join up with
  Eva.
  
  Eva is expanding her charter network
  into these upscale areas, so this
  “GOLDEN PLUNGER AWARD”
  mishegass had to be scrubbed from
  the Internet ASAP. Kids being awarded
  prizes for cleaning bathrooms seems
  a dismal prospect for those upscale
  parents of the Seth’s and Caitlin’s
  who are now joining the SUCCESS
  ACADEMY family. I can imagine
  some upscale parent calling Eva,
  
  “With all the money you’re raking
  in, can’t you hire a goddamn
  janitor???!!!”
  
  (to see an actual picture of the “Golden
  Plunger” trophy that had been on the
  “Success Academy Bensonhurst” page,
  go to Norm’s article:
  
  http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2014/12/success-academy-bensonhurst-golden.html
  
  … a toilet plunger spray-painted gold.)
  
  Here’s the text as it appeared on
  the FACEBOOK page for SUCCESS
  ACADEMY BENSONHURST:
  ————————————-
  
  “Success Academy Bensonhurst
  
  “September 12
  
  “Today we launched our Golden Plunger Award. Each week, the boys or girls will have a chance to win the Golden Plunger Award for keeping the cleanest bathrooms! The weekly winners will have the award displayed by their bathroom as a reminder of all their hard work!
  
  “We want to make sure that our bathrooms are clean and sanitary for your scholars all day long. Please speak with your scholars about putting toilet paper in the toilet, flushing the toilets after use, washing their hands completely after use, and throwing the paper towels in the wastebaskets.
  
  “Hygiene and cleanliness are extremely important for keeping healthy!”
  
  ————————————-
  Go to the link where it had been just days
  prior to Norm’s article above:
  
  https://www.facebook.com/SABensonhurst
  
  No, it’s gone!!
  
  For more info on S.A. Bensonhurst, here’s
  an article about its aggressive, and …
  shall we say… inconsiderate expansion
  at its co-located school site.. and the
  public school teachers who are livid
  (not to mention lovers of old trees…
  read on)
  
  http://www.uft.org/news-stories/tree-falls-brooklyn
  ———
  
  “‘Eva’s Bad Neighbor Policy:
  A Tree Falls in Brooklyn’
  
  “by Cara Met
  
  “At an early morning meeting with UFT President Michael Mulgrew on Oct. 2, teachers at Seth Low in Bensonhurst had a chance to discuss their concerns as the school year — and the school’s first co-location — begin.
  
  “Rumor has it that when Success Academy founder and CEO Eva Moskowitz recently toured the Bensonhurst school building where her new school had just put down stakes, she looked out the window and complained that a giant tree in the park across the street was blocking the view from her fourth-floor classrooms.
  
  “ ‘All we know is that 24 hours later, that tree was removed by the city,’ said Judy Gerowitz, the UFT District 21 representative.
  
  “Educators at IS 96, the Seth Low Intermediate School in Brooklyn, are wondering if Moskowitz has the power to end the life of an old tree what else she is capable of.
  
  “Success Academy Bensonhurst has taken up 12 classrooms and more than three-quarters of the fourth floor for its kindergarten students. The school is slated to expand to the entire fourth floor and part of the third floor next year as it grows, even as Seth Low rebuilds under the leadership of a new principal.
  
  “At an early-morning meeting with UFT President Michael Mulgrew on Oct. 2, teachers at Seth Low had a chance to discuss their concerns as the school year — and the school’s first co-location — began.
  
  “Coincidentally, Oct. 2 was the date of a charter school rally in Manhattan, and seven large coach buses idled in front of the school as the Success Academy emptied out its students for the morning and shuttled them, staff and parents to Foley Square.
  
  “Inside, the two schools’ students are kept separate. “Teachers on the fourth floor tell me that they just don’t interact with us — if one of our students does accidentally walk into their hallway, they get them out fast,” said special education teacher Howard Rybak.
  
  “The students at the two schools use different entry and exit doors.
  
  “Seth Low educators, parents, community members and elected officials organized protest rallies and objected vociferously at public hearings last school year about the proposed co-location. Chapter Leader Sokol Muja said they were concerned their new math and science academies as well as their new medical program in affiliation with Maimonides Hospital would be harmed.
  
  “ ‘All these charter schools are pulling kids and pulling money from our system,’ said Corinne Kaufman, a math teacher for 25 years at Seth Low.
  
  “In his discussion with the Seth Low educators, Mulgrew said that charter schools call themselves public when they ask for funding and facilities, but then say in court that they are private businesses when it comes to auditing their finances and operations.
  
  “ ‘There’s no transparency and the economics are very different,’ he said. ‘That’s what I’m concerned about.’ ”
  
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  - Tim says:
    
    July 30, 2015 at 12:04 pm
    
    “Cleaning the bathroom” vs “helping to keep the bathroom clean” — Success Academy Derangement Syndrome may make it difficult to tell the difference.
    
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  - FLERP! says:
    
    July 30, 2015 at 12:27 pm
    
    “Please speak with your scholars about putting toilet paper in the toilet, flushing the toilets after use, washing their hands completely after use, and throwing the paper towels in the wastebaskets.”
    
    This is outrageous!!
    
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  - Jack says:
    
    July 30, 2015 at 2:11 pm
    
    My criticism of this policy was a little more nuanced than that, Tim.
    
    Of course, don’t you think that there’s something a little condescending and insulting with reminders about obvious bathroom hygiene, and overall bathroom cleanliness?
    
    It’s like Eva and her ilk view these low-income Puerto Rican kids to be like the jungle boy from the 1990’s Disney comedy “JUNGLE 2 JUNGLE”, whom Tim Allen brought to America to civilize: (go to the last half of this trailer)
    
    This goes double when it comes to saving money by having children do the jobs of janitors, who, in an upscale private school, would would accomplish this by doing periodic walk-throughs of the bathrooms.
    
    This attitude culminated in SUCCESS ACADEMY’s “Golden Plunger” trophy as a cheap way to incentivize outsourcing janitorial duties to the students.
    
    My main point was that originally, Eva’s schools were in lower income communities where students and thus, those parents would accept these outrages passively.
    
    However, as Eva tries to expand into more upscale communities, the notion of a child sharing with his parents, “Hey, our class won the ‘Golden Plunger’ trophy!” followed by those parents discovering exactly what this trophy is for… might not sit well with more upscale parents.
    
    Furthermore, if there’s nothing to be ashamed of, and if they were doing nothing wrong with the “GOLDEN PLUNGER” thing, why did Eva and the other SUCCESS ACADEMY folks scrub it from the internet, once it started to get media attention?
    
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Allie Wall says:

July 29, 2015 at 1:09 am

” … why do we have to buy a new L.L. Bean backpack when last year’s backpack is still in good shape?”

Because Eva gets a taste (her cut of the sale.)

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Tina Andres says:

July 29, 2015 at 1:26 am

The most shocking thing to me is that they are allowed to do this in the first place. My district in CA used to have a dress code policy, no prescriptions regarding where to buy and some general guidelines. That all stopped and we were told that legally we could not require anything. Why do we continue to allow charter schools to have policies like this that would never be allowed in regular public schools? What do they do for the parents who can’t afford this? We can’t even require that the kids have a backpack at all and they are requiring a specific LL Bean backpack? This must be stopped, they are taking advantage of these families.

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- Chiara says:
  
  July 29, 2015 at 7:06 am
  
  “LONG BEACH, Calif. Feb. 24— In the name of putting “discipline and learning back in our schools” President Clinton instructed the Federal Education Department today to distribute manuals to the nation’s 16,000 school districts advising them how they can legally enforce a school uniform policy.”
  
  Ohio went for it in a big way (because Ohio is apparently incapable of declining to adopt anything that is labeled “ed reform”) but it’s not as fashionable now for public schools because it was expensive to provide the subsidy for those families who can’t afford the uniforms and enforce the policy.
  
  I’ve noticed kids here have come up with their own sort of “uniform”. A large number of them choose to wear t-shirts with the school name on them- they’re given the t-shirts for various school activities they’re involved in and they have their last names on the back. It’s been popular for 20 years here. They wear them winter and summer, boys and girls both.
  
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- mathappeal (@mathappeal) says:
  
  July 30, 2015 at 2:34 am
  
  My understanding from a few years ago is that a “dress code” is OK but a “uniform” is not. Nevertheless, most adults and students on campus tend to use the term “uniform.”
  
  The schoolwear promoted to incoming students was from Dennis. They would come on campus 1-2 weeks before school began to sell their wares in the gym (with makeshift dressing rooms). Their products were priced on the high side, but they were made of heavy-duty material. Teachers were not required to dress like the students, but the administration encouraged us to do so the first year we had this more restrictive dress code, plus we received a discount. Although I did buy two Dennis polo shirts bearing the school’s logo, I purchased a bunch of non-logo shirts, in various shades of the appropriate colors, and all of my pants at Goodwill for a fraction of Dennis’ retail price.
  
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Firstgrademonkey says:

July 29, 2015 at 2:01 am

We will be more than happy to welcome them back to public school!

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Linda says:

July 29, 2015 at 6:51 am

I thought the hedgeucators raised 9+ million in one night. Why don’t they buy the uniforms for all students? Why gouge these families? “Scholars” don’t need expensive clothes and a brand new backpack every year to learn.

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- Robert Rendo, Nationally Board Certified Teacher says:
  
  July 29, 2015 at 8:40 am
  
  Why should they finance it when they probably own stock or financial interests directly or indirectly in LL Bean and other vendors who supply these items to families.
  
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Kim says:

July 29, 2015 at 6:58 am

What was the fallout? These posts are a year old–did fed up parents leave? Did SA relax uniform rules? And the new backpack thing?

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johna says:

July 29, 2015 at 7:07 am

Nothing new or unexpected.Eva is all about power and control, be it at the school level with mandatory dress codes and requiring new LL Bean back packs, at the city level via quashing the mayor’s attempt to have her schools pay rent for using space in public schools, or at the state levels via her direct influence and the influence of her hedge fund investors on Cuomo’s public and private school funding policies.

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rratto says:

July 29, 2015 at 7:25 am

What’s the story if parents can not afford to buy a new uniform?

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- Robert Rendo, Nationally Board Certified Teacher says:
  
  July 29, 2015 at 11:50 am
  
  The Hedge-ucators will hold a charity ball and raise the money philanthropically.
  
  $200 a plate, anyone?
  
  Steak tartar is on the menu.
  
  Oh wait a minute. I forgot: TEACHERS are on the menu . . . .
  
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jcgrim says:

July 29, 2015 at 7:52 am

What is sad here is these parents thought someone at Success would be looking after their interests. Parent input wasn’t even considered. From the auto-responses it doesn’t appear Success gave much thought to how parents would react to their expensive, new bells & whistles.

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Robert Tellman says:

July 29, 2015 at 8:06 am

Did anyone else notice that the response parents received was to email or contact SA privately? It’s obvious SA does not want their “dirty laundry” aired in public.

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Chiara says:

July 29, 2015 at 8:06 am

Yet another puff piece on Campbell Brown that sets this up as “teachers unions and their allies” versus “brave reformers”:

“Brown has become a lightning rod for criticism from teacher unions and their allies. New York magazine called her “the most controversial woman in school reform.” Esquire’s Charles Pierce said her efforts have “nothing to do with improving education and everything to do with busting one of the last remaining public-sector unions that people like Scott Walker haven’t yet blown up.”

Someone should probably mention to national media that the vast majority of children in this country attend public schools and the vast majority of adults also attended public schools.

Supporting public schools is not the exclusive province of “teachers unions and their allies”.

Because ed reform is centered on destroying labor unions does not mean the flip side is true- that supporting public schools is centered on labor unions.

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/former-cnn-and-nbc-journalist-campbell-brown-in-125200486656.html

Also, is there any conflict inherent in the fact that Campbell Brown is a well-connected media person who seems to get an enormous amount of flattering coverage from other media people? It’s bad enough ed reform is club in government. Now we have the ed reform media club?

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MomintheMidwest says:

July 29, 2015 at 8:39 am

Presumably, requiring expensive uniforms/backpacks each year will help to ensure that only families with more means (correlated with higher test scores) continue at the school.

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stefananders323323 says:

July 29, 2015 at 8:42 am

The most ironic comment was from the parent who came to feel that she and her child were just numbers for the school.

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M says:

July 29, 2015 at 9:14 am

2 purposes:

Means tests the families to try to identify and target those with the most challenges and have a legitimate way to target them.

Second is remove any voice or rebelliousness children could put out through their dress. Though that applies to any dress code, there is no wiggle room with a dress code this specific to say whether someone complied or not. Makes decisions much easier as opposed to teaching families the elements of dress codes in society.

Also removes excuses for not complying as an absolute…unless non compliance is their fault.

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- Chiara says:
  
  July 29, 2015 at 9:52 am
  
  Is it worth it though? They must spend a lot of time and energy enforcing that uniform policy. I can’t imagine specifying the brand of backpack. Do they have to go home if they have the wrong one?
  
  I wonder if some of the appeal is exclusivity. They know from marketing that people perceive excluding those who don’t meet a “standard” as more value than “everyone welcome”. I recall that study from a couple of years ago that said that public schools on average were better than private schools but people perceive private schools as “better” because private schools can exclude.
  
  My father ran into this in Scranton, PA 70 years ago when he went to public school. He STILL remembers that the Catholic school kids were perceived as “smarter”, which he resented. It must have left quite an impression, seeing as he still resents it 🙂
  
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  - Threatened Out West says:
    
    July 29, 2015 at 12:17 pm
    
    I agree with you, Chiara. I also think that the reasons for the so-called “lotteries” for charter schools are for “selectiveness” and “exclusivity.” I have students every year who brag that they got “admitted” to a local charter high school. The funny thing is, that charter takes ALL applicants. But the parents don’t realize that. They just think that their student is SO smart to be admitted. I had a student who got accepted there years ago that was failing every class and was known to crawl around on the floor barking like a dog. Some exclusivity.
    
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  - Jack says:
    
    July 30, 2015 at 2:39 pm
    
    When it comes to backpacks, they’re so damn cheap that even low-income kids’ parents can buy them. When they do, the child usually chooses one to fit his/her interests or personality. A boy might have Spiderman theme, a girl might have a Disney princess theme, etc…. So walking in and out of school, there’s a multiplicity of colors and designs… and, dare I say it… individuality among the children.
    
    (patting myself on the back)
    Over the years, I’ve even bought backpacks for kids who, in rare instances, couldn’t afford them… or whose parent, after promising to do so, procrastinated in buying one. I’d get tired of waiting for the parent to act, then just ask the kid what color or what kind of backpack he or she wanted, then buy it, and give it to him/her the next day.
    (pinning an invisible medal on myself 😉 )
    
    Making kids buy the same identical one… and an outrageously over-priced designer backpack one at that (L.L. Bean?… seriously?), from a private business that has a money-making business deal with the school leaders… I’m sorry… that’s just not right.
    
    I taught at a wealthy kids private school in another state, and the uniform and backpack policy is the same as it is in the public schools where I currently teach. No uniforms… and freedom in purchasing whatever backpack they wished.
    
    By the way, I can go either way on mandatory uniforms… I see advantages them as well as disadvantages.
    
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GST says:

July 29, 2015 at 9:49 am

Eva may not have alerted the families to the LL Bean return policy, but here it is from the Bean website:

“Our Guarantee

Our products are guaranteed to give 100% satisfaction in every way. Return anything purchased from us at any time if it proves otherwise. We do not want you to have anything from L.L.Bean that is not completely satisfactory.”

Parents: send back the old. Then by the new. It’s what Eva would do. And Campbell Brown.

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Chiara says:

July 29, 2015 at 10:02 am

Ohio’s zany charter world continues to turn:

“The Dispatch dug up a 1997 quote from then-state Rep. Michael A. Fox for a story in Saturday’s paper about charter-school supporters who want to lower the bar on state report cards, making poorly performing charters look better by taking into account such things as poverty and high student mobility.

But an alert reader pointed out to Reporter Bill Bush that Fox’s name appeared again in that same Saturday paper — in a different story about how he had just been let out of federal prison for taking bribes.

What are the odds? It was the first time that Fox had appeared in The Dispatch since March 2012, when he was sentenced to four years for taking almost $500,000 to help a Dublin lawyer get a $1 million telecommunications contract with Butler County.

A story in Saturday’s paper quoted Fox, who as head of the House Education Committee was instrumental in helping charters get their start in Ohio, as predicting: “If you turn people loose with their creativity, they do better, and they will provide a better education.” He added: “I don’t know why.”

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/07/29/charter-ally-in-prison-story-in-same-edition.html

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Tim says:

July 29, 2015 at 10:22 am

All of these comments are from about a year ago. Well, except the one left by a public school teacher from Texas that equates Success and other charters with the German school system under Hitler. That one was written today.

Guess it must be a slow charter-bashing day.

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- Linda says:
  
  July 29, 2015 at 10:29 am
  
  Actually Tim the swanky new store is what promoted the interest and the policies are the same so catch up on Twitter. You would think the 9 million raised in one night could pay for all uniforms for all along with a few changes due to accidents during testing weeks. Don’t steal potty time, okay?
  
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  - Tim says:
    
    July 29, 2015 at 10:53 am
    
    Oh okay I don’t tend to follow people who make (or tolerate people who make) Nazi analogies when discussing schools, that must explain why I missed it.
    
    It doesn’t change the fact that the comments from parents are a year old. And here is a mind-blowing thought: what if the store is a response to those issues? Having an option to be fitted for and pick up uniforms in person seems pretty family friendly to me.
    
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  - Linda says:
    
    July 29, 2015 at 11:07 am
    
    Sure it’s even more family friendly for the hedgies to put their money to good use and purchase all uniforms for the children they are so devoted to, but do not and never will teach. Oh and maybe they should talk to Eva about loosening the potty rules, the walking in perfect lines, the mandated eye contact, the nodding, clapping and chanting in unison. Civil rights and all, you know.
    
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  - Tim says:
    
    July 29, 2015 at 11:25 am
    
    I think they got the idea that students’ families need to purchase uniforms, except where there is a demonstrated financial hardship, from elite private schools like Brearley and Chapin, or from the hundreds and hundreds of NYC DOE schools that require them: http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/42CFDBE5-6C8F-41C1-807C-FB77B971BA29/0/A665.pdf
    
    Can you imagine how bad a family’s zoned school would have to be for them to voluntarily and knowingly choose a draconian charter school instead? Or maybe they have a different idea of what’s best for their own child than you do. Or maybe the draconian charters actually aren’t that draconian. Or maybe all of the above.
    
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  - Robert Rendo, Nationally Board Certified Teacher says:
    
    July 29, 2015 at 11:54 am
    
    Or maybe, Tim, a Tubulidentata has more intellectual appeal and better critical and collectivist thinking skills than you . . . .
    
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  - Threatened Out West says:
    
    July 29, 2015 at 12:22 pm
    
    It’s often not the rottenness of the previous school or the wonderfulness of the charter, Tim. It’s the perception of getting away from “those” kids, whether they be students with disabilities, disruptive students, or another race. In my area, the white parents are moving to charters to get away from the Hispanic population. Generally, the charters are not better than the public school.
    
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  - Tim says:
    
    July 29, 2015 at 2:13 pm
    
    The student population of New York City’s charter schools is about 93% black and Hispanic, and 80% FRPL-eligible. Success’s demographics are about the same (their schools are 90% black + Hispanic).
    
    Click to access school-indicators-for-new-york-city-charter-schools-2013-2014-school-year-july-2015.pdf
    
    The argument that charters are a vehicle for segregation may apply in other parts of the country, but it isn’t the case in New York City.
    
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  - Raj says:
    
    July 29, 2015 at 12:23 pm
    
    Robert
    
    Now you have started diatribe against Tim.
    
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  - Threatened Out West says:
    
    July 29, 2015 at 12:27 pm
    
    Boy, your threshold for “diatribe” for other people must be pretty low, Raj. Your diatribes are considerably longer and more full of vitriol than Robert’s was just now.
    
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  - Robert Rendo, Nationally Board Certified Teacher says:
    
    July 29, 2015 at 4:31 pm
    
    I feel hurt when you say that Raj.
    
    I was hoping my diatribe was against you.
    
    You better cut this out, as you might make Tim jealous.
    
    As for my vitriol: anyone who has more of it against Tim and Raj than me is going to be hard to be friends with . . . . .
    
    I guess I now have some major competition in the anti-Tim and anti-Raj realm. How DID that happen?
    
    Damn . . . . I never seem to get my way . . . .
    
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  - Robert Rendo, Nationally Board Certified Teacher says:
    
    July 29, 2015 at 11:51 pm
    
    Raj,
    
    Please use your indefinite articles.
    
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Linda says:

July 30, 2015 at 12:01 am

What do the uniforms look like, at the schools to which Bill Gates sends his kids?
Do his children walk quietly, single file, shoulders back, heads up, looking sharp in navy blazers and bow ties?

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- Robert Rendo, Nationally Board Certified Teacher says:
  
  July 30, 2015 at 8:40 am
  
  Bill Gates may as well say, “What’s good for me is never good for thee.”
  
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Michael Lambert says:

July 30, 2015 at 9:34 am

When I attended Holy Cross High School, I had to wear the blazer, the school tie, and a white shirt. (I wasn’t supposed to wear bell bottoms but I did anyway. lol) I didn’t have to buy the school’s bookbag. (I did freshman year before I became cool.)

I don’t blame LL Bean for contracting with SA. They’re just making money which is their job. But the cultish uniformity SA demands is nothing short of dystopian.

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FLERP! says:

July 30, 2015 at 12:29 pm

“Please speak with your scholars about putting toilet paper in the toilet, flushing the toilets after use, washing their hands completely after use, and throwing away paper towels in the wastebaskets.”

This is outrageous!!

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- Tim says:
  
  July 30, 2015 at 12:42 pm
  
  You might want pick up some Pepsi and RingDings and settle in for the show: http://nytimes.com/2015/07/31/nyregion/success-academy-receives-gift-for-new-schools.html
  
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  - Linda says:
    
    July 30, 2015 at 1:04 pm
    
    Oh goodie. Then they can afford a janitor or two. Last time I met a scholar they didn’t need directions about how to urinate, defacate or flush. Micro-managed children become angry, defiant teens. Beware!
    
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  - Tim says:
    
    July 30, 2015 at 1:46 pm
    
    So true. At Lakeside, Dalton, Sidwell, Harpeth, Lab, etc, kids are allowed — nay, encouraged — to adhere to normal human standards of hygiene only if they feel like it. Asking for clean bathrooms is for OTHER PEOPLE’S KIDS.
    
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  - Linda says:
    
    July 30, 2015 at 2:44 pm
    
    Clean bathrooms are provided not asked for. No begging or proving necessary. Help Eva, Tim. Don’t worry ably us.
    
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  - Robert Rendo, Nationally Board Certified Teacher says:
    
    July 30, 2015 at 3:06 pm
    
    Tim,
    
    I finally understand your MO . . . .
    
    Since you consume all those wonderful foods and beverages high in refined sugar, it’s no wonder you have little to no thinking capacity.
    
    Well, you actually have plenty of thinking capacity if you were a door knob.
    
    Please go push your poison onto some other blog where people are as _________ as you . . . . .
    
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  - FLERP! says:
    
    July 30, 2015 at 9:08 pm
    
    Where I come from, hilariously, they were called Ding Dongs, and then, arguably even more hilariously, King Dons.
    
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  - FLERP! says:
    
    July 30, 2015 at 9:09 pm
    
    Who could object to anything John Paulson does?
    
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  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    August 1, 2015 at 5:44 am
    
    So true about John Paulson. He is a model of what Republicans hope will be all public education in the future. The middle class and wealthy get millions for their public schools from the largesse of billionaires for whom they should be suitably grateful and pay homage (hopefully with naming rights to the school.) The at-risk children who can measure up are “allowed” to participate, as long as their parents do all that is asked of them by those very wealthy schools and their children have no learning issues. But the vast majority of at-risk kids are left in underfunded schools because Eva Moskowitz has proven that kids who live in poverty can do well even if their schools are underfunded and their class size is very large! She has stated that publicly many times! And those parents living in poverty thank you, Tim, for supporting the budget cuts to their schools! So they can be on waiting lists for the growing number of Success Academy schools in District 2 and District 15 where they will never get in until all the affluent children whose families can afford to live in that district are served first, of course! Or if they are very, very lucky and live in one of the few Bronx districts where Success Academy opened an early school before they realized their system “counseled out” so many at-risk kids and realized they better drop lottery priority for at-risk kids, stat and opened up schools in districts where the college-educated parents lived. Thanks, Tim!
    
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