Hey, Yeshivas and Muslim religious schools. Stop struggling to raise money. Rename yourself and get a charter from the State University of New York Charter Committee. Then the public will pay for your religious activities. True, the state constitution bans public money for religious schools, but so what?
The SUNY charter board (appointed by Governor Cuomo) awarded charters to the Brilla Network, which teaches Catholic virtues and values. They call themselves “virtue-based” charter schoools. They are moving into the vacuum created by the closure of Catholic schools.
Here is the mission statement of Seton Partners:
Here is the charter chain they run. They plan to grow.
SETON EDUCATION PARTNERS is committed to expanding opportunities for underserved children in America to receive an academically excellent and vibrantly Catholic education. As a national non-profit and an instrument of the Church, Seton partners with (arch)dioceses and others across the country to implement innovative and sustainable new models that bridge the best of Catholic education’s rich tradition with new possibilities. Seton was born of the belief that a tremendous opportunity exists to revitalize urban Catholic schools in America and strengthen the education they provide. The challenges are significant, to be sure, but with an entrepreneurial and innovative spirit, much can and should be done, not only to preserve this national treasure but also to build on its foundation for the benefit of thousands of children in America’s most underserved neighborhoods.
Step right up and charter your religious school!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The New York State legislature, with firm majorities in both houses should
(1) place a moratorium on the granting or expanding of charters, and, (2) end the Charter Institute at SUNY, only the Board of Regents should regulate charters.
Daniel Loeb, a member of the SUNY board is a major contributor to charter schools, a blatant conflict of interest, plus, the Charter School Institute is far too lenient in the granting of charters and far too much politics, and evidenced in the granting of a clearly religious-based charter school. BTW, the Regents should revisit the Hebrew Academy charters.
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Daniel Loeb isn’t nor has he ever been a member of the SUNY board, good grief.
https://www.suny.edu/about/leadership/board-of-trustees/meet-the-trustees/
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If Dan Loeb were on the SUNY board, he would have bought it by now.
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Dan Loeb is on the Success Academy board, however, where he has given millions and millions to Eva’s charters.
Have you forgotten his racist attack on the new leader of the New York State Senate, Andrea Stewart-Cousins? I bet she hasn’t!
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Sorry, Mea Culpa, Success Board
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posted at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/New-York-SUNY-Gives-Chart-in-General_News-Charter-Schools_Diane-Ravitch_Faith-based-Harrassment_Faith-based-Orgs-181218-866.html
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If sending money to Catholic schools violates the state constitution, then a lawsuit should be filed. While they claim to get money from the church for their religious studies, they are still infusing all aspects of study with a religious perspective. It should also be noted that the governor is a Catholic school graduate who has called the public schools a “monopoly.”
Catholics do not have a corner on the market about knowing how to be human. Plenty of public schools teach students how to share, be kind, patient and forgiving. In addition most public schools teach civics, an essential knowledge base for future voters.
Catholic schools have high standards? Perhaps they do in urban settings by doing the same selective process that other charters do. Catholic schools do not serve all students in the same way that public schools do. In suburban New York where I taught, I tested ELLs in the local Catholic school. The teaching methods reminded me of a holdover from the 19th century, and the textbooks were very outdated. When this school closed, and our public schools absorbed most of the students, we found that the typical student was more than a year behind the public school students in reading, writing and math. They had no science background as well. This charter chain will drain funding from public schools for no better results and set a bad precedent.
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The charter board thumbs its nose at Article XI, Section 3 of the NY constitution, which NY voters approved by 72% to 28% in 1967. I told the whole story in my 1968 book The Conspiracy That Failed. So much for public opinion.
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This is another case that will probably, hopefully, end up in court one day, but the “reformers” and Trump (and most if not all of his administration), and the GOP are breaking so many laws that the queue of cases had become too long for the few lawyers going after them to deal with in a timely matter.
There is an obvious backlog and that means the few lawyers and organizations like the ACLU will have to decide what to focus on and what to ignore.
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Would love it if a newspaper would closely examine Joe Belluck, chair of the SCI and the rest of their board and their executive director.
Remember, there hasn’t been a single released investigation of the myriad of complaints about what teachers did to students to get them out the door at Success Academy. Not one investigation. Instead there is simply a lot more SA schools getting renewals BEFORE they were supposed to be renewed, cheering on Moskowitz when she demanded to be allowed to drop priority for at-risk kids, and adoring her comments that 5 year old children in her charters that have no white students just happen to be so naturally violent due to their natures that her high suspension rates are necessary. But of course say the racists running the SCI.
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If SUNY provides a report it would be like George Mason University’s review finding…”nothing egregious happened here”, move on along and let us continue to give away influence and let the rich control the place.
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This group of charter schools was initially approved by the Board of Regents, including Dr. Betty Rosa, all the way back in 2012.
Click to access 712bra2.pdf
Perhaps she can explain to you why these charters are not “faith-based” and why there are no separation of church and state issues to be found here.
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The charters’ mission statement says that they are faith-based.
These charters violate the state Constitution.
If you can read English and if you believe that the Constitution means what it says.
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Their mission statement says absolutely nothing of the kind, as these are public charter schools. The only mention of faith or religion you’ll find is in their non-discrimination statement.
https://brillaschools.org
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Tim,
It would be helpful if you read the links:
Rick Hess’s interview with the charter leader:
Stephanie Saroki de García is co-founder and managing director of Seton Education Partners, which supports blended learning in 14 urban Roman Catholic schools and operates three virtue-based charter schools in the South Bronx. Previously, Stephanie launched and directed the Philanthropy Roundtable’s K-12 education programs for five years, and she also co-authored the book Saving America’s Urban Catholic Schools: A Guide for Donors. I recently had the chance to talk with Stephanie about why blended learning matters and how to revitalize urban Catholic education. Here’s what she had to say.
Rick Hess: So Stephanie, what is Seton?
Stephanie Saroki de García: Seton Education Partners is an organization I co-founded with KIPP pioneer Scott Hamilton—no, not the figure skater—in 2009. We seek to find innovative ways to achieve the goals of Catholic education for our most vulnerable children. Our signature initiative brings robust blended learning to now 14 Catholic schools in nine cities across the nation—serving over 4,100 primarily underserved Latino and African-American children. Our second initiative launches and manages secular, virtues-based charter schools that offer optional, privately-funded Catholic after-school programs. Our charter schools are based in the South Bronx, serving nearly 800 children in grades K-6 across three campuses.
Here is the mission statement of Seton Education Partners, which is integral to this charter chain:
SETON EDUCATION PARTNERS is committed to expanding opportunities for underserved children in America to receive an academically excellent and vibrantly Catholic education. As a national non-profit and an instrument of the Church, Seton partners with (arch)dioceses and others across the country to implement innovative and sustainable new models that bridge the best of Catholic education’s rich tradition with new possibilities. Seton was born of the belief that a tremendous opportunity exists to revitalize urban Catholic schools in America and strengthen the education they provide. The challenges are significant, to be sure, but with an entrepreneurial and innovative spirit, much can and should be done, not only to preserve this national treasure but also to build on its foundation for the benefit of thousands of children in America’s most underserved neighborhoods.
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Yes, I read the links:
“Our second initiative launches and manages secular, virtues-based charter schools that offer optional, privately-funded Catholic after-school programs.”
These charter schools fall into that category, and the CMO manages them accordingly. Neither the school nor the CMO is under the control or direction of the Catholic Church, and no religion is taught during the school day (outside of whatever content is found in the Core Knowledge history sequence, I imagine). The provisions in the state constitution that were put in place to protect the observance of Protestant religious practices in New York’s public schools are being observed!
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Tim,
You post on the wrong blog. This is my blog. I oppose charter schools unless they meet a need of the district. I oppose no-excuses charter schools that treat children abusively and kick out those they don’t want.
I oppose vouchers. I favor public schools that welcome all children.
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I think your post here is very useful. Who should decide if a charter school meets the need of the district? I think if we could think about and answer this question we could move the discussion forward.
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The district should make the decision about whether it has unmet needs.
I doubt that many districts feel the need to underwrite the cost of religious schools or for-profit charters.
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I want to add to your reply to “teachereconomist” – all charter schools should be public schools that are part of public school districts with elected school boards and the teachers at those charter schools should be allowed to belong to the teachers’ union and earn the same pay just like the charter school’s administrators.
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Has Tim read “Don’t Surrender the Academy” posted at Philanthropy Roundtable, co-written by Frederick Hess and an external affairs manager of a Gates-funded organization? Is Tim stunned by the audacity of the article’s content? Does Tim, who writes at this blog to defend SUNY’s transgressions want to defend AEI’s promotion of oligarchy?
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This is excellent. There are several states (Kansas and Virginia) which only allow school board controlled charters and several states (Wisconsin and Massachusetts) which have significant numbers of school board controlled charter schools. They would apparently pass the test for both Dr. Ravitch and Lloyd, so both could support these charter schools.
There are some situations where we might also all agree that the local school board does not act in the best interests of the students in the district. The East Ramapo School Board comes to mind. Might this be a case where teachers in the district should be allowed to form a charter school that is independent of the school board?
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Charters should be authorized only by school
Boards, with no appeal to other agencies.
Al Shanker’s idea was that charters should be approved by the local board and the union. Charters should not be hostile or antagonistic or profit driven.
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Dr. Ravitch,
Your latest position here still means that you support all the charter schools in Virginia and Kansas, almost all of the 244 charter schools in Wisconsin, and the Horace Mann charter schools in Massachusetts. There may well be many more.
Highlighting your support of these charter schools, perhaps through a post on the blog, might broaden the group that read and post on your blog.
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The charters in Wisconsin are not authorized by districts.
I do not support charters unless they are authorized by districts and subject to the same laws and regulations as public schools. No nepotism, no self-dealing, no conflicts of interest. Full accountability and transparency. No exclusion of students with disabilities or ELLs.
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Dr. Ravitch,
Perhaps you will believe the local affiliate of the NEA.
The Wisconsin Educational Association Council states that “The vast majority of charter schools in Wisconsin are run by public school districts.” and that “There are two types of charter schools in Wisconsin: the most common is authorized by a
public school district and is said to be an instrumentality of the district, meaning it remains a public school”.
I hope this clears up your misunderstanding of charter schools in Wisconsin.
Source for the quotes:http://weac.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/What-are-charter-schools.pdf
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Teaching Economist,
My criteria for approving a charter school is that it be approved solely by the local district and that it accept the same demographic as the local district. Andthat it be subject to the same laws and regulations as public schools. That is not the case in Wisconsin.
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SUNY is like the Koch-owned George Mason University, both public and sadly have top managers who fail at leadership. Think tanks with students like Mason and SUNY (universities have higher ideals) make trades in return for giving away influence to concentrated wealth which proves the schools’ managers have skills on a level with barkers in third world trading booths.
Frederick Hess of AEI, elucidated the transaction in Philanthropy Roundtable, “Don’t Surrender the Academy”. His co-author was an external affairs manager for a Gates-funded organization.
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