Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, writes here about Superintendent Joe Roy, a champion for students and public schools. I add him now to the honor roll of the blog.
Superintendent Joe Roy is a fearless fighter for better opportunities for the students that attend his small city school district of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. His district is diverse, and about 60% receive free or reduced price lunch.
In 2016, he was the Pennsylvania Superintendent of the Year. This is what he said when honored, “I’m one person out of 2,000 people in the district who do great work. So many people contribute, and it’s nice to have the recognition, but it shouldn’t be one person.” That is who Joe Roy is.
Two years ago, I spoke with Joe Roy who told me how his district is being drained of funding by charter schools and cyber charters. I was shocked by how much they cost. You can read about our conversation and what I learned here.
Now Joe is fighting side by side with other superintendents of Pennsylvania city districts whose finances are becoming unsustainable due to charter school drain. Joe therefore has become a target of the charter lobby. At a public meeting he said the following.
“During the question-and-answer portion of the news conference, a reporter asked Roy why parents choose charter schools. The superintendent listed a variety of reasons like academic programs, transportation — for some parents the limited busing to the district’s neighborhood schools is a turn off — and uniforms. The longer school day at some charters paired with the bus ride can mean real child-care savings for families, Roy said.
And some parents send their children to charter schools “to avoid having their kids be with kids coming from poverty or kids with skin that doesn’t look like theirs,” Roy said.”
What Joe Roy said, which anyone who has ever worked in schools knows, is that some parents engage in “white flight.” They do so through curriculum tracking or leaving a district for a private or charter school.
The charter lobby of Pennsylvania was outraged! He is calling white parents who choose a charter school “racists”, they claimed. They called for a public apology. They called for his resignation. They did what many charter proponents have been doing lately since pushback against charters has begun–they twisted a statement and then bullied their target.
But Joe Roy works for a good board elected by the people of Bethlehem. This was their response:
“This board, all nine publicly elected members, support Dr. Roy and echo his comments,” board President Michael Faccinetto said. “We will not back down in this fight for charter reform, and we will not ask Dr. Roy to back down or be silenced because a few unelected lobbyists disagree with the facts.”
You can read the full story here.
Joe Roy is a hero. He does not hate charter schools. But he hates what the 30 million dollars his district must handover to charter schools is doing to his students and taxpayers. He is seeing neighboring districts fall into real financial crisis. He believes in public education and so does his Board of Education.
Hooray for the leadership of Bethlehem for speaking the truth to the powerful charter lobby!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
Joe Roy is one of many heroes fighting to save our public schools from the greed of the few that crave power over the rest of us.
👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽 Yay for Joe Roy. He’s taken a lot of guff. The Charter school advocates don’t like him much at all.
Many district superintendents do their best to deliver quality instruction while facing massive charter drain. Superintendents used to be able to plan their budgets before privatization. Now part of their budgets disappear into privatization, and the superintendents have no say over how much money leaves the system. Schools cannot keep doing more with less. All districts have their tipping points, and some of the Pennsylvania districts have reached this critical point. Privatization should be regulated, and the impact on public schools should be a key element in the decision. We need to stop sacrificing the needs of many for the wants of a few.
I don’t understand why no one is allowed to advocate for public schools.
What is he supposed to do? Promote charters and vouchers?
Only charter and voucher advocates are permitted. Everyone else must either remain silent or also advocate on behalf of charter and voucher students.
He runs public schools. When he advocates on behalf of public school students he is doing his JOB. That ed reformers have managed to bully public school leaders into not speaking up for their students is just appalling.
Advocates for children who attend public schools are just as valid and legitimate as advocates for children who attend charters and vouchers. We are permitted to work on behalf of our kids. That’s allowed.
And we’ve all seen what happens when only charter and voucher advocates are allowed to speak- public school students get the shaft.
If there’s going to be an entire lavishly funded “movement” promoting charters and vouchers it is only fair that there are ALSO advocates for public school students. Public school students need and deserve adults who support them and their schools. They should have them, and God knows there aren’t any in ed reform.
If your district is led by a person who DOESN’T advocate on behalf of students in public schools you should get a new superintendent. That person is not doing their job.
There has been so much effort on the part of the privatizers to convince the public that their “charter” product is needed: the only way to fight back is logically to never stop convincing the public that the everyday local all-services public schools are doing well
Do the charter school owners or operators in Bethlehem advocate on behalf of kids who attend the public schools in that district? Do they sing the praises of the public schools and encourage people to enroll?
No, of course not. So why should the public school superintendent have to promote charter schools to the detriment of his own students? No charter school operator or lobbyist would accept that if we applied it to them.
Here’s how ed reformers want this set up- charter operators promote charter schools and public school superintendents also promote charter schools.
You’ll notice which students are left out in the scheme- students who attend public schools. They apparently don’t get advocates.