Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Way too late, and not in the NY Times

But, a start.

Bill Thompson's just come out on the failed record of Bloomberg and Klein, but parents and communities are asking where he's been all along.

And, by the way, where was the union prez?

These no-bid contracts, data manipulation, credit recovery and skewed grad rates have been going on for years, and then some.

I remember when they put the Snapple machines in every school across the city. No-bid and 2003. That's so they could make sure every kid across the city would grow up thinking and dreaming Snapple. "A bidding process was not required," said the Dept of Education. Thompson was sworn in January 2002.

It doesn't ring true when people like Thompson smell blood and start homing in on their prey. We needed him way before now. And for the record, we needed her, too.

Read the whole article in the Huffington Post. Here are some excerpts:
WHY JOEL KLEIN SHOULD BE FIRED
Posted: July 28, 2009 01:38 PM

It's time to fire New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. In eight years as chief executive of the city's school system, he has consistently embraced measures designed more to sell the idea of a system helping our students to attain critical achievement goals than to target those goals directly.

My office has a charter-mandated responsibility to audit allegations of mismanagement that are brought to our attention. In the exercise of that responsibility, we have discovered and reported on a pattern of brazen actions taken by the Department of Education that fly in the face of basic management standards.

We have uncovered repeated instances of awarding no-bid contracts to firms without a proven track record, which in one case led to a disastrous bus routing fiasco. We have reported on gross cost over-runs by outside contractors hired by the Department that have cost New York City taxpayers over $720 million and denied students funds for basic supplies.

In audit reports last week exposing shoddy oversight regarding high school graduation rates and standardized test administration, we found that the DOE has engaged in sloppy and unprofessional practices that encourage data manipulation and cheating.

With respect to graduation data, some ten percent of graduating student transcripts we looked at did not show that the requirements for graduation had been met. With respect to testing, we found that basic measures to ensure that exams are administered fairly and so as to minimize cheating are not being followed or have been eliminated. . . .

But if the Department doesn't have appropriate measures in place to prevent the manipulation of test scores and graduation data, then how do we know that the improvements are grounded in reality? The integrity of the entire process is called into question, especially at a time when school officials feel ever greater pressure to post constant gains for fear that their schools may be closed.

. . . it's time to get back to the basic priorities like curriculum, instruction and learning.

. . . we must have an educator at the helm our school system again, someone who inspires confidence across the system, from parents to teachers to administrators and, yes, to auditors.

Joel Klein must go.

— JW


Tuesday, July 28, 2009

At City Hall, legislators speak against mayoral control — very loudly

Click on the pictures below to see David Bellel's video clips of the Barron/Barron/Jackson press conference at City Hall today condemning Mayoral Control.

With outspoken legislators like these spearheading the campaign, the issue of mayoral control is far from settled.

For the whole story, read what Ednotes posted Tuesday morning here: Praise to Politicians (a few at least) on Wanting to Put a Stake in the Heart of Mayoral Control
I.


Assemblywoman Inez Barron:

The relationship that exists between the City of NY's Education Department and the State is codified in law is a Board of Education, not a Panel. So this body that the mayor has constructed has no codified legal status with the State.
The chancellor is not qualified.
We have a system where the chancellor and the mayor defy the Campaign for Fiscal Equity . . . They now want to take that decision and rearrange the money that should be coming to reduce class size and use it in other manners other than what has been codified for them to do.
A person who disregards the law, who circumvents the law, and who juggles the figures for his own benefit.
This is a mayor who flaunts the law, and tells you to take him to court, and when you do that and get a decision in your favor, he still continues to flaunt the law.
Data: This is a mayor who has fudged the data, manipulated the data.
The number of black students in gifted and talented programs has dropped dramatically. The number of African-American teachers has gone from 20% overall to 14%. And we also know that the number of black superintendents has gone from 3 to zero.
The mayor has failed to reduce class size, he's ignoring and defying those legal edicts.

II.

Council Member Charles Barron:
To Espada and to Monserrate, you can sit with the Republicans and sit with the mayor all you want. You can try to fool parents into thinking you achieved something for them with this last deal that you cut with the mayor . . .
This movement is not going away.
It's not about parents having a voice. It's about parent power.
It's about the parents having power on the PEP. It's about the council having power on the PEP. It's about the borough presidents having power on the PEP, and it's about the mayor not being an educator but a dictator and reducing his power on the PEP so it is not there at all.
A change will have to come.
We shall win.

III.

Chair of the Education Committee on the City Council Robert Jackson:
Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein have a dictatorship on the Dept of Education.
In my opinion the PEP and the Board of Education are just another rubber stamp. And we don't need rubber stamps.
Don't believe the hype.
I didn't hear anything on giving parents full partnership.
We as parents want to have on the Board of Education or the Panel of Educational Policy a majority of parents in order to decide our children's education.
Parents are not going to be silent.
Parents should speak up and say the system is not working for our children.
If you had billions of dollars, you could put out the media hype too.
— JW


PS 15 petition to keep PAVE Academy to the 2-yr agreement

GEM met with a large group of teachers from PS 15 last week and they are a wonderful group of passionate and commited educators.

We find that many charters worm their way in by claiming they are looking for space, when in reality their goal is to steal the top kids and push out the public school and take over the building. Hey! Free is better than paying rent. The DOE cooperates fully in this process.

From our friends at PS 15 where PAVE Academy wants to break their agreement to leave after 2 years.

Please take a look at this petition.

All we are asking is the charter school to stick to their agreement...that is all.
Please keep forwarding this ... we need a lot of help.


There is a request for a donation not by PS 15 but by the petition web site. You do not have to donate if you don't want to.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Unionbusting at charters?

There are points being made in a listserv that need to be said out in the open.
"The city as far as I am aware is bound to pay union scale for the trades. Guiliani tried to get around this and there were large angry demos about this. Remember the Daily News pix of the carpenter punching a police horse in the jaw when the cops tried to halt their march through mid town?

Anyway, all these renovations that the Charters do to their halls and classrooms, are they performed by unionized labor? Are the contracts for such projects no bid? . . .

Phase II of mayoral control is charters and school closings big time. We need all the help we can get. The building trades unions (including the operating engineers which the school custodian belongs to I believe) might see their interests at stake here and take an interest even though Unity caucus thinks charters are just dandy." (Sean Ahern)
Angel Gonzalez posted a report of the court ruling on wages for maintenance/custodial/repair workers and thinks that charters "will use this ruling to their favor even in a Public School Building housing their charter school." (Italics his.)

Court: NY charter schools not subject to prevailing wage laws
April 02, 2009 3:50 PM

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A New York appeals court says charter schools' contracts for construction, renovation, repair and maintenance are not subject to a state labor law requiring payment of prevailing wage rates.

The Appellate Division of State Supreme Court is reversing trial courts and the state Labor Department's 2007 opinion that followed an amendment to the law.

According to the appeals court ruling Thursday, the prevailing wage provisions apply to contracts by public agencies or third parties either acting on their behalf or as beneficiaries.

The five justices ruled the law limits application of the wage rule and does not specifically apply to private educational corporations such as charter schools, which hope to save money by negotiating less costly contracts.

Someone else jumped in about the extra cost of bussing to all the charters, saying this is not publicized enough:
"This must be very costly to bus students from all over to the charter schools. The teachers at PS 15 talked about this. The enrollment from the charter in their building is less than 50% (if I remember correctly) from the community. The rest are ALL bussed in free of charge. At a time of budget cuts to all our public schools, the DOE is paying for this bussing."
Talking about bussing, NYC Educator put up this article in the NY Post — a different kind of bussing sure, but another ramification of unchecked non-transparent, non-accountable corporatization of the schools.

I'm sure this discussion will have updates . . .

— JW

"Chartering"

That's a term all New Yorkers are going to have to get used to unless they have the energy to fight.

Fortunately, they won't have to fight it all over town (yet), just in some areas.
(More on the burgeoning just up on Ednotes.)

I came across "chartering" for the first time on the website called the New York City Charter School Center. The Core Functions of the Center is one chilly little list and as disconnected from the education of a child than anything I've ever come across.

Core Functions:

The Center will provide leadership, oversee quality assurance and serve as a facilitator and resource for:

  • New charter school leadership development
  • Student performance evaluation, assessment and data management modeling
  • Information, support services, solutions and systems to ensure continued charter school development through successful operations
  • Real estate/facility support
  • Startup, technical assistance, information sharing and fundraising grants resource development
  • Networking between charter schools and allied organizations to increase support
  • Communications to promote and advocate for effective charter school models and systemic education reform


The "Mission" is "to increase the number of high-quality charter schools and thereby improve public education in New York City" — as if one had to do anything with the other.

And the "Founding Principles" is just robo-speak:



Founding Principles:


Charter schools provide the greatest promise for the improvement of public education, in their own right, and as a model for school district reform.

Chartering makes high student achievement possible because it requires schools to be accountable for results while providing them with the autonomy and flexibility to achieve results.

Autonomy and accountability are preconditions for high student achievement but alone are not enough to achieve it. Structural reforms must be married to skilled and dedicated leaders, teachers and governing boards, who can use the autonomy granted them wisely and well.

Charter schools and chartering are a spur and a model for education reform at the district level; chartering can provide districts with a road map to institutional change and such change will be more long lasting and profound where charters are part of the larger reform efforts.

Charter schools fulfill their promise to the fullest when they not only succeed academically but when they involve parents and the community in which they are rooted as partners in that success.



I'd rather my kids be "schooled" than "chartered." The first implies learning something, the other throws them into a business model.

— JW

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Avella as "leading" man

After Tony Avella's statements at the Working Families Party forum a couple of weeks ago, progressive educators seem to be backing his run for mayor.
"I AM ABSOLUTELY NOT A FAN OF CHARTER SCHOOLS."
You can't get much clearer than that.

Avella will first have to topple Bill Thompson in the Democratic primary, and that will take some doing. In the meantime, Thompson's been putting on some new coats. He certainly wasn't asking to fire Joel Klein before Avella said it at the WFP forum.

The Avella campaign is letting people know that their man was on NY1 bashing the rubber rooms, no-bid contracts, and the atmosphere of intimidation at the DoE. Video will be available online tomorrow.

They've also put a new page on Facebook: Educators for Avella.

Tony Avella is forging the correct agenda on education.

Bill Thompson is real "Old School" when it comes to teaching kids, and he's now just playing catch up.

— JW

Saturday, July 25, 2009

July 29th — Multiple charter schools try District 4

Harlem Success Academies 5, 6 and 7 plus two other charter schools have withdrawn their request to move into District 5 and are looking to set up in District 4.

Why are we not surprised. They're trying to get as many charters established before they reach quota.

If this appalls you, get everyone you know, and be there!

From the organizers:
THERE IS A CHARTER HEARING ON THE 29TH. AT 1:00 PM.
AT THE DISTRICT OFFICE IN THE AUDITORIUM 117th STREET BETWEEN 1ST AND 2ND AVE.
6 TRAIN TO 116 ST.
PLEASE TELL EVERYONE ELSE AND BE THERE ON TIME.
IT IS TO OPPOSE HSA 5, 6, & 7 AND 2 OTHER CHARTER SCHOOLS FROM COMING IN TO HARLEM.

PLEASE CALL ME
(917) 406-1091 ANNETTE JIMENEZ

PS 197 - Parents & teachers speak out


See Angel Gonzalez's powerful NEW VIDEO of parents, teachers, and government staff protesting last Wednesday at PS 197 in Harlem.

Chapter Leader Antoine Bogard reads a powerful indictment against the DoE and the union for violations of education law and refusal to work with parents.






Friday, July 24, 2009

BloomKlein's recipe for inflation

Loretta Prisco's brilliant thrust into the BloomKlein jugular needs to be posted everywhere.

(We grabbed it from Ednotes at: Prisco: Extending mayoral control is a recipe for failure).


Proponents of Mayoral Control state “improvements” in scores as justification. Scores have jumped in cities without mayoral control proving this a fallacy. Teachers know the secret recipes.

The Not-So-Secret Recipe for Increased Scores:
1. Negotiate a $118 million testing company contract that dumbs down the tests.
2. Eliminate social studies and science, throw out the arts and turn schools into test prep factories.

The Mayor’s Sure-Fire Recipe for Increasing Graduation Rates:
1. Transfer failing students to special programs (Goodwill, drug programs) that are not required to report dropouts.
2. Offer failing/ truant students the opportunity to do a simple project for credit in lieu of attending/ passing classes all term. (Credit Recovery).

The Miraculous Recipe to Close the Achievement Gap between Students of Color and White Students:
In scaling scores, make it easier for students to move from a Level 1 to Level 2 and from 2 to 3 (requiring fewer correct answers for Level 2). Voila –– the gap is closed.

The Mayor’s Secret Recipe for Improving Scores of English Language Learners (ELL):
Give extra test time to these students even though have mastered English and passed the NYSSLAT test that moved them out of ELL programs.

Bake and watch the cake rise.

Loretta Prisco
Staten Island, New York

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Thurs., July 23rd — City Hall


From the organizers:

The Press Conference will be held at 12:30 on the Steps of City Hall with the Senators who objected to the Bill for Mayoral Control.

At 1:30 P.M. there will be a rally with Elected Officials, the Senators and Teachers and Staff members from PS 123/PS 197/PS 375

Come Out and Support Us and Send a Message to City Hall.
Coalition for Public Education — 3R Coalition — ICE — ICOPE —
Parent Commission — GEM — BNYEE — NYCNSC — DC37 —
Bloomberg Watch Group — UFT

"Today's not about THAT fight."


UPDATED info on this situation (with even more video) here at Ednotes.

Ednotes just put up a new video of the PS 123 demonstration and walk-through July 10th with Manhattan Borough Pres. Scott Stringer.

GEM people asked all the right questions and made all the right points.
Stringer: "We're on the case."

Stringer: "We're going to work."
But, they haven't been on the case, and they're only going to get on it if it becomes politically expedient.

You could tell there's a long way to go after Norm Scott asked:
"If Bloomberg and Klein run the schools for 7 years, they're in charge of every school, how do they manage to push the idea of a charter school, which basically absolves them of the responsibility.

In other words, isn't that an admission of their failure if they say that public schools are failing and they need charter schools. Isn't there a contradiction in that very concept?
Stringer dodged it, claiming his purpose that morning was to see what's going on at 123 and try to figure out a solution.
Stringer: "Today's not about THAT fight."
Of course it isn't — to him. Because he and his colleagues on the City Council have watched privatization for seven years, first with the Gates money and now with the charters. The flood of no-bid contracts, non-educator corporate ideology, and inflated PR teams are not new, and it's obvious these people have bought into the process. In fact, it's in their interest to let their constituents, not to mention the entire nation, believe that the NYC school system is a model of "accountability" and "transparency," with scores going "up" and graduation rates "on the rise."

The fight that Stringer sidelined at Scott's question is the fight, no two ways about it. And it's going to have to get much louder before elected officials like Stringer get down with making quality facilities equal for all public school kids.

— JW

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The Impact of the ATR

To be distributed today at:
Bronx Teacher Recruitment Fair
Tuesday, July 21 at 4:00 PM
at Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture
450 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY 10451.
(This is the Hostos Community College's Performing Arts Center, about a block south of 149th St.)

The Impact of the ATR: G.E.M. (Grassroots Education Movement)

Who we are:
We are an organization of teachers, parents, and community activists who have come together to expose the attacks on public education that have threatened students, teachers and schools.
Impact of ATR’s:
We at GEM believe that the profession of teaching is under attack. Nothing can testify to that more than the way seasoned teachers have been cast aside from their classrooms into ATR limbo – relugated to being substitutes in their schools, and word has it for the upcoming year, as on-call substitutes traveling to other sites as well.

We believe this is a part of a larger agenda to dismantle teachers’ tenure rights and ultimately - our union, whose leadership unfortunately is, wittingly or not, speeding up this process. In the 2005 (previous) UFT contract, teachers lost the right of seniority transfers. The leadership sold this to teachers as an improvement, stating that teachers now had the ability to use the Open Market system to freely choose where to work. But as you know, the real intent was to give principals the power to hire novice teachers who are half the price, and untenured – and therefore less able to be vocal advocates of students and staff.

Events in NYC and nationwide attest to this hidden agenda. This past year, the DOE scheduled the job fair for prospective new teachers ahead of the ATR job fair, thus insuring the continued displacement of seasoned teachers. The only roadblock to the city’s agenda seems to have been the financial fiscal crisis. Because the city could not afford to pay both those in the ATR and prospective teachers, they begrudgingly accepted a hiring freeze on new teachers. Even with that freeze, seasoned teachers are finding it difficult to obtain a position.

Already, there is talk in the media, about the $ 80 million needed to keep these “overpaid substitutes” in the city’s bank roll. We believe it is a matter of time, before models like that used in Chicago will be introduced in NYC. In Chicago, excessed teachers have 10 months to find a new position – after which, they are completely released from the payroll.

We at GEM believe that the current issue pitting new teachers against seasoned teachers is wrong! All teachers that dedicate years to their students and schools, honing their craft, should be rewarded in the very least, to teach in their subject area without fearing the loss of their jobs for no acceptable reason.

Please join us to speak out against this and all the myriad of attacks that threaten public education. Thank you.
Gemnyc@gmail.com http://grassrootseducationmovement.blogspot.com/

PS 123 and Harlem Success: not separate, not equal

GEM joined with parent activists yesterday at PS 123 for another protest against the placing of a Moskowitz charter school in an existing public school. The speakers kept hammering the point they’ve been making at earlier demonstrations in front of the school, that quality education should not just be for some children, but for all children.

Community activist Bill Hargraves and former PS 123 parent said: “All we are asking is to stop systematically, methodically, destroying out schools. They are destroying us under the pretense they are helping us.”

“If the charters go under the umbrella of the DoE,” he said, “everything should be equal. We have to thank the mayor, because the mayor has woken up the sleeping giant in this city. We will not be rebuffed. We will do this continuously. We want to go down and tell him what exactly this mayoral control is. It’s not leadership. It’s control.”

The selection process for the charter school, it turns out, was not so much by lottery as some of us had thought. At inception, the DoE supplied the Harlem Success with a list of students who had scored a 3 or 4 on the citywide tests. The charter then wrote to the parents of these students to invite them to apply. Creaming is one aspect of the inequality charters are injecting into communities.

Another aspect is the quality of the learning environment. Not only is there an infusion of money into charters that the public schools dont get, but there's a question of how to handle disruptive behavior. During the course of the year, the children in Harlem Success who ended up being unmanageable got returned to PS 123. The message everyone’s getting from the DoE is that some children can be afforded a better equipped and more stable learning environment while others can’t.

Creaming kids for smaller and more manageable classrooms in a better funded facility is already divisive to the community, but it's divisive to some families as well. Parents told us that there are cases where one child is going to the charter and a sibling to the public school. They used the metaphor of the plantation, where back in the days, only some were allowed into the big house.

“Take care of us,” another parent said. “Public schools were here first.” It’s not that the DoE doesn’t get such a simple truth. Their agenda is bigger, and it's ruthless. It also has nothing to do with what’s good for kids, or they’d be making charter-quality education available to all of them.

A parent I spoke with who has a child in Harlem Success was very happy with the school, but he said two things that left some of us wondering what other levels of community engineering are going on underneath the charter school wars. “All this fighting over the space is nonsense,” he said, “because they’re going to shut it down and make condos.” He also said that Harlem Success had not wanted to be in PS 123 but in an unused school building a block away. Tweed wouldn’t allow it. In fact, we were told, there are quite a few empty school buildings in the vicinity. Someone should be finding out why that is.

At the event was a member of Harlem Success Academy’s staff, who took pictures for a half an hour but would not say why he was sent to do this and refused to be interviewed. Also present were a couple of people from Tweed. No UFT officials showed up this time.

Councilman Robert Jackson (Dist. 7) was there. He said Bloomberg and Klein were going into their 8th year and they can only blame themselves for the problems in the schools. Jackson never did answer the question he got at a rally a couple of weeks ago: why did he support Bloomberg’s bid for a third term.

The support of the city council people who have shown up to these demonstrations has been welcome. But, they need to start figuring out how they can start turning this whole thing around.

— JW

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Sen. Huntley's tired of the mayor "strangling the life out of our community"

Leonie Haimson (Class Size Matters) sent a commentary around about the recent battles in the Senate. Neither the Republican Senators or Bloomberg come off as being particularly pro-people.

The YouTube video on the right is Senator Shirley Huntley (10th Sen. District) on schools, and here's Haimson's report:
"There is video of some of the Senators who led the debate on YouTube: Senator Huntley Speaks on the Better Schools Act , in which she recounts how she is locked out of the schools in her district, including one that she helped found: “We are tired of letting the Mayor strangle the life out of our community and that’s what’s going on and we will tolerate it any longer.” Also, Senator Adams Speaks on the Better Schools Act, in which he talks about the widespread practice of “credit recovery” and pointed out to the Long Island GOP Senators who support Bloomberg would not stand for schools so badly run in their own communities: “All I’m asking is let us have input into the system, and I would do the same for you.”

On the Mayor’s radio show yesterday, Bloomberg personally attacked the NYC Senators who voted for the bill – some by name -- saying that the only possible explanation for their votes is that they wanted to “ruin” the public schools; that the bill would establish a "slush fund to train parents so parents can disrupt the schools,” and that parents should have no say in their children’s schools since “I want teachers and principals to run the classroom, they’re professionals.”

He also said that “at some point, democracy has to stop” and that the Governor should call out the state troopers to “drag” the Senators back until they agree to preserve his complete control over the schools. The full audio from Bloomberg’s radio show is available here; also see Mayor Assails Senate Inaction on School Control‎ (NY Times), Bloomberg Unleashes On The Senate Dems‎ (Daily Politics) and Mayor Bloomberg's advice to Gov. Paterson: Drag bums back to Albany (Daily News.)

The mayor and his allies, who have already spent millions of dollars on their lobbying effort, are now running nasty robocalls in the districts of the Senators who refused to comply with his will.

The 14 senators who voted for the bill: Adams, Addabbo, Diaz, Duane, Espada, Hassell-Thompson, Huntley, Carl Kruger, Monserrate, Montgomery, Parker, Perkins, Sampson, Stavisky

Why GEM opposes charter schools


Here's GEM's position on charter schools. Feel free to print these two pages out, but if you're having trouble, write gemnyc@gmail.com and we'll email you a PDF that will print out just fine.


July 23 — Charter School hearing in Brooklyn


Community School District # 13



From the organizers:
This came about because I questioned whether public notice was given to the community at-large.

We need as many people as possible to show up. District 13 does not need another charter school. We already have the following:
Community Roots Charter School
Leadership Bedord-Stuyvesant Prep Charter School
Community Partnership Charter School
Achievement First Endeavors Middle School - pushed into our district because they built a school in our district. They were supposed to serve District 14. They haven't done so well lately.

The other schools haven't had a graduation as yet. Leadership in which my daughter is a former student just had their first year of testing 3rd grade.

Community Partnership is not doing well.

We have Bedford Academy in our district who graduated 96% of their students this year in 4 years.

Khem Irby 718-452-0146

Good Afternoon Everyone,
Attached (and below) is the public hearing notice for Bedford Preparatory Charter School. Please share with families in your community.
Jacqui

Jacqui Lipson
CEC Administrative Coordinator
Office for Family Engagement and Advocacy
NYC Department of Education
49 Chambers Street, room 503
New York NY 10007
(212) 374-2425
(212) 374-0076 (fax)
jlipson@schools.nyc.gov

July 20 - July 23: A week of CHARTER SCHOOL DEMONSTRATIONS


PS 375 set for Tuesday, the 21st has been canceled.




From the organizers:
"GEM Organizers, united with the Charter-Invaded Harlem Public School Communities and ACORN, encourage everyone to bring signs, banners and leaflets as we organize to educate our Harlem community about the injustices of Charter Schools, dictatorial mayoral control & the DOE."

Contact person: Angel Gonzalez

Today, Sun., July 19th: Press Conference at City Hall


From the organizers:

The Senate's vote on mayoral control:

On Thursday night, the Senate brought S5576, the Better Schools Act to the floor, which would create moderate curbs on the Mayor’s dictatorial control, including set terms for PEP members and one less than a mayoral majority on the board.

The legislation was defeated, 15-40, mostly because of upstate, suburban and Republican opposition, while two thirds of the Democratic NYC Senators voted for it. Then they called a recess and went home.

The names of the Senators who voted for the bill are below; as well as those who voted against.

Please thank your Senator if he or she supported the bill and ask those who opposed it to reconsider – and to recognize the need for checks and balances and a real voice for parents at every level of the system.

There is video of some of the Senators who led the debate on YouTube: Senator Huntley Speaks on the Better Schools Act , in which she recounts how she is locked out of the schools in her district, including one that she helped found: “We are tired of letting the Mayor strangle the life out of our community and that’s what’s going on and we will tolerate it any longer.” Also, Senator Adams Speaks on the Better Schools Act, in which he talks about the widespread practice of “credit recovery” and pointed out to the Long Island GOP Senators who support Bloomberg would not stand for schools so badly run in their own communities: “All I’m asking is let us have input into the system, and I would do the same for you.”

On the Mayor’s radio show yesterday, Bloomberg personally attacked the NYC Senators who voted for the bill – some by name -- saying that the only possible explanation for their votes is that they wanted to “ruin” the public schools; that the bill would establish a "slush fund to train parents so parents can disrupt the schools,” and that parents should have no say in their children’s schools since “I want teachers and principals to run the classroom, they’re professionals.”

He also said that “at some point, democracy has to stop” and that the Governor should call out the state troopers to “drag” the Senators back until they agree to preserve his complete control over the schools. The full audio from Bloomberg’s radio show is available here; also see Mayor Assails Senate Inaction on School Control‎ (NY Times), Bloomberg Unleashes On The Senate Dems‎ (Daily Politics) and Mayor Bloomberg's advice to Gov. Paterson: Drag bums back to Albany (Daily News.)

The mayor and his allies, who have already spent millions of dollars on their lobbying effort, are now running nasty robocalls in the districts of the Senators who refused to comply with his will.

For your Senator’s contact info go to http://www.nysenate.gov

If they voted yes, say thank you for standing up for parents, and don’t give up!

If they voted no, ask them why their support unilateral mayoral control, the lack of any parent input into education policies, and the administration’s wrongheaded policies.

The 14 NYC Democratic Senators who voted YES for the Better Schools Act (and for checks and balances on mayoral control)
Adams
Addabbo
Diaz
Duane
Espada
Hassell-Thompson
Huntley
Carl Kruger
Monserrate
Montgomery
Parker
Perkins
Sampson
Stavisky

The 6 Democrats from NYC who voted NO to the Better Schools Act
Malcolm Smith
Jeff Klein
Diane Savino
Liz Krueger
Jose Serrano
Eric Schneiderman

(Sens. Dilan and Onorato were excused; Sen. Squadron was on vacation, but presumably would have voted no.).

All three NYC Republicans voted no:
Padavan
Lanza
Golden

Friday, July 17, 2009

GEM news reported in Ednotes


Important reports on GEM's work in the fight against Corporatization.

Are Charters Beginning to Run Out of Kids to Cream? (July 17)
EXCERPT: Last night at Shellbank, Brooklyn Dreams came off as looking pathetic as they search through south Brooklyn for the right sweet spot. Asked to define what they offer that public schools don't, the only thing they could come up with is "smaller class sizes". Duhhh!
[continued . . . ]

Resistance Grows in Harlem (July 16)
EXCERPT:
"But in recent months, the black community seems to be rising up. The old community control struggles of the 60's seem to be re-emerging where black activists are asking the same questions about dictatorial control of the schools as the white activists. The heavy hand of the Moskowitz invasion of Harlem schools has not helped BloomKlein. . . .

GEM has been serving a role in trying to bring teachers. parents and community activists together in a black/white/Hispanic united front. We have been taking a firm stand against mayoral control (NO TWEAKS) and against charter schools in any form. [continued . . . ]

The Resistance Grows: GEM News and CAPE Press Release (July 16)
EXCERPT: CAPE's statement: "“The Bloomberg administration’s long-term goal is to cut the number of public schools in half and double the number of charter schools.” This claim was recently made in a Helen Zelon article quoting long time administrators and DOE officials. It is a claim that is quite disturbing and has motivated a group of educators and parents to organize for the protection and preservation of public schools and public education.

This group, Concerned Advocates for Public Education, seeks to lend their voice to the education policy and reform debate, a voice that has been marginalized and silenced, a trend that we will stand for no longer. [continued . . . ]

— JW

Thursday, July 16, 2009

The Truth about Charter Schools

A study on charter schools released on June 15, 2009 by Stanford University (sponsored by PRO-CHARTER groups: Walton Family and Susan Dell Foundation) studying 15 states and District of Columbia found that:
• 80 % of charter schools performed the same or worse than traditional public schools: (37% that did significantly worse and 46% that performed the same).

• African American and Hispanic students were found to do worse in charter schools in math and reading scores.

• In Florida, the leading state with charters (389 schools), “Black students, bottom-tier students and top-tier students in Florida charter schools all perform "significantly worse" in reading and math than their peers in other public schools.

A study released on August 22, 2006 by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) found:
• Students in charter schools performed several points lower on reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress Test (the gold standard).

A report by the United States Department of Education (under George W. Bush) in 2003 found:
• Charter schools in all five case-study states were less likely than traditional public schools to meet performance standards even after controlling for several school characteristics.

• More than half of authorizers (of Charter schools) report difficulty closing a school that is having problems - a key responsibility of authorizers in this educational reform.”

• The reality is that only 36 percent of authorizers had a charter school office, or staff in 2001-02, suggesting limited capacity to address charter school oversight.

• Only four percent of authorizers had NOT renewed a school’s charter and six percent had revoked a charter as of 2001-02. (Bad charters keep on going).

• Charter schools are more likely to serve minority and low income students but less likely to serve students in special education.

• According to the 1999-2000 SASS, 79 percent of teachers in charter schools held certification, compared with 92 percent of teachers in traditional public schools.

A study by Arizona State University (EPAA) in August 2002 finds:
• charters in economically depressed areas may receive more funding than the traditional public schools that surround them, placing traditional public schools at a funding disadvantage.

• In the case of DC charter schools, private funding was found to have accounted for $780 per pupil and, combined with a higher level of public funding (mostly due to non-district funding), resulted in considerably higher funding for charters than comparable public schools.

We at GEM (Grassroots Education Movement) believe:

The invasion of charter schools is an issue of race. If white affluent public schools have low teacher-to-student ratios and access to top notch academic building and programs, why is a lottery system the only means by which urban minority students can access these equitable conditions. A lottery system of winners and losers, is abandoning the conversation that ALL students, regardless of race and socio-economic backround deserve the greatest of educational opportunities.

Charter schools, like those in Harlem, vastly under-serve English Language Learners and Special Education Students. Due to the self selection process of lottery systems, not only are Charter schools creaming off the top of various student sub-groups, their lack of programs for Special Education and ELL students dissuade those parents from seeking their children’s enrollment.

Charter schools are a political and corporate tool used by those favoring privatization to access the 800 billion dollars spent yearly in public education. If public education goes the way of the current health care model, a vast number of students will get education on the cheap. Profit not education, and shortcuts not support, will be the guiding principle. The funding gap and resource gap will become even more stark than it is now.

The current limited success of a few charter schools bedazzled by huge corporate sponsored budgets can not be replicated on a system wide basis. For example, the budget of Harlem Promise Schools requires a yearly 36 million in private funding alone. If Harlem Promise Schools have shown anything, it is that lowering class size, providing the best supporting services and resources, should be the goal for every student in the inner city – not just those that win a lottery. We are abandoning the goals of an equitable public education, which although never fully realized, have made significant gains since Brown vs the Board of Education. Charter schools are in essence legitimizing the two tiered system of education for the lucky versus those left behind.

Furthermore, charter schools open the door for skirting a fine line between church and state. Recent controversies pertaining to Hebrew Language Charter Schools, Arabic Language Charters, Hellenistic Language Charter Schools, and the conversion of Catholic private schools into charter schools, may provide loopholes that may further segregate rather than hold the public school ideals of democratic multiculturalism.


Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Councilman Fidler: "We don't want it, we don't need it!"

UPDATED: THERE ARE VIDEO CLIPS of this meeting at Ednotes.


This just in about Councilman Lew Fidler and the fight going on over the charter school pushing into Shell Bank JHS in District 22.


Councilman Lew Fidler is bristling at Brooklyn Dreams Charter School's push into our 'hood. Though he's against charter schools in general, he's particularly angered about the latest attempts to infiltrate our own District 22.

"We don’t want it, we don’t need it, and our schools down here don’t merit it," he told Sheepshead Bites over the phone.

And like many in the community, Fidler fears an attempted invasion of public educational facilities by Brooklyn Dreams - a la Hebrew Language Academy/Marine Park J.H.S - despite promises from officials to find their own space.

"The problem with that is that’s what we heard from HLA when they were in the charter process," he said. He also shook a finger at the decision to schedule summer hearings, when many parents are away on vacation, and the school's attempts to move into other districts in search of the path of least resistance. "Somehow they don’t imagine that the opposition to a charter school would be just as consistent here?"

As a member of the education committee and chair of the youth services committee in the City Council, Fidler has had behind-the-scenes access to the citywide charter schools debate. What he has seen has made him a decided — and influential — opponent to charter schools.

[Continued here.]


See our July Action Calendarfor the meeting scheduled for July 16th.

"Get Bloomberg out of our schools"

That's the title of John Yanno's report of the demonstration at Tweed last Tuesday (July 8th) in the Socialist Worker.

NEW YORK--A multiracial group of 200 parents, teachers, students and community members descended on "Tweed," the New York City Department of Education building, to demand an end to mayoral control of the city's public schools. . . .

. . . Sam Coleman of the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) decried the constant barrage of tests teachers are forced to give their students, telling the crowd that "test prep is not education" . . .

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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

What's Stringer really after: Transparency or Justice?

We were able to transcribe 99% of what Borough Prez Scott Stringer had to say at the PS 123 rally last Friday morning (see the whole video clip over at Ednotes).

When a guy talks about "transparency" 3 times in 3 minutes, I guess he means it.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the issue this time.

What got parents, Acorn and GEM out on the streets twice last week was the grotesque way Moskowitz's Harlem Success Academy pushed its way into public school space.

Transparent or not, what's going on at PS 123 and at other sites is unjust: You don't break up functioning public schools or pit sections of communities against each other for the sake of corporate interests. Stringer didn't go near that issue, which you can read for yourself:
"Today is a very serious matter for school parents and residents of the Harlem community.

"Last week police had to be called to a public school to determine who actually controlled the space. In all my years as a public school student, as an elected official, I just don't remember the last time cops had to come to a school because people were trying to shove out another school for their own benefit and their own gain. This is politics at its worst, and it has to stop.

"Today's tour is the beginning of what I hope will be a coherent process by which we can get our arms around the issue of space, the issue of classrooms, to make sure everybody has the opportunity to utilize these buildings.

"I am quite frankly very shocked that this public school, this successful public school, is basically being pushed aside so that another school can come in and have more classroom space.

"And what's so unfair is that the public school is allowed to have more space — convert the old teachers' lounge, classrooms in the basement — but basically, beginning to deconstruct 123.

"So, I think it's time for us to stand up to this, to send a strong message to the schools chancellor that says you cannot have a policy that is deceitful, that is not above board, that is not transparent.

"And I'm here today [with] somebody I just appointed, my council Jimmy Yan as a member of the Board of Education—
[GEM note: He's the one Stringer installed at the new Board of Education instead of re-intalling Patrick Sullivan — the only person who ever stood up to BloomKlein's nonsense at the old PEP. That little shift of personnel was never explained. So much for transparency.]
"—and he's here with me today. And we're walking this school, we're gonna check out the classrooms. But, we're gonna make it very clear to the charter school: You are not going to come in here and take over Harlem public schools without making sure that there is a transparent open process.

"And when you hear from parents and local residents, there to remind strangers to this community that people have struggled long and hard to build these public schools, to graduate these kids, to give thema sense of hope and success. And to come into a school and separate people, and divide people, sends the wrong message to our kids, right? And that's something we can't [..?..].

"So, I want to thank the community for being here, for Acorn. Let's do this tour, and let's find out very clearly what's going on inside, and then we'll be able to tell the press, who are outside, exactly what the real deal here is, so we can make this a transparent and open process.

"Thank you all very much."

NY1 showed up again, and we're grateful for the press (see their clip here). Stringer's not really putting a check on the mayor's plans for more charter schools, but according to NY1, he's asking the chancellor to "suspend all activity in the school [and] sit down with the community to discuss their concerns."

Did Stringer really call for a "suspension of all activity" at PS 123? If he did, that's a start, and everyone should keep an eye on this to make sure it happens. If NY1 got it wrong and he didn't actually say that, tell us what he really said.


What you do hear him saying in the clip is: "T
his is is not about creating a political rally. This is about how we are going to educate all of the children, the charter school and the public school, in September."

One thing's for darn sure. It's a little late for sitting around chatting about September's opening of either school — maybe a year too late.


Here's an update about the next PS 123 meeting set for tomorrow:
Wed., July 15th, 5:30 p.m.
Adam Clayton State Office Building
163 West 125 Street, 9th floor

Read GEM's earlier post on what Councilman Tony Avella had to say at the same protest. It's the way we like it.




Sunday, July 12, 2009

Tony Avella at P.S.123 on Friday, July 10th

Here's the video of the Councilman saying what we're saying.



And here's a press release on the same story:
Avella Stands with Victims of the Charter School Takeover of PS 123

Harlem — City Councilmember and Mayoral candidate Tony Avella joined with parents and teachers from PS 123 this morning to resist the downsizing of their school and the expansion of the charter school Harlem Success Academy II.


“The reason for having a charter school was because the public school system wasn't working,” Avella said. “Why not fix the public schools in the first place? It's backwards common sense. And for a charter school to take over a local school and push them out little by little is just unacceptable.”

On July 2, movers hired by Harlem Success Academy entered PS 123 and began carrying all furniture and computers out of the classrooms and stacking them in the gym, even though a lawsuit by the teachers union and parents had put a stop to the expansion of the charter school. The Department of Education has called the problem “a mistake in communication.”

“It should never be a situation where a charter school comes into a public and literally starts pushing them out, literally starts pushing the kids out from their own local schools. That should never be done. And it's happening here. You don't want it to happen here and I'm here to support the parents.”


Saturday, July 11, 2009

Gonzalez, Schmidt (and Scott) at PS 123



UPDATED: More GEM commentary on video clips from PS 123 protests — Councilman Tony Avella here and Manhattan Borugh Prez Scott Stringer here.


A word about the second PS 123 protest against the sneak attack on the school by Moskowitz's Harlem Success Academy.

GEM was there, and here's how Ednotes reports it:
Gem started receiving calls on Thursday evening from PS 123 parents and teachers that the DOE had ruled in favor of Eva Moskowitz and the movers and painters were coming Friday morning. They asked us to be there and we were. That all press reports ignored our strong presence is not surprising.
Here's the link to Scott's 6-min. video of the event.
He recorded what GEM's Angel Gonzalez (above right) had to say about the disparate treatment given to charter and public schools. He calls for politicians to take a stand against privatization. It's happening at 123, but also at 241, 160, and throughout the city.

The video clip also has a few minutes of George Schmidt, editor of the Chicago teacher's union paper Substance.

Schmidt was in the belly of the beast during Obama's rise to power and had to say this about a president who's not playing well with his progressive base these days:
"He's a very nice man. He's also a ruthless, neo-liberal plutocratic ... empire builder.

"And what he gave to public education, as soon as he had the power of the presidency, was Arnie Duncan, who's gonna put the Chicago plan across the USA if he is not stopped.

"A key to stopping him and that plan has got to be to stop the unions from selling out . . .

Arnie Duncan's agenda in Chicago is to destroy public schools just like you're witnessing here, only in Chicago it's much further along, because our opposition wasn't able to get organized in time."

Will ours be? GEM hopes so, and is organizing.

ICE, TJC, and all the other sub-groups in the membership hope so too, because they see a union autocracy collaborating big time. They've already given the mayor, the chancellor and who knows who else at State the keys to the front door.

See Ednotes for upcoming videos and commentary. He's got footage of Scott Stringer, who just replaced Patrick Sullivan (the only person on the now defunct PEP to stand up to BloomKlein) with another rubber-stamper, and Councilman Tony Avella, who might have been our best mayoral choice against the privatization of our schools, but who probably won't be able to wrest Democratic controllers away from Bill Thompson.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Open invitation to the next GEM meeting

Join teachers and parents at GEM's next meeting — Tuesday, July 14th — to discuss how local communities can stop Bloomberg's charter schools from muscling into existing public schools without parental input or oversight.

That's what mayoral control has given New York City — autocracy, thuggery, and marginalization.

It's happening across the city, from Brooklyn to the Bronx, and many more communities will have to fight for their public schools before this mayor is through. He's the apex of a corporate business class wielding way too much power in New York.


As John Lawhead wrote a couple of months ago:
Not every threatened school community rallied to defend its school but many did, including M.S. 399 in Bronx, I.S./P.S. 72 in East New York, P.S. 150 in Brownsville, P.S. 144 and P.S. 241 in Harlem and Louis D. Brandeis High School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The local daily newspapers and most of the broadcast media ignored the ruckus. Participants and supporters shared video clips of rallies on Youtube and the education blogs.
(See Ednotes for full article.)

And if you haven't already, read Juan Gonzalez's article here about how Eva Moskowitz's moving crew tried installing her Harlem Success Academy into P.S. 123 without warning a week ago:
They saw the sudden arrival of the workmen Thursday as a signal that the discussion was over. So several of them rushed upstairs to confront the strangers, blocked the doorways and occupied the rooms.

"I told them, you're not taking my books and furniture out of here," said one teacher.

Police were called in. After an hour-long standoff, an official from school headquarters called to say that no one had authorized Moskowitz's movers to be in the school.

The workmen then vacated the building, leaving furniture and boxes strewn in the hallways and piled high in a corner of the gym.

Afterward, Harlem leaders labeled it a sneak attack.
Parents and teachers have already mounted a protest — see it here. And they'll do it again at 8:30 tomorrow morning, and again if they need to. You can join them.

If you teach in the city, or if you're raising your kids in the city, now's the time to get involved. Check out the GEM sidebar for events that need your support, and read about them more completely in our monthly Action Calendar posts.

Next GEM meeting
Tuesday, July 14th at 4:30 p.m.
CUNY Grad Center Room 5414 (or the room next door)
(34th Street and 5th Avenue)
Bring ID.

Call in to WBAI tonight, 7 - 8 p.m.

Tonight and every Thursday evening: "EDUCATION AT THE CROSSROADS" on WBAI

The host of the program, Basir Mchawi was at the Tweed demonstration last Monday and invited people to call if they had something to say.

We think he was really trying to say that people have to start speaking up if anything is going to change the destructive course of BloomKlein in NYC education.

Here's the number.

(212) 209-2900
7 - 8 p.m.


AND SEE THE POST RIGHT BELOW THIS FOR ALL THE OTHER ACTIONS THIS MONTH.

Friday, July 3, 2009

G.E.M.'s Action Calendar July 09


UPDATED (July 18th, 10:15 a.m.)

When GEM receives notices of protests and demonstrations, we make it our business to let people know and encourage them to show up.

No excuses!!



COMPLETED — Mon., July 6th


From the organizers:
Two teachers from the Teacher Reassignment Centers (TRCs) will also speak.
Bring signs, banners, and flyers.



COMPLETED — Mon., July 6th:
New from David Bellel: "The Puppet Master"



From the organizers:
We are calling all Registered Voters, Community Leaders, Politicians, Parents, Teachers, Students and all Educational Professionals to come out and Rally for Public Education!

DID YOU KNOW THAT . . . ?

On July 1, Bloomberg-Klein created a bogus Department of Education with his Deputy Mayor as its President.

1,000+ teachers are sitting in detention “Rubber Rooms” daily doing absolutely nothing at an expense to taxpayers in an amount over $100 million dollars per year.

Teachers who blow the Whistle on School Corruption get “U” ratings & are subjected to a hostile work environment.

Standardized Test Score data on children from poor neighborhoods are being used to feed the “School to Prison Pipeline.”

No Bid Contracts are given to fortune 500 businesses that are personally affiliated with the Mayor.

Special Education Students & English Language Learners are not receiving a FREE and APPROPRIATE Education. SCHOOLS MUST BE A MODEL OF AND – FOR – DEMOCRACY:

GIVE HS STUDENTS A REAL VOICE

Support Guidance Services, Career and Youth Development Programs in our Public Schools!

COME OUT, RECLAIM & SUPPORT YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS!

For more info, Call: NYCNSC at (718) 857-1427 NEW YORK COALITION FOR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL CONTROL
Click here for the full-size flyer in pdf.


COMPLETED — Tues., July 7th:


(poster on the right by David Bellel)

From the organizers:
P.S. 123 was featured in today's Daily News!

You can reach Ernestine August
Publish Post
us at 646-262-9052 or contact the school at 212-690-5925. You can ask for Doretha MacDonald or Antoniette Hardgrove. [140th St. and Fr. Douglass Blvd]
And here's how Juan Gonzalez starts his report in the News:
"They are calling it the invasion of the charter schools.

It seems to work this way:Parents at a neighborhood public school suddenly learn Chancellor Joel Klein has decreed they must surrender scarce classroom space in their building for a new charter school.

No parent or faculty meeting to gauge whether anyone wants the new school.

No official vote of the local Community Education Council.

Some young bureaucrat from the city Education Department's Office of Portfolio Development arrives one day with a bunch of maps under his arm and promptly orders a new allocation of rooms.

Boom. Done. All part of Klein's rush to create 100,000 new charter school seats over the next few years.

Well, yesterday afternoon at Public School 123 in Harlem, a bunch of angry parents staged a noisy protest against the charter invasion. [continued....]





COMPLETED — Fri., July 10th

EMERGENCY PROTEST at P.S. 123

Fri., July 10th, 8:30 A.M.
PS 123: 301 West 140th St.
(betw. Edgecomb & Frederick Douglass Blvd)

From the organizers:
PARENTS HAVE CALLED THIS PROTEST/
Dictatorship-DoE rules in favor of Harlem Success Academy Charter School
taking over more space at P.S. 123!

Tomorrow movers, sent by the $370K - Eva Moskowitz, will arrive again to remove
materials from P.S. 123 teachers' classrooms as she invades more Public School Space
for her charter school!

Stop this drive to privatize!
Defend our Public School Space!

Be there! Spread the word.



COMPLETED — Fri., July 10th:

OPEN MEETING — follow-up to 7/6 protest
COALITION for COMMUNITY CONTROL

Fri., July 10th, 6 p.m.
at DC37, 125 Barclay St., 4th fl.
Manhattan


From the organizers:
Agenda
1. Evaluation of "A Day of Action"
2. Strategies and Planning for the future
3. Update on Albany
4. All groups showing solidarity for the common goal (changes in school governance
5. Questions and concerns

Feel free to add topics to be discussed at the meeting.


Dear Friends,

A number of local groups who have been lobbying in Albany and advocating for an end to mayoral control are meeting on Friday, July 10, at 6 PM, at DC 37 Headquarters, 125 Barclay Street (off the West Side Highway, near Chambers on the ACE and 123) to collaborate on a strategy going forward. These include the organizers of last Monday's rally, listed below.

This is a great opportunity for parents, teachers, and concerned citizens to combine forces with others from throughout the city. We encourage CECs, Presidents Councils, PTAs/PAs, CB Education Committees, and other local groups concerned with education to send representatives and to spread the word. A vote on mayoral control in the Senate may be immanent, and nationally people are looking to NYC as an example on school governance. Concerned citizens must make our voices heard, lest the message be monopolized by those with the most money and institutional organization.

This is also a great opportunity to reach across the racial and social barriers that DOE uses to divide us and speak with one voice. I feel it is our obligation, as public school parents, teachers, staff, and other constituents, to listen and learn from each other, and to stand up for each other's interests, and to represent the wealth of perspectives that makes a great city great.

I especially extend a hand to our friends who struggle against incursions by charter schools into their local schools, and to parents of students in new schools who have been issued false promises and struggle to establish themselves. Your experience must by all means be part of our message.

I hope I will see you there.

Ann




COMPLETED — Wed., July 15th:

FOLLOW-UP to the PS 123 protest on 7/7

Wed., July 15th, 5:30 pm
at P.S. 123
301 W. 140th St. (betw. Edgecomb and Fr. Douglass Blvd)
Manhattan

From the organizers:
A Meeting of concerned citizens & groups for equal education to follow up the 7/7 protest. Contact person: William Hargraves 718-812-1102


COMPLETED — Thurs., July 16th:



From the organizers:
PLEASE ATTEND THIS IMPORTANT HEARING. IT SEEMS THE DOE WILL ONCE AGAIN BE TRYING TO FORCE A CHARTER SCHOOL INTO ONE OF OUR LOCAL PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDINGS!

Included on the agenda will be time for public comment on a newly proposed charter school in New York City. The following schools will briefly present: "Brooklyn Dreams"

Pursuant to Education Law 2857(1), the New York City Department of Education is required to hold a public hearing to solicit comment from the Community in connection with any proposal for a charter school



COMPLETED — Fri., July 17th:

Local Control of our Public Schools not Mayoral Dictatorship!
Parent, Student and Educator Power!
Better Public Schools not Charter Schools!
Money for Education not for War!
Whose Schools, Our Schools!

From the organizers:
What: Meeting of the Coalition for Public Education/Coalicion por la Educacion Publica
When: Friday July 17, 2009
Time: 6pm-8pm
Where: District Council (DC-37), 125 Barclay Street, 1st Floor
Trains: 1,2,3 to Chambers Street; 4,5,6 to Brooklyn Bridge; A,C, to Chambers Street; or R,W to City Hall

Proposed Agenda:
I. Welcome and Introductions
II. State Senate Update
III. Bloomberg Watch
IV. Harlem Schools on the Move
V. City-wide Public Schools Conference
VI. Questions and Answers
VII. Next Meeting
IIX. Adjourn

For more information please contact Mark A. Torres at (646) 372-7289 or harlem120@msn.com


Mon., July 20th thru Thurs., July 23rd:


A week of Charter School demonstrations:
Monday, July 20th — at PS 123
Time: Gather at 12:30pm / Start at 1:00pm
Location: 301 West 140th Street ( 8th ave) NY, NY 10030

Tuesday, July 21st — at PS 375
Time: Gather at 12:30pm / Start at 1:00pm
Location: 141 East 111 Street ( Between Lexington and Madison) NY, NY 10029

Wednesday, July 22nd — PS 197
Time: Gather at 12:30pm / Start at 1:00pm
Location: 2230 5th Avenue (136th Street) NY, NY 10037

Wednesday, July 22nd — at Senator Bill Perkins Office
Time: Starts at 5:30 pm
Location: 163 West 125th Street (9th Floor) NY, NY 10025

Thursday, July 23rd — Tweed Courthouse
Time: Gather at 1:00pm/ Start at 2:00pm
Location: 52 Chambers Street NY, NY 10007


From the organizers:
"GEM Organizers, united with the Charter-Invaded Harlem Public School Communities and ACORN, encourage everyone to bring signs, banners and leaflets as we organize to educate our Harlem community about the injustices of Charter Schools, dictatorial mayoral control & the DOE."

Contact person: Angel Gonzalez

Thurs., July 23rd


From the organizers:
This came about because I questioned whether public notice was given to the community at-large.

We need as many people as possible to show up. District 13 does not need another charter school. We already have the following:

Communty Roots Charter School
Leadership Bedord-Stuyvesant Prep Charter School
Community Partnership Charter School
Achievement First Endeavors Middle School- pushed into our district because they built a school in our district. They were suppose to serve District 14. They haven't done so well lately.

The other schools haven't had a graduation as yet. Leadership in which my daughter is a former student just had their first year of testing 3rd grade.

Community Partnership is not doing well.

We have Bedford Academy in our district who graduated 96% of their students this year in 4 years.

Khem Irby
718-452-0146

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Attached (and below) is the public hearing notice for Bedford Preparatory Charter School. Please share with families in your community.

Jacqui

Jacqui Lipson
CEC Administrative Coordinator
Office for Family Engagement and Advocacy
NYC Department of Education
49 Chambers Street, room 503
New York NY 10007
(212) 374-2425
(212) 374-0076 (fax)
jlipson@schools.nyc.gov