Update on our Skinny award dinner, class size, court hearings, privacy violations and more!

1. Save the date! On Wednesday June 19 we will hold our annual Skinny award dinner at Casa La Femme on 140 Charles St. The honorees will be Attorney General Tish James for her steadfast and courageous leadership in supporting public school students and parents over many years; and NYC Kids PAC, the only political action committee that rates candidates on their positions on public education. Please reserve your ticket now -- for a delicious three course dinner with wine and great company besides!

2. Last week, the Education Council Consortium and CEC 2 both passed resolutions in support of our campaign to urge the City Council to allocate funding for class size reduction in this year's budget. Please ask your CEC to do the same! We can provide you with district-specific data if you like.

3. This week two important court hearings will be held. Tomorrow, Wed. May 15 at 2:30 PM at the NY Supreme Court, 60 Centre St., Rm. 418, Judge Arthur Engeron will hear a lawsuit vs the city for redacting nearly the entire final City Hall decision memo that we FOILed about how the DOE's formula for assessing school space would be revised, and why the Mayor rejected the Blue Book Working Group's proposal to align school capacity with smaller classes.  

4. This Thursday May 16 at 11 AM, Judge Katherine Levine will hear arguments on the DOE's proposal to close PS 25, a small zoned school in Bed Stuy. The hearing will take place at the Kings Country Supreme Court in Brooklyn, at 360 Adams St. Last year PS 25 parents sued and got a temporary restraining order against closing the school. I wrote an open letter to Chancellor Carranza that was published in the Washington Post Answer Sheet, asking him to withdraw this proposal; obviously he did not.

5. Because of unconscionable delays on the part of the US Department of Education in responding to parents' FERPA complaints, Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy have once again violated student privacy and federal law. An update on this long-running saga is here.

Talk to you soon, and please sign up for our Skinny dinner today!

[VIDEO] NYC KidsPAC Education report card for the Mayor press conference

Video taken by Michael Elliot at our NYC KidsPAC press conference on April 19 where we released our education report card for Mayor de Blasio.

Damaging impacts of charters on Harlem's public schools

Empty room at Success charter school taken from PS 175

On October 8 I gave a presentation to the Community Education Council in District 5 on the impact of charters on their public schools in Harlem.  Our analysis, among other facts, revealed how much more disadvantaged the students are in their district public schools .  The power point is below.

Another empty Success charter room taken from PS 175

Parents have also sent me these photographs.  The first two are classrooms that Success Academy charter school took from PS 175 this year,that are now sitting empty.

This further suggests that these rapidly expanding charters are indeed under enrolled as this article and this analysis of DOE school enrollment data from the Blue Book suggest--  facts that SUNY apparently ignored when they authorized 14 more Success charters last week.

Below is another photograph, showing how the expansion of another Success charter has taken so much space within PS/MS 149 in Harlem that the speech therapist now has to share the room with the PTA office; with the two spaces only separated by sheets.

PTA office/speech therapy room at PS/MS 149

I emphasized at the meeting how important it is for parents and teachers to speak out about the negative impact of charter co-locations on their schools. If you have stories to tell or photos to share, please share them with us at info@classsizematters.org.  Thanks!

District 5 Charter Impacts in Harlem

Dennis Walcott infuriates parents once again, this time in District 6

On Thursday November 10, the Community Education Council in Northern Manhattan hosted a Town Hall meeting with Chancellor Dennis Walcott.  The CEC prepared an excellent power point containing key data about the district, along with specific questions for the Chancellor.  It was a contentious meeting, according to all reports; see the Gotham Schools story.  Unfortunately, despite lots of PR spin about "partnering with parents," there is no evidence that Walcott is willing to listen to parents and shift away from the wrong-headed and damaging policies of his predecessor, Joel Klein, including repeated budget cuts, class size increases, worsening overcrowding, preferential treatment of charter schools with continued co-locations , and incessant testing. Here is the account of the meeting from Victoria Frye, CEC 6 member and public school parent: 

We described the issues facing our schools: too little resources to provide a quality education; overcrowded schools; disgraceful school conditions; budget cuts; co-locations; THE LIST GOES ON!

With each, Dennis Walcott got up and...spouted the party line: 

"The reality is that in this economy there will be mid-year budget cuts."

"With shrinking budgets, leaders must be creative."

"By creating school choice we are allowing the market place to drive the issues."

"I respect Joel Klein tremendously. I think the world of Joel Klein."

"There are no plans in our capital budget for a new facility for Mott Hall" [the only program for gifted D6 IS students and a national model].

And then something along the lines of: "your D6 schools are so bad that we will not replicate or grow them; we will simply bring in [charters] that really know how to educate your D6 children."

What to say?

OCCUPY EDUCATION. IT IS THE ONLY WAY.

-- Victoria (Tory) Frye, CEC 6 member.