Senator Flanagan's Privacy Bill unacceptable to parents; omits any mention of parental consent or opt out

For immediate release: Thursday, December 12, 2013

For more information contact: Leonie Haimson, leonie@classsizematters.org; 917-435-9329

SEN. FLANAGAN’S PRIVACY BILL UNACCEPTABLE TO PARENTS;

OMITS ANY MENTION OF PARENTAL CONSENT OR OPT OUT

Today, after holding public hearings throughout the state, Senator John Flanagan, the chair of Senate Education Department released a report with recommendations on the State’s current education policies and a bill on student privacy, S. 6007-2013.  Unfortunately, the report’s recommendations as written are ambiguous, and his bill is an inadequate response to the furor aroused by the state’s plan to share public schoolchildren’s personal and highly sensitive student data with the corporation called inBloom Inc.

Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters said, “In his report, Senator Flanagan calls for an immediate one year ‘delay in launching the full operation of the Education Data Portal,’ though there is no mention of this in his bill. We enthusiastically endorse this proposal if it means a halt to the state uploading any more personal information to the inBloom cloud. Yet the state could interpret this instead as a delay in the full implementation of the data dashboards, which would not prevent the possibility of breaches or the misuse of this highly sensitive information.” 

SED officials have admitted they have already uploaded much personal information to inBloom for the purposes of the “data portal roadshows” and have said they will not delay beyond January 15 the disclosure of student names, along with their grades, test scores, racial and economic status, disabilities, disciplinary records and much else, though there is a lawsuit pending in Albany County Supreme Court where on January 3, parents will ask the court to issue an permanent injunction to stop this from happening.

Haimson pointed out, “The Flanagan bill, S. 6007, is weak and contains fewer restrictions on the disclosure of student information than the Personal Protection Law passed by the New York State legislature in 1984, which remains on the books and is the basis for our lawsuit.  This new bill would omit any requirement for parental consent or opt out before children’s most sensitive data could be disclosed or re-disclosed to third parties, or shared with for-profit vendors.”

While the bill does allow districts, as opposed to parents, to opt out of having student data uploaded to the NYSED “Educational data portal,” it does not specify whether this means uploaded to the inBloom cloud or to the data dashboard vendors.

Haimson added: “The bill also calls for a privacy officer to be appointed by the State Commissioner, who would develop a “Parent Bill of Rights.”  Yet there is little reason to believe that any such document would contain requirements for parental consent, given the current Commissioner’s disdain for parents and his insistence that he alone should be able to control who receives children’s most personal data.”

Karen Sprowal, a NYC parent of a special needs child and a plaintiff on the lawsuit, says:  “Eight out of the nine inBloom states have now listened to parents and severed all ties with inBloom or put their data sharing plans on hold. In contrast, Commissioner King insists on going ahead in the face of huge opposition from parents, school board members, Superintendents, and elected officials from both parties. All these people recognize the need to protect our children from the devastating harm that would come to them if this personal information leaked out.  In contrast to the two bills already filed in the NY Senate, S5930 by Senator Martins and S5932  by Senator Robach, which both passed by the Assembly last session with bipartisan support, this new bill would not stop the state sharing information with inBloom and would provide penalties only after breaches did occur.  The damage would already be done to my son and other children. It is imperative that parental consent should be included in this bill.  Without this fundamental right, the bill has no teeth and will not save our children from our worst fears.”

Mona Davids, President of NYC Parents Union and a parent plaintiff in the lawsuit said:  “Yesterday, the NY State School Board Associations released a survey showing that 75% of school board members say that districts should have the right to opt out of inBloom, and an even large number, 78% say that parents should have that right. If you polled parents throughout the state who are outraged at this plan, I’m sure you could get even higher numbers.  It is every parent’s ethical duty and inherent right to be able to decide who sees their children’s most sensitive data – which if breached or misused could severely damage their futures for the rest of their lives.  That Senator Flanagan refuses to acknowledge that right in his bill is an insult to all parents, and suggests that he has not taken our concerns seriously.”

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Parents and advocates comment on today's charter school march

For immediate release:  Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Arthur Z. Schwartz, Advocates for Justice: aschwartz@advocatesny.com; 917- 923-8136

Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters: leonie@classsizematters.org ; 917-435-9329

Sam Pirozollo, NYC Parents Union: sam@nycparentsunion.org ; 917-533-3437 

Today, Eva Moskowitz and other charter school operators have closed their schools and are holding a political rally of students, parents and teachers, to try to pressure Bill de Blasio, Democratic candidate and frontrunner for Mayor, to go back on his campaign pledge that if elected, he will call for a moratorium on charter co-locations and charge charter schools rent.  What she and others in the charter lobby have ignored is that while Section 2853(4)(c) of the NY State Education Law allows districts to lease public school “buildings and grounds” to charters and to “contract for the operation and maintenance thereof,” it also requires that “any such contract shall provide such services or facilities at cost.” 

Arthur Schwartz, attorney with Advocates for Justice, who first filed a lawsuit on behalf of public school and charter school parents on this issue in 2011, says: “New York State Education Law requires that when a district provides space or services to a charter school it shall do so at cost.  Yet the DOE provides free space and services for more than 100 co-located charter schools.  Using figures from the NYC Independent Budget Office, we estimate that the space and services these charter schools currently receive is worth more than $100 million a year. A large chunk of that unfair subsidy goes to Success charters, which operates 22 schools across New York City, all of them co-located, with plans for seven more schools in 2014. Yet Success had an operating surplus of more than $23 million in 2012, and probably enjoys an even larger surplus this year.” 

“We have now been instructed by Justice Barbara Jaffe to take the issue to the State Education Commissioner. But in light of a recent ruling in a related case, we are asking the judge to reconsider. If she sends us to the Commissioner again we will appeal, in time to face off with a new Mayor. Success Charter Schools, which has organized the upcoming rally, is trying to exert political muscle. It will not succeed, in the public arena or in the courts. That $100 million will go back to our public schools, starved for resources, and hopefully allow them to reduce class sizes, which are now the largest in 15 years.” 

"This 'protest march' is yet another example of separate and unequal treatment afforded to charters, especially Eva Moskowitz's Success Charters," says Noah Gotbaum, a public school parent of three and a Vice President of Community Education Council District 3 on the Upper West Side and Harlem. "Success claims its schools are public, but what other public school could close their doors and demand that its parents and students attend a political rally? What other public school could sue the State Comptroller to avoid the transparency of a state audit?  And what other public school could use our tax dollars to pay its CEO almost $500,000 per year?" 

As Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters points out, “A 2011 study from the Independent Budget Office showed that co-located charters in NYC receive more in public dollars per student than regular public schools, and city spending on charters is expected to exceed one billion dollars next year.  A report released by the charter lobby attempts to contradict the IBO analysis but has little credibility, especially since its author, Harry Wilson, is personally close to many in the charter school movement , according to Whitney Tilson, prominent board member of Democrats for Education Reform.  Indeed, Wilson promised not to 'harass' charters by auditing their books when he ran for NY State Comptroller in 2010.” 

Karen Sprowal, whose own son was pushed out of a Success charter in Kindergarten, observes:  “Over the last few months we have learned of even more cases of troubling disciplinary and push-out policies in charter schools, in a series of investigative reports from Juan Gonzalez of the Daily News.  There needs to be an immediate moratorium on expanding charters as well as co-locations, so that these abusive and potentially illegal practices can be carefully examined by authorities before any new charters are allowed to open in New York City.” 

Mona Davids, President, NYC Parents Union, said:  "As a former charter parent who spearheaded the charter reforms in 2010, I'm disgusted that Eva Moskowitz and other charter leaders are using parents and students as political pawns while continuing to violate the law by not serving their fair share of students with disabilities and English Language Learners, by not establishing Parent Associations and by refusing to be audited by the State Comptroller.  This march is an abuse of power by Eva Moskowitz and other charter leaders because no public school would be allowed to shut down for an entire morning to have their students engage in political activities." 

According to Sam Pirozzolo, president of the Community Education Council in District 31, Staten Island: “I find it ironic that Ms. Moskowitz, a leader who has been given the task of eliminating the achievement gap has done little more than increase the divide between the haves and have nots.  It is unfortunate that Eva Moskowitz has chosen to intimidate mayoral candidates by closing her schools for a day. She is hiding behind parents and children for the sake of profits and a paycheck. Since their inception, charter schools have been creaming only the best students from our public schools.” 

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Two new proposals to revamp mayoral control; about time!

State Sen. Velmanette Montgomery on  steps of City Hall today

State Senator Velmanette Montgomery of Brooklyn and Assemblymember David Weprin of Queens announced today they would introduce a new bill that would end mayoral control, by taking away his supermajority on the Board of Education, now called the Panel for Educational Policy.

The Board (or Panel) would continue to have 13 members:  five appointed by the borough presidents, all public school parents, as now; and four appointed by the mayor, one a public school parent.  Four members would also be appointed by the City Council: One a representative of a college or university; one a member of a parent's organization; one a member of a Parent's Educational Council [CEC?]; and one at large. 

The Chancellor would be appointed by the Board rather than the mayor.  

Expect howls of protest by the tabloids tomorrow, saying this is a teacher union plot but nothing could be further from the truth.  The outrage and frustration among parents has never been more intense, resulting from the mayor's brutal steamrolling of his policies, sticking it in our faces , and continually implementing policies that damage our kids and our schools.   As Mike Reilly of CEC 31 put it today, "Instead of parental engagement we have parental estrangement."

Just two examples:  every year parents say their top priority on the DOE's own survey is smaller classes;  yet every year class size increases, and the mayor has the nerve to say he would double class sizes if he could.  Meanwhile, corrupt multi-million dollar contracts are renewed and rubber-stamped by the PEP for companies that are either under investigation for having stolen from DOE  or have been proven already to have overcharged DOE in the past. The latest outrage is Bloomberg's rejection of the teacher evaluation deal which will cost our schools $250 million, because he wouldn't allow for a two year sunset. 

Speaking eloquently and passionately in support of the bill were Mona Davids of the NYC Parents Union, CMs Robert Jackson and Jumaane Williams, Santos Crespo head of Local 372/DC 37, Carmen Alvarez and Emil  Pietromonaco of the UFT, and Sam Pirozzolo, President of the Community Education Council 31 in Staten Island. The consensus among the legislators, parents and union officials is that we cannot wait until mayoral control sunsets in 2015; the devastation to our children and our schools is too great; and we need to make this an issue in the upcoming mayoral election as well.

Meanwhile, last week, City Comptroller John Liu, a mayoral candidate, came up with a different proposal to reform the PEP.  According to his proposal, a nominating committee made of stakeholder groups will select two or three candidates for each seat on the PEP  after going through a transparent public process.  The mayor would then appoint from the list of candidates chosen by the committee.  The members would serve fixed and staggered four year terms, and once appointed, they could not be removed without due cause, rather than fired by the mayor at will any time he or she pleases, as Bloomberg has done in he past.  The PEP members would have staff support and compensation as well, allowing the entire operation to be more professionally run.  And though the Mayor would continue to appoint the Chancellor, the Chancellor would have to be an educator and the PEP would have to approve his or her selection.

I think that most parents would agree that either of these proposals, though not a complete fix of the governance problem, would be a significant improvement over the absurdly dictatorial system we have now.  On our NYC education list serv, Patrick Sullivan, the Manhattan member of the PEP (whom at the press conference today Robert Jackson called the "ideal member" for his independence and sharp questioning of DOE officials) wrote  that "best and most appropriate choice" would be  an elected board." And:

I don't see any justification for denying urban parents this avenue of participation while allowing it for everyone else. Are we somehow less competent to oversee educational policy and budgets?  Short of that Liu's proposal for fixed terms is good.

I don't see a lot of benefit to switching around which electeds make appointments.  I've been fortunate to have been appointed by Scott Stringer but I think many electeds would be swayed by influence of big money especially those interests who don't send their own children to public school but have a lot to say about how our children are educated.

It is true that many of the other borough appointees have been constrained in voting their conscience, and have gone along with the mayoral majority because their patrons, the borough presidents, have too often been manipulated and controlled by Bloomberg's power and money; except that is, Manhattan Borough President Stringer and the Bronx BP Ruben Diaz Jr.  Yet while an elected school board for NYC would be ideal, it seems very far off and too often, elections are themselves often "swayed by the influence of big money."

Anyway, I think it is our job as parents to support any and all efforts to limit the destructive one-man rule , and demand that the mayoral candidates let us know what their positions are on this issue and whether they would support more checks and balances in the system.  What do you think?  Please leave your comments below.

Video: NYC parent activists get a moment to challenge the corporate reform movement on Education Nation

Last week, NBC ran three days of programming called Education Nation, filmed at Rockefeller Plaza, which was primarily dominated by representatives from the corporate reform movement, who define accountability as more high-stakes testing and promote privatization through charter school expansion, both trends that in the view of many public school parents undermine our public schools and offer simplistic solutions to complex problems.

Many of the panelists and speakers were from organizations funded by the program's sponsors, which included the Gates and Broad Foundations, and echoed their pro-testing and pro-privatization views.  There was much talk about how we need "great principals" and "great teachers" and "great schools" with little realistic discussion of how we get there.  One panelist, Ralph Smith of the Annie Casey Foundation, offered a contrary thought:  that perhaps instead of relying on "greatness" we should build a system that enables ordinary people to be successful.

In general, there was little or no recognition of the frustration parents feel about the overwhelming obsession with standardized testing in our schools, the devastating impact of deep budget cuts and growing class sizes, and the way our voices have been increasingly shut out of the debate over education reform.   Even the panel on the role of parents included only one person who identified herself as a parent leader.  Rather than invite  any NYC parent to sit on the panel, Chancellor Walcott was included instead, despite the fact that the Bloomberg administration has consistently ignored parents and  treated our priorities with utter contempt.

This panel discussion, called Stepping Up: the Role of the Parent Advocate, focused  on the controversial proposal known as the “Parent Trigger", developed by the organization the Parent Revolution, which is headed by a Beverly Hills attorney named Ben Austin.  The Parent Revolution was started with funds from the Broad Foundation to encourage charter school expansion.  More information on this astroturf organization can be found on the Seattle 2010 blog, and on Diane Ravitch's blog Bridging Differences, where she calls the Parent Trigger "a stealth assault on public education."   ALEC, the secretive right-wing organization, has written a model Parent Trigger bill that has been introduced in state legislatures all over the nation, and reportedly, DFER and other pro-charter organizations are busy hiring staff to try to get a Parent Trigger bill passed here in NY state this session.  The Parent Trigger is particularly deceptive, because while it claims to empower parents, it is actually offering them only a limited number of damaging options, imposed from above. The Parents Across America position paper on the Parent Trigger is here.

At Education Nation, I challenged both Ben Austin and Dennis Walcott, pointing out that the Bloomberg administration as well as the US Department of Education have completely ignored our voices.  Most parents don’t want their schools closed or turned into charters, but yearn instead for their neighborhood public school to be strengthened with smaller classes and a well-rounded education, but this is not the choice they have been offered. 

Ben Austin responded with a sleazy attack that Parents Across America is entirely funded by the National Education Association, which is untrue.  (We received a $25,000 start up grant from the NEA, and have since raised money elsewhere, including a $5,000 gift from Diane Ravitch.)  I was followed shortly afterward by two other questioners, parent activists Mona Davids of the NYC Parents Union and Ocynthia Williams of the Coalition for Educational Justice.

But even during Ben Austin’s remarks the truth occasionally shone through.  He admitted that no parents want their schools closed, and that charter schools "are not remotely scaleable” – that is, they cannot be replicated on a large scale.  (Never mind that Walcott, who was sitting right next to him, appears to see both continued school closures and rapid charter expansion as the DOE’s top priority over the next two years.)

Other valuable moments on Education Nation were provided by Diane Ravitch during her debate with Geoffrey Canada.  Ravitch pointed out that Canada had fired his whole 6^th grade class when they didn’t test well enough; countered by Canada’s misstatement that he had “closed” the school instead.  Also you should check out the student panel,  which, among many other issues, discussed how important class size is, in allowing  them to develop closer relationships with their teachers and enabling teachers to show how much they care.

Below is video of my remarks and Austin’s response; followed by the comments of Mona and Ocynthia.  The entire segment on the Power of a Parent Advocate is here.  And don't forget to check out the video of MisEducation Nation  that followed on Tuesday night.

Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters and Parents Across America on what most parents really want:



Mona Davids of NYC Parents Union on Ben Austin's divisive tactics and her version of the "Parent Trigger":



Ocynthia Williams of the Coalition for Educational Justice on the failure of Bloomberg administration and Chancellor Walcott to collaborate with parents:

Mona Davids of the NY Charter Parents Association at the Deny Waiver rally

Parents are not giving up: no to the waiver!

For more on today's press conference, see NY1, NY1 noticias, the Brooklyn Eagle, photos on Flickr, and the website, denywaiver.com

Mona Davids of the NY Charter Parents Association on Cathie Black

More on Education Indoctrination

We held a press conference yesterday at Rockefeller Center, in protest of the one-sided coverage of NBC's Education Nation, which has turned out to be an infomercial brought to you by the Billionaire boys club of Gates, Broad and Bloomberg. Here is some coverage from Gotham Schools, and the Epoch Times.

As made clear by this media extravaganza, a handful of wealthy men and their corporate-style, free-market views were allowed to completely dominate the media, as they already control much of the output of the education research organizations and think-tanks in DC, despite any evidence that their methods will improve our schools, all in the name of "innovation." They are wreaking destruction not only on our public education system, but waging a massive misinformation campaign, with even the National Academy of Sciences powerless before them.

Bloomberg was allowed to make a 15 minutes speech on MSNBC, uninterrupted, without a single reporter allowed to ask questions, in which he claimed great progress in our schools. At the same time, during Council hearings downtown, members of the public and local elected officials were lambasting his record, and pointing out that his claims of improvements were based on fraudulent and inflated state test scores.

And yet this highly damaging model of education reform that has utterly failed to improve our schools here in New York City is being held out as a model, and foisted on the nation as a whole, in the form of charter school expansion, wasteful teacher merit pay, and even more emphasis on high stakes testing, all of which which hurts our neediest students most of all.

In essence, NBC's entire media extravaganza should have been called Education Indoctrination, an opportunity for the corporate influences that are engineering their hostile takeover of our public schools to broadcast their distortions, without little or no fear of being contradicted. Here is our press release from yesterday, here is my Huffington Post column about it, and here is a letter of protest to NBC that you can sign.

There were a few bright spots; check out NYC teacher Brian Jones, who managed to infuse a few words of truth amidst the heated rhetoric of Geoffrey Canada, Randi Weingarten, Steven Brill, and Michelle Rhee. On the same panel, Allen Coulter, the head of the Gates Foundation education division, managed to spread more of the special Gates' brand of misinformation, such as claiming that there is no evidence of benefits from class size reduction after 3rd grade, which is simply false.

There are at least 15 studies showing correlations between smaller classes in the middle and upper grades and higher student achievement and lower dropout rates, no matter how much the Gates Foundation would like to deny this. Like their support of the anti-evolution organization, the Discovery Institute, Gates seems to have no respect for research and evidence. Instead, the foundation would rather waste millions on incentive pay tied to test scores, and other free-market "experiments" that have repeatedly been proven to be worthless.

See our press release from yesterday, my Huffington Post column, and then send a message to NBC, by signing our protest letter, with 400 signatures so far and growing fast.

Here are some excerpts from the press release, from outraged parents, teachers and citizens:

Natalie Beyer, a founding member of Parents Across America and a school board member in Durham, NC: “Strong public schools are our most fundamental public resource and the foundation of our democracy. In recent years, a few wealthy philanthropists have profoundly influenced education policies and programs. Parents Across America believe that our public schools and our children’s educations are not for sale. Across this nation, we elect citizens to serve on local Boards of Education, to insure local accountability, transparency and oversight of our public schools. As a public school parent and elected school board member, I am disappointed that NBC’s Education Nation has excluded the voices of parents and critics. Your relationship with your sponsors seems to have turned what could have been an important news event into an infomercial. As your program concludes and you dismantle your Learning Plaza, rest assured that those of us who work in public education will continue the important work of challenging students every day.”

Karran Harper Royal, New Orleans parent leader and member of the Community Education Coalition: “The entire premise of this show is very offensive. The rest of America does not need another Hurricane Katrina, and certainly doesn’t need the kind of education reform that we’ve had in New Orleans. Parents are largely left out of the decisions being made by the State of Louisiana, and the claims of success of our Public Schools are being greatly exaggerated. In a recent report, the Brookings Institute and the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center admitted that "Statistically, academic growth has not been correlated with reforms." And despite Paul Vallas’ claims to the contrary on MSNBC’s panel discussion today, charter schools in New Orleans often push out students with disabilities or do not serve them well, and there have been many instances where such children have been turned away. We resent NBC using our tragedy to promote an agenda financed by big business, and that does not include the very people who use our public schools.”

Mona Davids, head of the NY Charter Parents Association, said: “Contrary to the claims made by NBC’s Education Nation, charter schools are not a magic bullet to improve our public school system. Too many of them have very high student and teacher attrition, exclude special education students, feature abusive disciplinary practices, and demonstrate disappointing levels of student achievement. What we need in this city and elsewhere is to learn from the practices of our best charter schools, and apply them to all public schools, including small class sizes, a supportive and welcoming environment for parents and teachers, and a well-rounded curriculum, featuring art, music science, all of which are being driven out of our public schools by Bloomberg and Klein, and the other so-called “experts” featured on these panels."

Lisa Donlan, NYC public school parent leader in lower Manhattan: “It is outrageous that NBC is allowing Joel Klein and our Mayor to portray our public schools as a model for reform, given the never-ending scandals, reorganizations and failed experiments that have damaged our kids over the last eight years. Charter schools, merit pay, competition among schools for students and resources, high stakes standardized tests as the basis for teacher bonuses, student promotions and school closings - -none of these things have worked in NYC, or anywhere else in the country for that matter. Bloomberg's experiments on our children have not improved teaching and learning, have not narrowed the achievement gap, have not increased equity of access to quality schools for most families, and any claims to the contrary are simply lies.”

Julie Woestehoff , Executive Director, Parents United for Responsible Education, in Chicago and founding member of Parents Across America: “Over the past few days, NBC, Oprah, "Waiting for Superman" promoters and other corporate-funded propagandists have waged war against public school parents and teachers, hoping to break their traditionally strong ties, to vilify, label, and destroy public schools, and to fool the nation into accepting a vision of education that consists of replacing open, democratically-run school systems designed to serve all children with a system of strip mall franchise schools where families are forced to "shop" for education and children are
served differently depending on how they score on standardized tests.

That's not the vision of education that will lift our nation or give our children a strong future. We reject NBC's corporate vision of education and instead support and dedicate ourselves to the rich, well-rounded, ennobling vision of education offered by true school reformers, beginning with John Dewey and embodied today by the millions of dedicated, hardworking teachers who are doing their best under ever-worsening circumstances. We choose to listen to our teachers first, and support their efforts rather than join corporate media's war against them."

NYC teacher and parent critique "Waiting for Superman"

Check out the dynamic duo, Julie Cavanagh, public school teacher at PS 15 in Brooklyn and member of CAPE and GEM, and Mona Davids, charter school parent and head of the New York Charter Parents Association, talking about "Waiting for Superman" on Fox TV this morning.

Also be sure to check out the GEM video, "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman." Hurray for them!

Gotham Schools: Why the charter cap bill should not become law

Reportedly, Speaker Silver, the teachers union and Howard Wolfson, the mayor's political operative are right now negotiating the charter school cap.

Where are the parents? Nowheresville as usual.

But we're not keeping quiet.

Mona Davids of the NY Charter Parents Association and I published a piece in Gotham Schools today, exposing the lies and disinformation of the charter school lobby, Why the Charter Cap Bill Should Not Become Law:

As parents and advocates, we are convinced that the bill being promoted by the charter school lobby to raise the cap on charter schools would seriously harm the city’s children who attend both district and charter schools.

Check it out!

Charter school parent: Charter chickens come home to roost

Last week, we learned that Chancellor Klein sent a “Notice of Intention to Revoke Charter” letter to East New York Prep Charter School (ENYP). It’s not often that the Chancellor revokes charters, so this sent folks in charter land reeling.

After the stalemate with the State Legislature on changing the charter law for Race to the Top funding, this was bad news we did not need. The administration refused to lift the cap, since the legislature’s proposal would allow district parents to have input on school sitings – yet another way that parents in New York City have been excluded from the conversation on school reform.

Although charters are public schools, the practice of ignoring the district parents' concerns in co-locations can no longer continue. It seems the views of the actual stakeholders, public school parents in both the district and charter system, are always ignored.

The financial mismanagement and corporate chicanery that occurred at ENYP and other charter schools underscores the need for more accountability, transparency, parent voice and teacher protections at charter schools.

Parents complained to the DoE and were ignored. They also had no clue about the rules governing accountability in the charter contract. Teachers stood up for their students and were fired. Low performing and special ed students were expelled from the school so that Sheila Joseph could perform well with the only thing that charters are judged on – test scores.

Well, Sheila Joseph delivered on the test scores through her reign of terror and the cost of her success are the many expelled students, the families and students of ENYP who now have to find new schools for their children and her faculty and staff who now have to find new jobs.

I know many great school leaders and board members, but I also know many school leaders who view their charter school as their own fiefdom, teachers and staff as their serfs and students as their currency.

We need greater accountability, transparency, oversight of charters and their founding boards to ensure the East New York Prep Charter School debacle never happens again.

-- Mona Davids, President, NY Charter Parents Association

For more information about the closing of this school, see also Head of charter school set to close fires back at teachers, DOE (GothamSchools); School flunks out (NY Post).