Message to Senators: just say no!

This letter went out this afternoon to the members of the NY State Senate.

Dear Senators:

On behalf of the Parent Commission, we urge you to vote no on the three chapter amendments on school governance; and no on the Padavan/Silver bill.

The original Huntley and Sampson bills recognized the need for checks and balances and a real partnership between parents and the mayor in school governance. The new Huntley and Dilan/Perkins amendments would require a vote by all parents in electing members of Community Education Councils, which is a step forward.

But the amendments contain none of our other recommendations to strengthen the parent voice: no independent parent organization, no commission of stakeholders, no greater authority for CECs or School Leadership Teams. They do not make the Chancellor and the DOE subject to city law, nor do they provide any significant checks and balances by creating a more independent Board of Education.

At the same time, all three amendments take two steps backwards by limiting elected CEC members to only two, two-year terms.

It’s hard enough to find parents willing to run for this office as it is. In our estimation, this provision would make it considerably more difficult, and would lead to excessive attrition and fewer experienced parents in these seats . The collective memory and the historical perspectives embodied in long-time parent leaders are critically important for CECs to function effectively. Stripping these parent leaders of the right to serve by introducing such restrictive term limits is detrimental to parental engagement in the education of their children. If the concern is to allow parent voices to be heard, then the solution is to strengthen the legal authority of the CECs -- which neither the amendments nor the Silver/Padavan bill would achieve.

Meanwhile, the Mayor is running for his third consecutive four-year term, and the Legislature has no term limits at all. It is hard to see any rationale for this provision, except to further weaken parent input and put parents even more at the mercy of the Mayor's unilateral decision-making .

We urge you to vote no on the three amendments and on the Silver/Padavan bill, to demonstrate your recognition that unlimited mayoral control is not the will of most of your constituents nor most public school parents.

In two recent polls, the Quinnipiac and the Marist, voters overwhelmingly said that the mayor should share power with an indendent board, and/or the City Council. Despite the hard work of many parents and some legislators, none of the proposed chapter amendments corrects the most fundamental flaws of the 2002 governance law, effectively continuing the status quo.

One man rule is not only contrary to our entire democratic system of checks and balances, but has led to unwise and destructive policies in our schools, including hundreds of millions of dollars wasted in no-bid contracts, more overcrowding, larger class sizes, a loss of art and music, and our schools becoming test-prep factories.

The current system of Mayoral control has been promoted by those who have no children in the public schools, and no personal stake in the future of our public school system. They do not have the interests of our children at heart.

Thank you for your continued efforts on our behalf, and for a system of school governance that would exemplify partnership rather than dictatorship -- and that would ensure a brighter future for our children and the system as a whole.


Vern Ballard, Ellen Bilofsky, Patricia Connelly, Susan Crawford, Lisa Donlan, John Englert, Rosa Flores, Leonie Haimson, Josh Karan, Benita Lovett-Rivera, Monica Major, Warren Miner, Carla Philip, Charmaine Philip, Ellen Raider, Tamara Rowe and Shino Tanikawa on behalf of the Parent Commission

www.parentcommission.org
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Organizations which endorsed the recommendations of the Parent Commission:

Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence; Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats; Class Size Matters; Community Board 1 Manhattan; Community Board 3 Manhattan; Community Board 9 Manhattan; Community Board 12 the Bronx; Community Board 12 Manhattan; Community Education Council District 1; Community Education Council District 2; Community Education Council District 6 ; Community Education Council District 11; Community Education Council District 17; Community Education Council District 20; Community Education Council District 22; District 1 Presidents Council; District 2 Presidents Council; Ethical Action Committee of Brooklyn Society of Ethical Culture; Human Rights Project of Urban Justice Center; Independent Commission on Public Education; New York Coalition for Neighborhood School Control ; Right to Read Project; Second Presbyterian Church (6 W. 96th St.); Stuyvesant High School Parent Association;
Time Out From Testing; 3 R's Coalition

State and city laws routinely flouted by this administration

Check out part II of the March 26 forum,"Demystifying Mayoral control," with Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters (me!) recounting some of the state and city laws that this administration chronically violates, and also summarizing some of the recommendations on how to reform the system, as proposed in the report released by the Parent Commission on School Governance.

Only two themes have been consistent through the constant reorganizations and permutations of the Bloomberg/Klein agenda: a persistent disregard for the law, and a continual refusal to allow parents to be involved in decisionmaking at the school, district or citywide levels.

Juan Gonzalez' column on charter schools and Mayoral control -- expurgated for the web?

Juan Gonzalez has another excellent column about how charter school parents are being used as “political shock troops” for the administration in its effort to renew dictatorial Mayoral control. Many of these parents are told by their principals to show up for rallies and hearings, while principals of regular public schools would be fired if they tried to enlist parents in any political cause – particularly one in opposition to the current administration: Charter school principals mobilize parents to lobby for Mayor Bloomberg School control.

Yet Juan’s column in the print edition of the Daily News is much longer than the version online, and cites the recommendations of the Parent Commission on School Governance, the fact that parents would like the Mayor to obey the law and consider the views of Community Education Councils when siting new charter schools, and the opposition of Assemblymember Daniel O’Donnell and other legislators towards renewing Mayoral control when the current governance system sunsets in June. Yet all this is missing from the web version.

Was this radical shortening of the column another instance in which the Daily News editors are trying to censor the news? Similar to the recent episode when, unbeknownst to the reporter, the top editors axed her article about the personal wealth of the top officials at the Department of Education?

As is well known, the Daily News’ publisher, Mort Zuckerman, sits on the Fund for Public Schools, along with Rupert Murdoch’s wife. The Fund for Public School has spent millions on PR for the extension of Mayoral control. Zuckerman is also a close ally of the Chancellor and the Mayor, and editorials in the News on this issue, as well as those in the New York Post read as though they were dictated straight from City Hall.

Here is the section of Juan’s column that appeared in print and yet was eliminated from the online version:

Public school parent leaders say they don’t oppose charters. They just want the DOE to abide by state law and consider the views of the local Community Education Councils, the successors to the old community school districts, before making these decisions.

“They continually create this atmosphere of animosity towards parents,” [Monica] Major said. That’s why she joined the Parent Commission on School Governance, a volunteer group that just released a proposal to sharply curb mayoral control of the schools.

Manhattan Assemblymen Daniel O’Donnell, who used to be a supporter of mayoral control, has been amazed at the widespread discontent parents have expressed at school governance hearings in all the boroughs.

“If I had to vote today, I would vote against mayoral control,” O’Donnell said. “That should trouble them [Bloomberg and Klein] because many of my colleagues in the Assembly have similar feelings.”

Assembly hearings in the Bronx: the Parent Commission makes their debut

There were hundreds of parents, advocates and union members filling the seats at the Assembly hearings on governance at Lehman College on Friday. The morning started off with a bang with testimony from a panel of Parent Commission members, putting forward their proposals on how the current governance system should be reformed.

Monica Major, president of Community Education Council 11 in the Bronx, Don Freeman, former principal in the Bronx, Lisa Donlan, president of CEC 1 in Lower Manhattan, Josh Karen of CEC 6 in Upper Manhattan, and Vern Ballard of Community Board 9 testified; a position paper is posted here. Class Size Matters is a member of the Commission and has endorsed these proposals.

The theme of the Parent Commission’s recommendations is the need for a real partnership and collaboration with parents rather than Mayoral dictatorship. We are proposing that the Chancellor and his policies be subject to both state and city law – and that there needs to be a truly independent and responsive Board of Education to provide necessary checks and balances. The Board should consist of 15 members, including six parent representatives, elected directly by Community Education Council members – who themselves will be elected directly by parents in each district. The Mayor will have three appointees, the City Council and the Public Advocate each one, and together the Board will appoint four more members to build up their expertise in specific policy areas, like the needs of ELL and/or high school students. It is our hope that the process of coming together to appoint more members will act as a consensus building exercise.

The Parent Commission also recommends the formation of an Independent Accountability Office, a truly independent Inspector General, answerable to the public, and an Ombudsperson, to respond to and resolve parental complaints. We have also put forward reforms on restoring the role of school districts, strengthening parent input, improving special education, and forming a commission to create a Constitution for the NYC school system. Check our position paper here; the full report will be out next week.

Following the Parent Commission panel, the DOE testified, with Maria Santos the head of Office of English Language Learners leading off. Despite the fact that Assembly member Carmen Arroyo accused Santos of being a liar, I thought Santos’ testimony was among the most honest of any from the DOE in years. Santos admitted that the achievement levels of middle school ELL students has been stagnant, and that graduation rates among this population has been flat. She did not try to spin the data, and twice said smaller classes would be necessary to improve results for this high needs population. (Indeed, the much-praised NYC International High schools for ELLs offer classes much smaller than the city average.)

Santos’ frank testimony was quite a contrast to the arguments of her fellow panelist in the Bronx, Chris Cerf, Deputy Chancellor, who consistently downgraded the importance of class size, criticized class size reduction as too expensive, (citing an hugely inflated estimate of $800 M for a 10% reduction) and said that this reform was not a top priority for the DOE -- despite the state law that mandates a move towards smaller classes in NYC.

Assemblymember Aurelia Greene of the Bronx and Education Chair Cathy Nolan were both very piercing in their questioning of Cerf, and asked him repeatedly why the DOE had failed to reduce class size, and indeed why class sizes had increased this year. Nolan asked him whether he thought the program was voluntary. He admitted it was not, but did not explain if DOE intended to improve their compliance in the future.

Other highlights included the questioning of Cerf and Deputy Mayor Walcott by AM Daniel O’Donnell of Cerf about their policy of replacing the neighborhood zoned schools with charter schools. He honed in on PS 241 – a school in his district, with 45% special education and ELL students, that DOE intends to replace with a branch of Harlem Success Academy, a chain of charter schools which as of this year according to state data had only two ELL students.

Cerf claimed that charter schools have high proportions of Hispanic students, and that DOE didn’t care about what kind of school was offered, as long as it has results. Later Luis Reyes offered testimony that while the NYC public schools have 14% ELL students, charter schools enroll only 4% ELLs, according to data provided him the City Comptroller. (Not surprisingly, the DOE does not make this information available to the public.)

Both AM Mark Weprin and AM Ruben Diaz Jr. were critical about the amount of testing and test prep in our public schools. AM Michael Benjamin asked about the decline of minority students at Bronx Science, his alma mater, and the other specialized high schools. What was interesting is that among the ten or more Assembly members who spoke, there did not appear to be a single one who supported the administration’s policies or Mayoral control in its current form unchanged. Where the Mayor will obtain backing for his continued chokehold on our schools is unclear – but perhaps he is relying on a backdoor deal.

There are accounts of the hearings in the NY Times blog; Gotham Schools, and WNYC radio. On each you can leave comments. Also, check out the Parent Commission website here.

Assembly hearings on school governance; please RSVP now!

The Assembly Education committee will hold hearings on School Governance and the future of Mayoral control, beginning in Queens on Thursday, January 29, 2009. More information is here; the full schedule is below.

The hearings in each borough will begin at 10 AM, but if working parents reserve a slot after 5 PM, by phone or email, you can be sure that you can speak at that time – but you must reserve the slot in advance. It is important that as many parents as possible come, but if you cannot attend, you can email your testimony as well.

To reserve a speaking slot, just email storellicastron@assembly.state.ny.us; or call (518) 455-4881. Included in the official notice is a description of some legislators' concerns:

As the law is set to sunset on June 30th of this year, the Assembly Committee on Education is interested in hearing about the impact of mayoral control on the City's school system and how modifications to the law could address concerns and improve the current governance structure. For example, questions have been raised regarding the development and execution of a five-year capital plan that still leaves many schools overcrowded and New York City with some of the largest class sizes in the state. There has also been persistent concern about the lack of access to information by parents and the community. Mayoral control has also had an impact on many other areas over which it has authority, such as student achievement. Therefore, the Committee anticipates hearing testimony regarding the effect the change in governance has had on this area, including the delivery of educational services to English language learners and students with disabilities, as well as on the other areas that have been affected by mayoral control of the New York City schools.

QUEENS
Thursday, January 29, 2009
10:00 a.m.
Queens Borough Hall
Meeting Room 213
120-55 Queens Boulevard
Kew Gardens, NY

STATEN ISLAND
Thursday, February 12, 2009
10:30 a.m.
College of Staten Island Center for the Arts
Williamson Theater
2800 Victory Boulevard, Building 1P

MANHATTAN

Friday, February 6, 2009
10:00 a.m.
Assembly Hearing
250 Broadway, Room 1923
19th Floor

BRONX
Friday, March 13, 2009
10:00 a.m.
Lehman College
Lovinger Theatre
First Floor Speech and Theater Building
250 Bedford Park Boulevard West

BROOKLYN

Friday, March 20, 2009
10:00 a.m.
New York City Technical College
Klitgord Auditorium
285 Jay Street

Mayoral Control: The Need for Accountability, Transparency and Checks and Balances

A Forum hosted by the PARENT COMMISSION on School Governance

Friday, December 19^th at 6:30 p.m.

Judson Church Assembly Hall

239 Thompson Street in Greenwich Village

(Directions: Take A, B, C, D, E, F, or V trains to West 4th Street, #6 train to Astor Place, or #1 to Sheridan Square)

Confirmed speakers include:

Council Member JOHN LIU, NYC Council Education Committee

UDI OFER, Advocacy Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union

Prof. ROBERT TOBIAS, Director, Center for Research on Teaching and Learning at NYU and former head of assessment for the Bd. of Education

GEORGE SWEETING, Deputy Director of the Independent Budget Office

For more information contact: 917-435-9329 or parentcommission@gmail.com

What's going on with Mayoral control around the country?

On Friday, there will be a public discussion/forum on Mayoral control elsewhere in the nation; sponsored by the Parent Commission on School Governance. If you’ve come to one of our previous forums on governance, (see videos here and here), you know how good they’ve been. If you haven’t, it’s time you found out.

When: This Friday, Nov. 21 at 6:30 PM

Where: Judson Church Assembly Hall, 239 Thompson St. in Greenwich Village.

(Take A, B, C, D, E, F, or V trains to West 4th Street, or #6 train to Astor Place, or #1 to Sheridan Square)

What: A dynamite panel of experts including:

Mary Levy of Washington, DC: Parent advocate and Project Director of the Public Education Reform Project,Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights & Urban Affairs

Julie Woestehoff of Chicago: Executive Director, Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE);named one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Chicago by the ChicagoSun-Times in 2004

Stefanie Chambers of Trinity College: Associate Professor and author of Mayors and Schools: Minority Voices and Democratic Tensions in Urban Education

If you think that all that is wrong with Mayoral control is Michael Bloomberg or Joel Klein – guess what! You might hear otherwise.

For more information, email parentcommission@gmail.com or call 917-435-9329.