Resolution opposed to the provisions in the NYS budget giving preferences to charter schools for free public space

This resolution has been approved by  Community Education Councils in District 1 in Manhattan, District 20 in Brooklyn and District 30 in Queens.  Please let us know if your CEC has approved it as well by emailing us at info@classsizematters.org 

Resolution Opposing Provisions in the NY State Budget for 2014-2015 Requiring the Department of Education Provide Space at Public Expense of Charter Schools

WHEREAS Charter Schools in New York City frequently displace public school students from existing school facilities and create overcrowded conditions; and

WHEREAS Charter Schools in New York City have been shown by the City’s Independent Budget Office to receive more public funding per pupil than public schools; and

WHEREAS Charter Schools in New York City have spent over  5 million dollars in fees to public relations and advertising firms in their campaign to demand public space; and

WHEREAS Charter Schools in New York City receive backing from wealthy investors who benefit from federal tax credits valued at millions of dollars under the Federal New Markets program; and

WHEREAS Charter Schools have resources and the means to find their own facilities outside of the Department of Education’s building inventory;

WHEREAS the New York State Budget for 2014-2015 requires that New York City’s Department of Education provide space at no cost to Charter Schools, thereby severely curtailing local control of city schools and placing public school students at a distinct and unfair disadvantage; and

THEREFORE, be it resolved that Community Education Council 1 is opposed to these provisions;

THEREFORE, be it resolved that Community Education Council 1 hereby calls upon the Senate  to introduce new legislation rescinding the provisions requiring the Department of Education to provide free space to Charter Schools, thereby restoring local control of city schools ; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Community Education Council 1 hereby calls upon Governor Cuomo to allow the Mayor to oversee the usage of NYC public school space in accordance with the State Education Law of mayoral control.

Unanimously approved on April 23, 2014

My appearance on MSNBC and Daily News oped: Why de Blasio is right to charge rent to co-located charters:

A  shortened version of the oped below is published in today's Daily News; along with the StudentsFirst opposing view. Also below is my brief appearance Saturday on Melissa Harris-Perry Show  on MSNBC. 
--Leonie Haimson

During his campaign for mayor, Bill de Blasio promised to focus the city’s energy and resources on improving our public schools instead of encouraging the further growth of privately managed charter schools.

The city will spend over $1 billion on nearly 200 charter schools this year; up sharply from $32 million when Mayor Bloomberg took office. Rapid charter expansion has been encouraged by the fact that two thirds of them get free space inside public school buildings. This is highly unusual; only about one eighth of charters nationally receive free public space. Moreover, this appears to violate state law, which holds that if districts choose to offer charters facilities, this shall be “at cost.”

The city’s provision of space to charter schools inside public school buildings has caused much conflict, dissension and overcrowding. Schools have lost classrooms, art rooms, and libraries to charters, as well as dedicated space for students with disabilities to receive their mandated services. Most experts agree that the DOE formula used to assess space is flawed and underestimates the room necessary for a quality education. Even so, nearly half of all co-locations approved last October would push the building above 100% in the next few years, according to the DoE’s own formula.

Valuable rooms would be sacrificed that could be used to provide prekindergarten programs or reduce class size, even as class sizes in the early grades are at a fifteen year high.

Moreover, the Independent Budget Office calculates that charter schools in city buildings receive substantially more in per pupil funding than public schools when their free space and services are taken into account. In addition, many charters raise millions from private sources, and 16 charter school CEOs have salaries above the Chancellor, as much as $500,000 per year.

Co-located charters are provided with more than their fair share of public funds, despite the fact that they enroll fewer English language learners, students with disabilities and children in poverty than public schools in their communities. Many charters also feature abusive disciplinary and “push–out” practices to ensure high test scores. Our new mayor recognizes that it is time for these inequitable policies to cease; and that the city must turn its attention to maximizing opportunities for all children, rather than just a chosen few.

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Questions about the proposed new co-located high school on the Lower East Side by Lisa Donlan

The DoE’s Office of Portfolio Planning has proposed co-locating a new Career and Technical High School/ Early College model school in the University Neighborhood High School building on the Lower Eastside of Manhattan.

The proposal is for fewer than 90 students on a grade to enter this new CTE school for advertising careers, and to stay enrolled for six years to obtain a high school diploma and an Associates degree from Borough of Manhattan Community College - for free.

While parents, community members and students who have heard of the proposal are generally supportive of the model, they are struggling to understand why the DoE needs to create a whole new school to offer this program to local students, and how the UNHS facilities will be able to accommodate all of the needs of the students who are expected to tally over 800 at scale.

The UNHS building was constructed in 1902 as an elementary school, with very narrow hallways, stairwells and classrooms. The building has no gymnasium, making do with a classroom converted to a fitness center and the pillared lobby for recess and gym. The lobby also doubles as the cafeteria and assembly area, making it the city’s only “gymacafalobatorium”!

There is currently only one science laboratory, and no library, though thanks to City Council discretionary funds, one is scheduled to open this year.

There are only four student bathrooms, on two of the five floors, and the cafeteria (like many from the era) is not equipped to cook school food- only warm frozen or pre-prepared meals.

UNHS has been thriving under new leadership since 2010, seeing its school progress report grade rise from a D to just two points shy of an A in the last four years. A thriving college office, in house- CBO Grand Street Settlement (that offers after school programming and more), as well as pull out space for academic intervention, support and  therapy  have helped this high needs school succeed, despite the fact that almost one fourth of the students have disabilities and more than one fourth are classified as English Language Learners.

Like all of the Educational Impact Statements on co-locations issued by DoE since required by law in 2009, this one says there will be “no impact”. We are told class sizes will not rise, all services and supports will continue and enrollment will not be capped.

At a recent CEC meeting, the Office of Portfolio Management was asked to please present the plans from the Office of Space Planning showing how, at scale, the two schools will grow and thrive, as promised.  Both schools communities deserve to understand exactly how the two institutions will fit together over time.

The local hearing at 6 PM on October 7^th at the school at 200 Monroe St would be the perfect time and place for DOE to try to show that this proposal is good for ALL students, and that we are not all just robbing Peter to make a new school for Paul, or asking principals to duke it down the road in some bizarre kind of cage fighting, as many co-locations have done.

The proposal will be voted on at the PEP on October 15, more information here.  Written comments can be sent to D01Proposals@schools.nyc.gov; or phoned to 212-374-3466.

To read more about the community concerns, please see the Lo-Down here and here;and DNA info here.  -- Lisa Donlan

Yes, Virginia, charter school co-locations do indeed cause more overcrowding

Protesters against a charter co-location credit: Daily News

Correction:  I linked to last year's report by mistake, as the comment below from Michael Regnier points out. Here is this year's update from the NYC  Charter Center, which is only one page.  I have changed one of my critiques below accordingly. None of my other points need amending.

Today’s report from the NYC Charter Center claims that buildings where charter schools are co-located tend to be less overcrowded than average school buildings.   Our analysis of the Education Impact Statements (EIS’s) of charter co-location proposals considered by the Panel for Educational Policy between December 2010 and March 2012 finds that of the 79 charter school co-locations proposed by DOE, 22 of them, or nearly 30 percent, were projected to push the building to 100 percent utilization or more during the following year or soon thereafter.  

Moreover, in 47 of these proposals, or nearly 60 percent, the EIS projected that the charter school co-location would soon create a building utilization rate of 90 percent or more – a rate that is often experienced as significantly overcrowded, as shown in our principal survey (How Crowded are Our Schools )  and in the views of many independent observers.  Advocates, parents and elected officials have all pointed out that the DOE’s utilization formula significantly understates the actual level of overcrowding in our schools. 

Despite the claims of DOE that they only co-locate schools where there is room, the insertion of every new school within an existing school building has the effect of causing more overcrowding.  When multiple schools share a space originally intended for one organization, classroom space is lost as administrative, cluster, and specialty rooms have to be replicated for each new school.  

In the past, DOE officials estimated that each new co-location diminishes a school’s capacity by about 10 percent. (See EPP, Capital Promises.)   In a school system that is chronically overcrowded, with more than half of all elementary and high schools at or over 100 percent, the co-location of hundreds of new small schools and charter schools has significantly exacerbated the problem.   

Many parents, advocates, and teachers have seen how charter co-locations have had damaging results, causing students in the existing public schools to be squeezed out of the space they need for a quality education, resulting in loss of art rooms, science labs, libraries, and classroom space, and causing class sizes to rise, especially as there are NO class size standards in the instructional footprint used for these decisions.  It is also common for special needs students to lose their dedicated spaces for mandated services such speech or occupational therapy, and to be pushed out into hallways or closets, especially since the utilization formula does not properly account for the number of students needing these services in each school.

This new report makes another major error: it claims that the Blue Book, the annual report on school capacity and utilization, is not yet available for the 2011-2012 school year, when it was actually released months ago.[Actually, the new one-pager is based on the most recent Blue Book.]

Finally, the statement of James Merriman, the Center’s head in the press release is false: that “charter schools [are] disadvantaged in terms of funding”.  Not even counting the millions of dollars in private funding their receive, NYC charter schools in co-located buildings receive more in per-student public funds than students in public schools receive, when the provision of free space and services are counted, according to an Independent Budget Office analysis.  

The authors of the IBO analysis concluded that co-located charters received about $650 more per student in public funding during the 2009-2010 school year, and that “When complete data from 2010–2011 become available, they are almost certain to show an even greater advantage for those charters housed within public school buildings compared with traditional public schools.” 

At least one statement in the [earlier] NYC Charter Center report is true:  

"…when they [charter schools]are allowed free co-location in district buildings it is without legal right to the space."

We agree.  The provision of free space to charter schools not only causes more overcrowding, but is also a violation of New York state law.  With the help of the pro-bono law firm, Advocates for Justice, we  sued in state court last year to stop this damaging and inequitable practice and the case continues.