Last night's parent-led Mayoral forum: how did the candidates do on the hot-button issues?

UPDATED:  Here are scanned copies of the signed pledges of each of the candidates, responding whether they would support each one of our demands.  If the next mayor is one of these individuals, you can be sure we will hold them to their promises! Sal Albanese (D), Adolpho Carrion Jr  (I), Bill de Blasio  (D), Anthony Gronowicz (G),  John Liu (D), Erick Salgado (D),  Bill Thompson (D)

The parent-led mayoral forum last night at Murry Bergtraum High School was terrific, with parents asking incisive yes/no questions, investigative reporter Juan Gonzalez doing inspired follow-up as only he knows how, and all the candidates giving thoughtful responses.  Below is the livestream video; we will have sharper video uploaded next week, but the audio is quite clear.

The coalition of individuals and groups that put this together, which included Class Size Matters and NYC Kids PAC (the full list is on the flyer)   asked some very challenging questions, and developed a scorecard by which the responses of the candidates could be marked off yes or no.  Here is a pdf copy of the scorecard, with all the questions listed and how each of the candidates responded.
Or you can click on the images to the right and below. 

Carrion, Thompson and Liu came late and so didn't have a chance to answer all the questions, so they are marked "L" for those questions.  However, at the end of the forum, Juan Gonzalez requested that all the candidates to indicate their answers on their individual scorecards and sign them, so that we will have a record of what they promised to do should they be elected mayor.

An informal calculation made at the forum shows these results: Liu and Gronowicz got perfect scores  of 100%, Salgado 87%, Albanese 73%, de Blasio 60%, Carrion 50%, and Thompson 33%.  (I will update these scores when I receive copies of the signed responses from the candidates, hopefully with all the questions checked off one way or another. I will also post these documents here.)

The candidates whose names are crossed off did not attend.  Democrats Chris Quinn instead visited two Orthodox synagogues, Anthony Weiner did not show up though he had no competing campaign events on his schedule. Republicans Catsimitidis, Lhota, and McDonald also chose not to attend.

The highlight (for me): All the candidates promised to commit to specific class size reduction goals by the end of their first term, and if necessary, to raise revenue to meet them.  All the candidates also promised to stop sharing personal student information with inBloom and other corporations, without full parental notification and consent.

The most contentious issues -- predictably -- related to Mayoral control, governance and parent empowerment.  Only Liu, Gronowicz and Salgado agreed to give up three of their appointments on the Panel for Education Policy to representatives who would be elected by parents, though Thompson said he would give up two of his seats.  DeBlasio and Thompson also opposed giving Community Education Councils the authority to approve co-locations and school closings, though they said they would listen to CECs for advisory input.  (DeBlasio explains his position at about 31 min. in on the video.)

Another contentious issue related to require charter schools that are housed in DOE facilities to pay rent; Albanese, Carrion and Thompson said they would not require this. 
As to whether they would take away the school safety officers away from the jurisdiction of the police, Carrion, de Blasio, Salgado and Thompson were opposed. At about one hour into the video are explanations from de Blasio and Thompson about why they answered this way; Thompson said that police should still do the training though the principal should decide whether a student should be arrested.

But please watch the entire forum, and add your comments below.  There are many interesting issues covered, including additional questions asked by Juan not included on the scorecards.  For example, at 1:10 in, there is a discussion about the lack of diversity in the Bloomberg administration, as well as a critique of the decline of Black and Latino teachers in the public schools.




Video streaming by Ustream

Video of Mayoral forum, moderated by Diane Ravitch; and will Bill Thompson ask Merryl Tisch to stop the sharing of students' personal data with inBloom?

Here is video from the May 2 mayoral forum in Brooklyn, moderated by Diane Ravitch and sponsored by .  Candidates included John Liu, Bill Thompson, Bill de Blasio, and Sal Albanese.

Bill Thompson, candidate for Mayor

Parent Voices

It was an encouraging evening.  All said no more graded school report cards; all said in (a rather vague way) they would work for smaller classes.

Asked about whether they would expand charters and/or stop providing free space, Thompson said he would support a moratorium on co-locations and would focus on the million students on public schools; Albanese said that charter schools are a distraction and a way to attack organized labor. De Blasio used the issue to point out Quinn was not present, attacked Eva Moskowitz, and said he would start protecting existing schools rather than force co-locations on them.  Liu said that the deck was stacked in favor of charters because of their school population of fewer at-risk kids, and their extra funding. 

Merryl Tisch, Regents Chancellor and Thompson's campaign chair

He said, what kind of message are we sending to the public school children in the co-located building", that they are second class citizens?  (Unfortunately, none of them said if they would start charging charters rent.)

Best part of forum is is at 59.30 minutes in, when Diane asks whether they would pull out of the state and city plan to share private student information with inBloom Inc.  The audience, claps, and all the candidates vociferously respond, "absolutely not!"  Each of them point out the huge risks and conflicts of interest involved, especially as inBloom's operating system is being built by Wireless, run by former Chancellor Joel Klein, and owned by Murdoch's NewsCorp -- with a terrible record on privacy.

Thompson agrees that this is outrageous: "We are NOT going to release personal student information."  He mentions that when he was head of the Board of Education, the Police Department wanted personal student data turned over and he refused. "Will we turn this information over to inBloom, NO WE ARE NOT," he says vehemently.

Yet Bill Thompson's campaign chair is Merryl Tisch, who is 100% behind the inBloom plan as Chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents. New York is now the ONLY participant in this scheme that is going ahead with sharing personalized student data from the entire state, now that Louisiana, Georgia, Delaware, and Kentucky have pulled out.   If Merryl Tisch said no to inBloom, she could stop it in a dead second.

On Tuesday, there is a protest at Teacher's College graduation against awarding Tisch a special honor. Here is a letter from Celia Oyler, a TC professor about this; and an article by Fred Smith, a TC alumnus explaining why.  Tisch has supported high stakes testing, the evaluation of teachers by means of test scores, school closings, the expansion of charters, and now, the sharing of personal student data with private corporations without parental consent -- all policies opposite to Thompson's public positions.

At the very least, Thompson should ask Tisch to stop the inBloom project now.

Video and highlights from yesterday's UFT mayoral forum

Below is a video of the mayoral forum at the UFT spring conference yesterday.

Some highlights: In response to pointed questions from President Michael Mulgrew and Karen Alford, VP of elementary schools, all the candidates said they would get rid of the school progress reports along with the school grades. They also said they would minimize the influence of high stakes testing, including as a factor in teacher evaluations.

On school governance, Bill Thompson said he could live with less than a majority on the Panel for Educational Policy.  He said he would take six appointments out of 13, and that if he couldn't convince one non-mayoral appointee to vote with him, his position was probably wrong. John Liu said the members of the PEP should have fixed terms and the mayor should not be able to fire them at will, as currently occurs.  All but Christine Quinn said that there should be local approval (presumably of the Community Education Councils) before any more school co-locations could take place.

They all wanted to restore the district structure, get rid of networks, and strengthen neighborhood public schools.  They were opposed to raising the charter cap, were supportive of the community school idea with wrap-around services, and pledged to try to get more CFE funding from the state and use it to reduce class size.

In response to a question from the floor about charter school operator Eva Moskowitz, Bill de Blasio blasted her as he has done many times before; and Quinn said that when Eva was  chair of the City Council Education committee, she had unfairly targeted the union and "ripped us apart on the council."

The biggest gaffe?  Quinn was the only one who said that her choice as chancellor wouldn't necessarily be an educator, and cited Arne Duncan as an example of someone who was an "advocate" who had also been a good leader, prompting huge boos from the crowd.