City Council Opposition to the Bloomberg Schools Reorganization

The Jackson-Liu resolution outlines the City Council's objections to Mayor Bloomberg's latest restructuring. The resolution, drafted by Education Committee Chair Robert Jackson and Queens Councilman John Liu, has been joined by a broad swath of the council.

We also have links to well-researched and thoughtful letters of concern from two councilmembers, Dan Garodnick and Gale Brewer of Manhattan. Click here and here to read them. Both letters make the obvious point that the unnecessary rush to implement these changes and the lack of input from stakeholders makes little sense.

More Information on the New School Support Organizations

On Monday, Chancellor Klein revealed more details of the options for school support organizations (SSOs) available to schools under the latest reorganization. See the DoE press release here.

In this chart just now provided to us by DoE staffers, each SSO option is defined along with pricing to be charged each school for the services provided.

There are three types of SSO:

1) Empowerment Support Organization (ESO): schools choosing this option will join other schools in a network and choose how to receive support
2) Learning Support Organization (LSO): four organizations to be led by former regional superintendents
3) Partnership Support Organization (PSO): non-profit groups under contract to provide services

We also have a list of entities that applied to become a PSO. Those that were accepted are noted. Princeton Review, St. John's University and a unit of New York University were not accepted, nor were any for-profit entities who applied. We note that the NYU entity is headed by Pedro Noguera, one of the more outspoken critics of the Bloomberg education policy in the academic community.

Principals will learn more at an April 23rd briefing and have until May 15th to decide which SSO to choose. Parents will be invited to "borough fairs" to learn more. The press release does not specify dates for these events.

UPDATE: Principals' Guide to School Support Organizations has been released by the DoE. Click here.

Update on Parent Opposition to Bloomberg's Schools Restructuring

Earlier, we posted resolutions against the latest Department of Education restructuring issued by Community Education Council in District 1 and the Citywide Council of High Schools. These bodies, elected by parents and mandated under NY state law and Department of Education regulations to represent parents, felt strongly enough to issue formal statements itemizing their objections to the restructuring and how the critical needs of their schools are being ignored by Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein.

Recently, more CECs (community school boards) and Presidents Councils (comprised of PTA presidents) have passed resolutions of opposition. Below is an updated list with links to resolutions where available:

District 1 Community Education Council (Manhattan) click here
District 1 Presidents Council (Manhattan)
District 2 Community Education Council (Manhattan) click here
District 2 Presidents Council (Manhattan)
District 3 Presidents Council (Manhattan)
District 4 Presidents Council (Manhattan)
District 6 Community Education Council (Manhattan)
District 24 Community Education Council (Queens) click here
District 26 Community Education Council (Queens) click here
District 27 Presidents Council (Queens)
District 30 Community Education Council (Queens) click here
District 30 Presidents Council (Queens) - the first to act
Region 6 HS Presidents Council (Brooklyn)

These bodies represent parents across the city:

Citywide Council on Special Education click here
Citywide Council on High Schools click here
Chancellor's Parent Advisory Council click here

Many PTAs have also passed resolutions, including those at PS 3, PS 41 here, PS 116, PS 150, PS 290, Clinton Middle School, School of the Future (D2), PS 166 (D3), Middle School 210 (D27), and the following high schools: Manhattan Center for Science and Math, Stuyvesant, James Madison and Port Richmond.

If parents know of other PTAs, CECs or parent groups that have passed resolutions or are considering them, please leave a comment below or send us an email.

Send a Message to The Mayor and Chancellor!

Let the Mayor and Chancellor know how you feel. Tell them to stop the constant restructuring. Add your signature and comments to the Class Size Matters / Put the Public Back in Public Education Coalition petition. Here are the key points:

Enough is enough! Listen to parents. These are our demands:

• Provide smaller classes and a better capital plan to eliminate overcrowding.

• Restore arts funding and reduce testing.

• Include real input from parents and other stakeholders at the school level and system-wide before important decisions are made.

• Invest more resources in our children and the classroom, and waste less on expensive bureaucrats, consultants and no-bid contracts at Tweed.

• Stop the privatization and outsourcing of critical education services.

• Finally, no budget cuts to any school. Every one of our public schools is under-funded. With more than $1 billion in additional education spending and record city surpluses, there is no reason for any school to have its funding cut next year.

Click here to read the full text and sign the petition. It only takes a few seconds. And don't forget to forward to a friend.

Parent Leader Dorothy Giglio Responds to the Mayor's Tirade

At his April 9th press conference, Mayor Bloomberg again lashed out at opponents of his latest schools restructuring. Dorothy Giglio has been an involved parent for almost twenty years and was elected by parents to lead the Region 6 High School Presidents Council. Here is her response to the Mayor's latest tirade:

I don't even know how to react to this latest slap in the face. I am amazed that I am suddenly a "special interest group". Well I am a parent who has an interest in seeing that the children get what they need and deserve and that parents have a voice in the process, so I guess that is a special interest.

It astounds me that after the Mayor and Chancellor took their dog and pony show all over town trying to drum up support for this new plan and received only concerns and jeers, from parents, teachers and community people that they would pull this blatant attempt and making it appear that support is there when it isn't. If I heard from one person that they thought this was a good idea, I might be willing to rethink my position. If I heard from one parent over the last five years that thought the first reorganization was good for their children or for them, I might rethink my position, but the opposite is exactly what I have heard, over and over again.

I have even spoken to teachers and administrators (who for fear of repercussions will not speak out) that the first reorganization was bad enough, but this one would be a disaster. An end to the system. To the people who lined up behind the Mayor, for what ever their "special" reason. Shame. They are pandering in order to gain jobs, or contributions or just because they consider him a friend.

Well as a parent, and a volunteer for over 20 years, I have seen plans come and go, and I will certainly admit that we did need some changes five years ago, but not what we got. There were inequities that had to be corrected in many areas, but what we wanted was a quality education for each child. We are still not getting that, instead we got a giant overpriced bureaucracy. Now they want to make it worse and keep attacking us because we want a voice. A real voice, not an hour of speechmaking and telling us how we are wrong.

I am asking every parent member in my Presidents Council to call their representatives today and tell them that they expect them to stand up for our parents and children in this latest insult and tell the Mayor he cannot buy or bully his way when it comes to our children.

Community Education Council in District 1 Opposes Restructuring, Calls for Smaller Class Sizes

At a press conference yesterday, the Mayor lashed out at proponents of smaller class sizes for our overcrowded schools. Perhaps he should read the resolution passed by these parent leaders elected to represent the parent agenda in District 1 of Manhattan and recognized by the Department of Ed. This resolution follows similar ones by the Citywide Council of High Schools, Stuyvesant High School and other elected parent bodies.

DISTRICT 1 CEC RESOLUTION

PASSED AT MARCH 22, 2007 CALENDAR MEETING

WHEREAS, District 1 has requested information regarding school-specific impacts and District structure along with other questions for which information or answers were not provided;

WHEREAS, This plan is being implemented in a reckless and hasty manner;

WHEREAS, After having reviewed the Department of Education's Children First: and Fair Student Funding Plan;

WHEREAS, By financially penalizing schools for having experienced teachers over time, will likely lead to a less qualified teaching force in our schools, which already have nearly double the attrition rate of teachers more than anywhere else in the state;

WHEREAS, Reaffirming the fact that some of our schools and classrooms in District 1 and city-wide are severely overcrowded and our children's quality of education is suffering from this ongoing crisis;

WHEREAS, Many schools are being penalized for low levels of achievement as a result of this overcrowding, which is out of their control;

WHEREAS, Research and our own experience in District 1 strongly indicates that reduced class size makes a big difference in a child's education, and will lead to higher overall graduation rates;

WHEREAS, the best way to retain effective and experienced teachers is to improve classroom conditions by lowering class size;

WHEREAS, Smaller classes has been one of the top priorities of District 1 parents, school leaders, teachers, New York City Council Members, Assembly Members and many constituents for the last twenty years;

WHEREAS, The state's highest court found that classes in NYC schools were too large in all grades to provide our children with their constitutional right to an adequate education;

WHEREAS, Despite claims from the Department of Education, state data shows that there has been little or no progress in reducing class size since that decision was written, and in some key subjects, class sizes have actually risen;

WHEREAS, An audit released last March by the State Comptroller's Office found that with $89 million in state funds targeted to create 1,586 additional classes to reduce class size, the city had only created 20, contrary to the language and intent of the law;

WHEREAS, Despite billions of dollars in added funds, the Department of Education does not intend to reduce average class size in any grade higher than 3rd, and to use only 2% of the extra funds for smaller classes;

WHEREAS, This would leave our children still deprived of the attention they need in classes that are up to 60% larger than the rest of the state; doubtlessly contributing to an unconscionably high dropout rate in our high schools, and a 43.5% four-year graduation rate according to the State Education department;

WHEREAS, Despite claims to the contrary, there is no independent evidence that in the last round of reorganization, $200 million was ever redirected directly into the classroom;

WHEREAS, As a result of that reorganization, thousands of special education students were not evaluated in a timely fashion and many were denied their right to mandated services, in accordance with the Federal Law, and the Department of Education also cut spending on
special education by $445 million in one year;

WHEREAS, the following year, despite claims that more funding was being driven to the classroom, total dollars spent on general education declined by $144 million;

WHEREAS, according to the Educational Priorities Panel, a smaller percentage of the overall budget has gone to instruction each year;

WHEREAS, the head count and salaries of Tweed employees has grown substantially, and continues to grow, with a projected increase of 12% in spending for Tweed staff next year;

WHEREAS, In contrast, our schools are still under-funded, and under this new system, up to half of all schools may have their budgets further cut, despite $1.1 billion in planned additional education spending next year and more than $5 billion over the next four years;

WHEREAS, The implementation of a similar proposal, supposed to make funding fairer, and more flexible caused one of the largest educational crises in Great Britain's history, with the threat of massive teacher lay-offs and children actually sent home from school after only four days of instruction, until an emergency supplementary bill to provide additional funding for schools could be passed;

WHEREAS, Sir Michael Barber, the Chief Education Advisor at the time for Prime Minister Tony Blair, is now a top consultant at Tweed, and helped devise this new proposal;

WHEREAS, There is no evidence of any school system in the world that has adopted weighted funding like the proposed Fair Student Funding, and has made significant progress in student achievement;

WHEREAS, Though DOE claims that many principals in the empowerment zone last year used their additional funding and flexibility to hire extra teachers to reduce class size, principals reported that they were simply sent more students by Tweed as a result, erasing any
chance of actually providing them with smaller classes;

WHEREAS, The administration has admitted this may have occurred in many instances, and yet refuses to promise that it will not happen again;

WHEREAS, For many middle and high school teachers, given their huge class sizes and teaching loads, just spending 5 minutes out of class conferring with each student, and another five minutes correcting his or her weekly homework would take an additional 40 hours per week;

WHEREAS, The Department of Education has just contracted with IBM for $80 million to produce a new data management system whose function and purpose is supposedly to help teachers individualize instruction to meet the needs of each student, and yet with class sizes of 30 or more in many schools, and teaching loads of 150-180 students, it will continue to be impossible for teachers to do so;

WHEREAS, The new accountability/grading system is also potentially dangerous, and may lead principals to discharge, transfer, suspend, and otherwise try to rid their schools of low-achieving students any way they can, since their jobs will depend upon raising test scores sufficiently;

WHEREAS, The data reported by Department of Education regarding class size, graduation rates, and many other measures is often inaccurate and unreliable, so the new formula for assessing the progress of schools will be based on similarly erroneous metrics;

WHEREAS, In trying to impose a new system citywide without adequate consultation, careful thought, or testing, education officials have previously caused grave problems, most recently as in the bus route fiasco;

WHEREAS, For all the above reasons and more, in numerous public meetings, parents and teachers have urged the Department of Education to stop this new reorganization from going forward, because of the substantial risk that rather than improving our schools, it will lead
to further chaos, instability, and budget cuts, and may result in class sizes growing even larger at many schools;

RESOLVED, That the Community Education Council in District One rejects the Department of Education's Children First proposal and calls upon the Mayor and Chancellor to designate that an adequate amount of CFE funds, be utilized to reduce class size in all grades throughout all
New York City public schools, so that our children will finally receive their right to an adequate education and a better chance in getting a quality education, by giving them a more solid foundation towards their future.

City Council: Stop the Restructuring

The press conference held by members of the City Council calling for a halt to the latest restructuring was well attended. See coverage from NY1, the Post and Sun. The Mayor emerged from City Hall only to walk quickly pass the assembled parents and councilmembers, pretending not to notice. Corinna Lindenberg of the Chancellors Parent Advisory Council (CPAC) is quoted in the Post.

The latest reorganization will simultaneously change the funding mechanism while eliminating the regional structures that support schools today. The changes will be city-wide with no pilots or trials. Many councilmembers remarked on the recklessness of the changes, all made without input from the Council, which has oversight responsibility for the schools under the City Charter.

Robert Jackson: Put the Public Back In Public Education

Robert Jackson, Chairman of the City Council Education Committee is joining 27 other councilmembers in calling for a postponement of Mayor Bloomberg's latest schools restructuring. A press conference will be held today at noon on the steps of city hall. In the video below, see Chairman Jackson talking about class size, graduation rates and the restructuring at the February 28th rally at St. Vartan's Cathedral.

DOE Reorganizes Yet Again

March 26, 2007 (GBN News): The NY City Department of Education announced today yet another in a series of reorganizations, a new plan called, “Every School For Itself”. The move came as a bit of a surprise to most parents and educators, given that the previous initiative, “Children First”, has not yet been completely implemented. In response to a question as to why the abrupt change, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein told GBN News that this shows just how much the schools have improved under his leadership and that of Mayor Bloomberg. “To be able to change before changing”, the Chancellor said, “is the ultimate measure of success.”

Details of the new plan have not yet been fully developed, but will involve fierce competition among city schools for scarce resources. The plan will take effect April 1 according to the DOE statement. By that date, principals were to have made certain choices for their schools, which will determine their success or failure. What their options will be has also not yet been decided.

In a related story, Parker Brothers stock fell 10 points today amid concern over the fate of its new games, “Children First: A Game of Irony”, and “NCLB: The Game”, given that they were based on the last reorganization. Company spokesperson Brad Milton vowed that the game maker would keep up with the rapid changes. A new game is already being developed, Mr. Milton stated, which will be called, ”Survivor: New York City Schools”. However, it was feared that cost overruns due to the frequent need for redevelopment would render the game unaffordable to all but the very wealthy.


(With thanks to Dorothy Giglio)

"Smaller Classes Will Pay Big Dividends" - Daily News Op Ed

Writing in today's Daily News, Leonie Haimson, who blogs here at NYC Public School Parents, makes the case for smaller classes and combats the disinformation on this topic routinely offered by the Administration. As you read, it's helpful to have some concrete examples of how the Mayor's policies deny our children smaller classes.

Here is the story of a successful school, PS132, in the burgeoning neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The school looked to the DoE to help find space for its growing student body but found little support. From the NY Metro:

According to parents and staffers, the Dept. of Education has suggested the school may eventually need to end third, fourth and fifth grade altogether or consolidate the classes, upping the number of students in a class from 25 to 33. Teachers, however, say that would strain their approach, in which students sit in small groups on rugs and get individual instruction.

It's not just individual schools getting the brush-off. Queens Assemblyman Ivan C. Lafayette issued a press release following his disappointing meeting with Schools Chancellor Joel Klein on crowded schools in his district. Lafayette criticized Klein's failure to utilize the generous school construction funding made available by the Legislature. We covered this story in a post last week.

A number of PTA and citywide elected parent organizations have placed the DoE's failure to address class size at the center of their opposition to the latest reorganization. Consider the resolution issued by the Citywide Council on High Schools, which echoes the language of Stuyvesant High School's resolution.

Finally, parents have complained loudly and in person about class size problems in their schools. See our post on Joel Klein's visit to Staten Island or his series of sessions across the city.

It is clear that the Mayor and Chancellor will not address overcrowding. But parents who want smaller classes for their children can take the opportunity to appeal directly to the Governor and State Legislature.

Diane Ravitch Responds to the NY Post

The New York Post ran an editorial yesterday (March 21) called "Potemkin Protesters," claiming that parent opposition to the city's latest reorganization plan has been manufactured by the UFT and "the far-left Working Families Party" so as to "derail school reform." The gist of the editorial is that real parents support Chancellor Klein's agenda. The protesters who showed up at Monday's hearings, says the editorial, were not real New York City parents.

Did the editorial writers of the New York Post read the latest Quinnipiac poll? Do they know that 58% of the voters in New York City want an end to mayoral control and a return to an independent Board of Education? Do they know that after 4 plus years of mayoral control, 2/3 of New Yorkers say they are dissatisfied with the public schools? Do they know that 45% of public school parents say that Mayor Bloomberg's takeover of the public schools has been a failure? Do they know that 52% of public school parents told the pollsters that they disapprove of the way Joel Klein is handling his job as chancellor?

Since the New York Post did not bother to report the poll to their readers, perhaps they don't know about it. And that's why their editorial writers think that anyone who questions the latest reorganization of the reorganization is a shill from New Jersey, not a real public school parent.

Diane Ravitch.

Update: See Diane's piece on the Huffington Post

Parent Opposition to Restructuring

Tuesday's Daily News editorial contains more of the same anti-teacher and anti-parent ranting we’ve come to expect from the News editors. As an alternative viewpoint, we thought parents should hear from an elected parent leader. Below we offer some insights from David Bloomfield, President of the Citywide Council on High Schools. From David’s testimony on the restructuring before the City Council:

Many, many questions exist regarding the recently-announced restructuring of our public schools. All we have are speeches and press releases from which to divine the new direction. And surely there is much to look forward to in a system that promises accountability, principal discretion, central support rather than micro-management, assurances of greater teacher quality promoted through rigorous tenure review, and funding equity that encourages enrollment of students who might otherwise be marginalized. I and many others might get behind these changes if they were more thoroughly explained, if weaknesses were discussed in good faith, and if we thought this restructuring was more than the reform-of-the-day. The caprice with which these changes seem to have been formulated and peremptorily announced leaves many stakeholders on the sidelines when our hearts and minds are needed to move the system forward.

More recently, David testified on the Empowerment Schools aspect of the restructuring:

In their zeal to wring quick rewards from worthwhile reforms, the Mayor and Chancellor do themselves, their initiatives, and students great harm. To prevent organized opposition, they shut out parents and the larger community. They deride cautionary advice from educators as incrementalism. They do everything in their power to evade checks and balances, whether it is sole source contracting or telling this very body that it has no power to legislate on education.

Parent leaders like David are deliberately ignored by the editorialists at the News and Post, whose agenda is merely to blame the teachers union for everything wrong with our schools. For David's full testimony see these links on restructuring and empowerment schools. The CCHS passed this resolution in opposition to the restructuring on March 14^th.

High School Parents Reject DoE Restructuring Plan

The Citywide Council on High Schools (CCHS), the elected representatives of parents and the entity mandated to advise the Schools Chancellor, passed this resolution March 14th in opposition to the proposed restructuring:

WHEREAS, having considered and reviewed the Department of Education’s Children First restructuring and Fair Student Funding Plan;

In view of the fact that the proposal focuses on overall structure rather than proven initiatives that directly impact the classroom, such as smaller class size;

Given that many details of the plan are still being determined;

Bearing in mind that the pilot Empowerment Zone is less than a year old and there has been no evaluation of the impact of creating Empowerment Schools on students’ academic achievement or on the funds available in these schools for teachers and academic programs;

With concern that restructuring of the entire school system following so soon upon the restructuring of 2003 will create destabilization and hardship for parents and students trying to obtain services similar to the chaos experienced at that time;

Noting that weighted student funding, as constituted in this plan, will create competition for scarce resources in the schools such that schools will have an incentive to hire lower-paid, inexperienced teachers and that other implications of the plan for schools’ budgets are not clearly spelled out;

Noting with regret that there was no input from parents or teachers in the planning of this proposal;

Therefore, be it RESOLVED that the Citywide Council on High Schools rejects the DOE Children First Proposal and calls upon the Mayor and the Chancellor to postpone implementation of this plan and immediately call public hearings on the priorities for education spending and restructuring of the New York City Public Schools.

A NEW GAME IN TOWN

March 10, 2007 (GBN News): Capitalizing on the national visibility of New York City’s educational reforms, Parker Brothers, makers of Monopoly, announced today that they will be producing a new game based on the city’s education system. Entitled “Children First: A Game of Irony”, the game is slated to come out in time for the 2007-2008 school year. According to a company spokesperson, this will be a board game, the object of which will be to amass the highest number of points, which in the game are referred to as “test scores”.

The rules of the new game will have a number of unique features. One player will be designated the “Chancellor”. Similar to the banker in Monopoly, this player will control and disburse money, often in the form of no-bid contracts. In one of the more unusual aspects of the game, the “Chancellor” will also have the right to change the rules of the game at any time while the game is in progress. The only condition is that he or she cannot inform any of the other players of the rule change until after the changes are implemented. Any part of the game is subject to change, including the board and the positioning of the pieces. Anyone who dares to question any of the rules changes made by the "Chancellor" is called “a defender of the status quo” and is immediately ejected from the game. Another player will be designated the “Mayor”. The “Mayor” does not actually participate in the game, but has veto power over the “Chancellor’s” decisions and also has the right to declare himself the winner.

The game is expected to retail for $34.95. A computer version will also be available, at the cost of $80,000,000.

UPDATE: See latest GBN bulletin.

I beg to differ...

I hate to contradict my fellow blogger, Daniel Millstone, especially since we'll be sitting together on the bus to Albany for five hours on Tuesday, but the Spitzer education proposal is nowheresville in terms of either class size or real accountability.

Spitzer would eliminate the only dedicated class size funding stream we have -- the state class size program for K-3 -- and would give Tweed free rein to keep wasting money on ineffective and at times counterproductive school restructuring programs. (School restructuring was not on the original list of approved programs, but was apparently put on the list at the request of the Bloomberg administration.) Instead of class sizes going down -- as was promised by CFE-- class sizes could actually go up.

We don't need to wait any longer to know that the Bloom/Klein solutions aren't working.We need more strings attached, we need smaller classes, we need real local and parental input, and we need more oversight.

The Spitzer plan does not provide any of this. His whole notion of accountability mirrors Bloomberg's and Klein's in many ways -- a lot of bluster and tough guy talk. All it would give us is more of the same.

What's the parent/public participation in the plan? The DOE has to hold one public hearing in each borough. That's it. If you think the recent public meetings on the weighted funding proposal have shown that this is likely to change their minds, you must not be paying attention.

If the test scores don't go up enough, they can continue to close more schools rather than improve them, do more ineffectual restructuring, and meanwhile, the kids will continue to suffer.

The Nolan/Lancman bill would at last promise us smaller classes -- which would be a tremendous step forward and would give NYC children for the first time a real opportunity to succeed. None of this will happen if we continue to pretend that the Spitzer plan is anything but deeply flawed.