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

Reign of Error: why you must read this book and share it with family and friends!

First a disclaimer:  Diane Ravitch sits on the board of my organization, Class Size Matters, and I serve on the board of her new national organization, Network for Public Education.  Even more importantly, she is my friend and colleague, and her encouragement, support and example have kept me focused and working hard in difficult times. 

That said, I want you to know that her new book, Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools, is a must-read; brilliant, concise and eloquent in dissecting and countering the corporate reform myths.  These myths include that our schools and students are failing, and that the way forward should be based upon continuing and expanding the damaging status quo policies of privatizing and closing schools, and putting even more emphasis on high-stakes testing and collecting and sharing private student data. 

Her book shows that within the historical context, student performance across the country has never been better if measured by test scores and graduation rates, and that even as the achievement gap stubbornly persists, the problem should be addressed by narrowing the opportunity gap.  This can be done by directly addressing poverty and by providing more equitable school conditions, with resources invested in reforms that have actually been proven to work, including preK, smaller classes, a well-rounded education and wrap-around services. These are the programs and conditions that the wealthy demand for their own kids.  Poor and disadvantaged children need the same things – only more so.  She also explains how schools, especially those with high-needs students, will only be further undermined by the corporate reform agenda of test-driven accountability, weakening of teacher tenure, merit pay, and online learning.  

Because Diane is the intellectual leader of the movement for genuine, evidence-based reform, she has become a special target of the privatizers and the billionaire oligarchs who want to continue unabated in their hostile takeover of our public schools.  The attacks have intensified in recent weeks with the publication of her book.  A particularly vicious and incoherent screed was written by Kyle Smith, the movie reviewer of the NY Post. 

Could the Post find no book reviewer or education expert who could be pressed into service to pan Diane’s book?  No, Kyle Smith was merely the most reliable hatchet man.  He had proved his stripes and his lack of credibility when he was one of very few film reviewers to write positively about the uniquely awful movie “Won’t Back Down”.  This primitive piece of anti-union, pro-charter propaganda, distributed by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Pictures, was a complete critical and financial flop.  One must recall that the Post is also owned by Murdoch, who has launched a new educational division called Amplify run by Joel Klein, and is intent on expanding his media empire and making money off our kids by replacing teachers with tablets and software, and stealing their private data.  Murdoch sees the public schools as a $500 billion market, just ripe for plunder and pillage.

To defeat the likes of Murdoch, as well as the other pirates and privateers circling our schools like sharks,  we need to become better organized and enlarge our allies.  You will never find a more succinct and compelling book than Reign of Error, with a crystal clear analysis of the way in which our schools are being driven into the ground by the Billionaire Boys club of Gates, Broad, Walton, Murdoch and Bloomberg, and other ideologues and opportunists eager to join in.  

So go buy a copy for yourself, but more importantly, give extra copies to family members, your neighbors or even your school board. Send the book to your local legislator or Congressman, especially if he or she tends to support whatever nonsense the Obama administration is pushing in the name of education reform.  

Give a copy to your brother, who works in finance and thinks that charters are the magic bullet that will help students in struggling urban districts.  Send it to your cousin, a recent college grad who wrongly believes that Teach for America is the best thing since sliced bread.  Order the book for your mother, who knows better but isn’t secure enough in her facts to be able to argue these issues with her friends.  Buy a bunch and give them to all your relatives – and then discuss the book at Thanksgiving dinner.

We need to engage and woo potential allies, to show them how corporate greed and delusional deference to the free market is destroying public education, just as it crashed the economy --and that there is a better way to support, strengthen and improve our public schools.  We must win this battle for the soul of our education system before it’s too late.  I can think of no better way to achieve this necessary goal than making sure that as many people as possible read this book.

The MOST nonsensical co-locations of all

Joel Klein and others at DOE repeatedly accused parents of only protesting  charter co-locations, and not the numerous others that DOE has pushed forward in recent years, that involve new public schools inserted into the buildings of existing public schools. 

Certainly among the 40 or so co-locations that the DOE is planning  that will only take place after Bloomberg leaves office, the most controversial are the numerous charter schools that take more space each year from public schools   -- including many with deplorable records in serving our most at-risk kids.  (See, for example Success Academy charter – which DOE is giving more space so it can extend its tentacles in every borough of the city , despite numerous examples of  illegal disciplinary and suspension practices).    

The Panel for Education Policy has already rubber-stamped 25 school siting proposals and there are another 29   proposals  that will be voted on next month.   And while charter schools co-locations are contested, they are not the only co-locations that parents and community members bitterly oppose.  Perhaps the most absurd and nonsensical of all the proposals put forward by DOE are their plans to put new zoned public schools inside the buildings of existing public schools – composed of the same grade levels – for no apparent reason except to deprive the existing school of students and resources.  These proposals also represent an incredible waste of money and space in a system starved for both.

See the comments of Laura Timoney, parent activist and CEC member in Staten Island, who deplores the plan to site another zoned middle school inside of IS 2 – a struggling middle school, which according to DOE statistics has class sizes of 30 and above, and that was severely damaged in Hurricane Sandy.  But instead of using existing space to lower class size to help the school improve, the DOE is intent on taking away classroom space to insert another school.  Here are Laura’s comments:

We are circulating a petition at Change.org on behalf of the parents at IS 2.  The NYC DoE proposed a co-location of another middle school inside an existing middle school.  Parents are opposed to this idea and want smaller classes at the school.  

The DoE says it is doing this to improve performance and give parent's choice.  Smaller class size is what we want.  Listen to the parents and do that.  We know that smaller class size improves academic outcomes. There is reliable data that proves this effective.  Co-location - there is no data that is does anything positive.  Please stand with the parents, the community and the students and sign, comment and share the petition with your network.

Hearings will be held Oct. 2 at the school, with a vote of the PEP on October 15.

Another instance of a community fighting back is in Queens in District 28, in which DOE is proposing to put a new elementary school inside PS 40; with a vote of the PEP on October 30. PS 40 is a school with 90% children on free or reduced price lunch, according to the EIS, which also indicates that the co-location will push the school to 102% utilization,.  According to the DOE’s class size reports, there were Kindergarten classes at PS 40as large as 28 last year; 2^nd and 3^rd grade classes of 30 and 31, and a 5^th grade class of 35, the last which violates the union contract. This is unconscionable. 

Yet rather than support the school by providing the resources it needs to reduce class size, DOE plans to take away 15 full-size classrooms to give them to the new school. There is also yet another proposal to co-locate a new middle school in an existing middle school, Count Basie JHS 72, also in District 28, which already shares its building with a District 75 program.  Vera Daniels, CEC 28 member writes:

There will be a CEC meeting on Thursday, September 19, 2013 @ 6pm to discuss these proposals, at District 28 offices, located at 90-27 Sutphin Blvd, Jamaica NY 11435 (Room 241).

There are major concerns that these co-location/utilization proposals are rushed and aggressive with limited public and community awareness. Changes such as these demand adequate, purposeful, and meaningful planning in order to maximize their potential benefit to its stakeholders and the community. 

It is no secret how devastated these districts have become, particularly within the Southern Queens communities.  It stands to reason that DOE should focus on seeking and sustaining appropriate and transformative strategies that will address the current crisis (i.e., undeserved, overpopulated, and under-educated) that exist within these district schools.     

How do these changes help further the education of students, enrich the districts, and empower a community?  These co-locations will compound current challenges and introduce even newer ones…The community must be aware of the implementation of these rushed changes to co-locate New Schools within already “devastated” School Districts, and contribute their opinion – because it matters.

Truly it does. Let’s hope that even if the PEP rubberstamps these absurd and damaging proposals, our next mayor has the good sense and courage to undo them.

Obama Taps DOE for Syria Plan B

September 8, 2013 (GBN News): If Congress fails to approve an attack on Syria, President Obama is ready with a “Plan B”, according to a high level Administration source. Under this scenario, the President will put the bombing campaign under the auspices of the US Department of Education rather than the Defense Department.

In the President’s view, by using the DOE, the Administration could get around the war powers requirement simply by having Mr. Duncan grant the operation a No Child Left Behind waiver, which would not require Congressional approval. According to the source, the DOE has prepared thousands of Common Core Curriculum bombs, which are armed and ready to be delivered on cruise missiles by the US Sixth Fleet.

Some Middle East experts are saying that Mr. Obama’s plan could actually tip the balance in the Syrian civil war. J. Fredrick Mugson, political science professor at Manhattan University and a recognized authority on educational warfare, told GBN News that Syrian President Bashar Assad is reportedly panicked at the prospect of being inundated with the Common Core curriculum, which is already leading to stiflingly rigid standards and sharply lower test scores in the US.

“Being bombed with conventional weapons is one thing,” Dr. Mugson said in a phone interview. “But this could decimate the Syrian educational system for years. Assad sees how test scores plunged in New York with the Common Core tests. A third world country like Syria just can’t sustain that sort of damage.”

Still, the Administration might want to proceed with caution. Use of a weapon like Common Core could generate intense opposition from other countries who might fear its further proliferation. “It would be embarrassing, to say the least,” Dr. Mugson said, “to have a high performing country like Finland demand UN sanctions on the US for using educational weapons of mass destruction.”

NYC Kids PAC Endorses deBlasio for Mayor, James for Public Advocate and Stringer for Comptroller

Mayor: We endorse Bill de Blasio for Mayor. De Blasio has run a courageous campaign and has been outspoken on many of the issues parents care about including privatization, co-locations, testing and the need for more parent input in our public schools. This was not an easy decision for us to make, as John Liu's responses to our survey were the best of all the Democratic candidates, and his record as a City Comptroller has been exemplary.

Yet Liu's candidacy at this point appears to be a long shot, and we believe that electing a Mayor who will reverse the downward spiral that the Bloomberg administration has taken our schools is absolutely vital. All the Mayoral candidates who responded to our survey deserve credit for providing us with thoughtful and revealing responses. We urge parents and others who care about education to take a look.

We want to praise the other frontrunners, including Bill Thompson for being willing to give up the mayoral majority on the Board of Education, and Chris Quinn, for supporting checks and balances to mayoral control through the City Council, as well as some of their other positive stances on the issues that matter. But the positions Quinn has taken in the past in going along with the damaging Bloomberg agenda, and Thompson's relative quiescence over the last twelve years rules them out in our eyes.

Bill de Blasio, we hope and believe, will stop the rampant privatization of our schools and the overemphasis on testing, will listen more closely to the concerns of parents and communities, and will push for new investments in expanding preK, improving classroom conditions and alleviating school overcrowding. He has pledged to charge charter schools for the space and services they now receive for free, and to take personal student information out of inBloom Inc. and refrain from sharing it with third parties without parental consent.

We hope he takes a second, hard look at the governance issue before mayoral control comes up for a vote in 2015, because no matter how benign, no mayor -- indeed, no public official -- should have the unchecked power that the state has given the NYC mayor in running our schools. In the meantime, we are confident that Bill de Blasio will take public education in a far better direction than Bloomberg has during the last 12 years.

Public Advocate: We endorse Letitia James without reservations. In the City Council, Tish James has battled for more transparency in contracting, and has supported public school parents during divisive co-location battles in her district. She has also highlighted and advocated for children as young as five who have been repeatedly suspended and pushed out of charter schools. Her responses to our survey were terrific and show great understanding of the issues.

We are concerned that both Reshma Saujani and Daniel Squadron are too closely linked to the wealthy hedge fund community who want to privatize our public schools - and neither one filled out our surveys, despite repeated requests. Cathy Guerriero deserves praise for her advocacy and her progressive positions on education issues, and we hope she runs for public office again in the future. But Letitia James wins our wholehearted support, not only because of her strong stances, but also because of her track record as a public official for standing up for what is right, both in her community and citywide. We believe that Letitia James will make an excellent Public Advocate.

City Comptroller: We endorse Scott Stringer, because of his laudable record as Manhattan Borough President. Stringer has released a series of excellent reports on school overcrowding and technology, and frequently meets with parents and constituents and listens to our concerns. He has a very able and hard-working policy staff, and deserves credit for appointing and retaining Patrick Sullivan, the best representative on the Panel for Educational Policy that could be imagined. Stringer has allowed Sullivan to argue vociferously with the DOE policies, and vote independently, according to his conscience and his brains. Despite repeated requests to his campaign, Spitzer did not respond to our survey.

While Stringer's positions on school governance are not as strong as we would like, he has a history of working well with parents, has pushed hard to get more schools built both in his borough and citywide, and has put forward some excellent plans for what he would do as Comptroller, including developing a real needs analysis of school capacity to alleviate overcrowding and reduce class size - something the Bloomberg administration has refused to do in 12 years. He also intends to conduct cost-benefit studies of the outsourcing of city contracts, a practice that has been abused by this administration. We believe that Scott Stringer would make an admirable City Comptroller.

NYC Kids Political Action Committee is run by volunteer parents who currently have or recently had children attending NYC public schools. The decision to endorse is based on responses to our survey, the candidates' track record, specific plans and proposals put forth by the candidates and the potential impact on the election. In developing the survey we solicited input from more than 2,000 constituents.

No matter whom you support, please make sure to vote next Tuesday, September 10. 

Thanks, Shino, Mario, Isaac, Lisa, Leonie, Andy, Karen and Tesa for NYC Kids PAC 

PS We're quoted in today's Daily News about the fact that Chris Quinn is the only major Democratic candidate who has not pledged to take our personal student data out of inBloom Inc. as soon as possible. Take a look!

Mayor's PEP Members, Rogovin & Lewis, Press for Crony Contract

Mayoral members of the Panel for Educational Policy secured the minimum number of votes to
approve a wasteful $4.6 million contract for former Chancellor Joel Klein's firm, Amplify Inc.  The mayoral bloc was lead by Allison Rogovin and Joe Lewis who argued DOE needs to pay Klein to maintain the ARIS student database in 2014 despite the fact that NY State will make its own student data portal available this fall.

The contract extends the current maintenance which expires in December 2013 for another twelve months.  Given that it was only August and the state system was to be ready this fall, I moved to delay voting on the contract extension until later October or November.  We could secure additional support only if necessary and for a more limited time period than a full year.  My motion was supported by Queens member Dmytro Fedkowskyj and Bronx member Robert Powell.   Mayoral appointees Rogovin and Lewis argued that the system was simply too valuable to risk not being available to teachers and parents, a fact contradicted by the notoriously low usage statistics for ARIS.  In fact a Comptroller's office audit showed 42% of teachers and administrators never bothered to use it. (see NY Times article) 

My second rationale for delaying approval of the contract was the list of adverse findings on the Vendex background check.  The worst of these was an outstanding tax warrant against Amplify.   Klein's firm owes NY State at least $218,210 in unpaid taxes and is subject to enforcement action by the State including seizure and sale of property.  I argued that the warrant raised doubts about Amplify's fiscal stability and ability to provide the contracted services in the event their facilities were seized by State authorities.  Again, why not wait until Amplify could demonstrate some responsibility?

I expressed my view that it was highly unlikely that a firm lacking Amplify's influence would be given a contract for redundant services despite series background check failures.  Nevertheless, the full contract was approved by the minimum number of mayoral votes for a full year.