Tim Johnson: Put the Public Back in Public Education

Check out the dynamic speech of Tim Johnson, President of the Chancellor's Parent Advisory Council, at the rally on February 28:

Looking at NYC Achievement Data by Diane Ravitch

Last week, New York City was again listed as a finalist for the Broad Prize, which recognizes the most improved big-city school district.

We know that the leading claims of the DOE about having made "historic gains" in reading and math on state tests are not actually true (the city did not gain 19 points in math since the Children First reforms began, but 4 points; and it did not gain 12 points in reading, but 6).

But I began to wonder about other subjects. In May 2005, it was reported in all the city's newspapers that 81% of eighth graders failed to meet state standards in social studies, a decline of nearly 20 percentage points since 2002. While 18.6% of NYC eighth-graders met the state standards, 43.8% statewide met them.

I decided to review the NAEP science scores for 2005, which were released last fall. I remembered that Andres Alonso said that New York City's students had done well on this test as compared to students in similar cities. Actually this turned out not to be true.

The city not only was significantly behind the national average, but significantly behind the average for central city districts in science. This is the first time that this has ever happened. New York City students are usually in the top tier of big-city districts, but in science our students did dismally, down in the cellar, with only Cleveland getting a lower score. In eighth grade, 64% of NYC students were below basic (equivalent to a level 1 on the state tests); 77% of black eighth graders and 73% of Hispanic eighth graders were below basic. Oddly enough, white eighth grade students in NYC also have a very low score; 39% were below basic.

Thus, NYC can boast a relatively small achievement gap between white and black students in eighth grade, because white scores are lower than in almost any other city tested. To show you how ridiculous this measure is, the city with the smallest 8th grade achievement gap between white and black students was Cleveland, which had the lowest scores of any city tested. Everyone--black and white--scored poorly, so the "gap" was smaller than anywhere else. So NYC's small achievement gap in 8th grade science is a function of having very low scores for white students.

Bottom line: only a small minority of our middle-school students know any science.

Here are the websites for NAEP science, 4th grade and 8th grade.

http://nationsreportcard.gov/tuda_science/t0105.asp

http://nationsreportcard.gov/tuda_science/t0105.asp?tab_id=tab2&subtab_id=Tab_1#chart

TWEED HOSTAGES RELEASED

April 5, 2007 (GBN News): A potential confrontation was averted early today when 12 members of the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Committee (CPAC) were released by the N.Y. City Department of Education after being held captive at Tweed Courthouse for over 24 hours. The committee members had gone to the DOE headquarters for a meeting, but apparently made a wrong turn down a restricted hallway and were immediately seized by school safety officers. The captives were the subject of intense negotiations between the DOE and those attempting to obtain their release.

The Tweed Courthouse has been disputed territory since Mayor Bloomberg took control of the city schools in 2002. CPAC, an elected group of parents which is supposed to advise the Chancellor on educational issues, is technically a part of the DOE and meets at the Courthouse. However, the capture of the committee members is only the latest in a series of frustrations as CPAC attempts to gain access to officials and information at Tweed.

During the negotiations, Chancellor Klein and Mayor Bloomberg had been intransigent, insisting that DOE territory was intentionally violated. “We welcome parent involvement”, the Chancellor stated, “but Tweed is not their place. If they have a problem, they should see their parent coordinators”. Mayor Bloomberg added, “We value our parents, but they should be at PTA bake sales, not trespassing on our property. Tweed is for business people, who know best how to run the schools.”

Upon the release, a statement was issued by Chancellor Klein’s office, stating, “While we are entitled to put the trespassers on trial, the DOE has pardoned these CPAC members and gives their release to the parents of New York City schoolchildren as a gift.”

However, while the release of the captives was portrayed by the Chancellor as a magnanimous gesture, it appears that there may have been a more practical reason for the change of heart. According to a source at the DOE, with the recent elimination of the school lunch budget by corporate “turnaround” consultants Alvarez and Marsal, the DOE was unable to obtain funding for the detainees’ meals. Apparently, even the DOE was unwilling to run afoul of the Geneva Convention by “not meeting standards” for care and feeding of prisoners.

Computer Mayhem on Listserv

April 4, 2007 (GBN News): A mysterious series of mishaps has bedeviled the NYC Education News Yahoo Listserv in the past few days, with multiple copies of messages repeatedly clogging the e-mailboxes of listserv members. While the fault was first thought to lie with individual computers or with Yahoo itself, there is a growing concern that these occurrences may not be accidental.

Suspicion has now fallen on the Department of Education’s new $80,000,000 IBM supercomputer, ARIS (Achievement Reporting and Information System). ARIS is supposed to be used by the DOE to track students’ academic performance, but it appears that the computer’s capabilities go well beyond that narrow purpose. A marketing brochure for ARIS is entitled, “ARIS: It’s Not Just for Test Scores Any More”, and it suggests a wide range of functions including the tracking of cell phone policy violations and Snapple flavor preferences.

However, according to Computer Science Professor and systems expert Bob Lister, “For $80,000,000, there’s no way that this computer tracks only things like test scores and iced tea. I can design a database that can do that for a few thousand dollars.” Dr. Lister went on to say, “Obviously, it does a lot more than they’re saying. Heck, for that money I could get a computer system to do just about anything up to and including brewing the Chancellor’s morning coffee.”

When asked whether ARIS is capable of interfering with on-line critics of the DOE, Dr. Lister said that remains to be seen. But as he points out, “ARIS can outperform just about anything else out there. Critics will be hard pressed to question the data that ARIS spews out since they won’t have anything like it. The DOE can ‘prove’ just about anything by dazzling the public with the statistics they’ll generate. They can probably make a class of 40 look like a class of 10, and nobody will be the wiser. They won’t need to hack into a listserv to interfere with criticism.”

In a related story, Tajikistan President Emomali Rakhmon, disappointed that his appointment as NYC Schools Chancellor turned out to be an April Fools joke, has reportedly ordered an ARIS computer system from IBM. According to the Tajik news agency Avesta, he did this so as to “better compete in the global marketplace of petty despotism”.

Victory at last!!!!

Late last night, we won our battle to ensure that NYC must use part of the additional state education aid to reduce class size in all grades.

I haven’t seen the exact language yet, but this represents a great victory for our children -- and we owe the Chair of the Assembly Education Committee, Cathy Nolan, Assemblymember Lancman, and Governor Spitzer tremendous thanks for their leadership on this issue.

It will be up to Commissioner Mills to write the rules and what the class size goals should be, so this remains a work in progress.

Nevertheless, we can all be proud of the campaign we waged together to convince the Governor and our legislators to do the right thing for our kids – despite the fact that the Mayor, Chancellor and their minions were trying to block this every way they could. Indeed, the administration's lobbyists even told legislators that they already had plans to reduce class size so there was no need for a state mandate -- even though it is clear to us here in NYC that they have no such intention.

Now, we will all have to watch them like hawks -- to see that the plan they submit is realistic and will lead to significant progress -- and that they adhere to it. If past experience is any guide, they will try to dissimulate, manipulate, and evade their obligations to reduce class size in any way they can.

The Mayor and Chancellor should instead look to Florida for an example. When that state's voters passed a constitutional amendment to require smaller classes in all grades in 2002, then-governor Jeb Bush was caught on tape saying that he had "devious plans" to subvert the will of the people.

Bush tried not once, but three times to overturn the amendment, and each time was foiled by the Florida State legislature, which while dominated by members of his own party, resisted his efforts because the class size amendment proved even more popular when it was put into place than when it originally passed, and turned out to be considerably less expensive to fund than expected. The last time Bush tried and failed to overturn the class size amendment, this was widely hailed as the most humiliating political defeat of his career.

Over the last three years, class sizes have been dramatically reduced in all grades, by about six students per class in Kindergarten through third grade, five students in fourth through eighth grades, and two students in ninth through 12th grades. For the 2006-07 school year, 94% of Florida's public schools met the class size requirements. (see chart at right)

Now Florida has a new Governor, also a Republican, Charlie Crist, who wholeheartedly supports the class size law, even as the state moves towards actual caps in all schools of no more than 18 students per class in grades K-3, no more than 22 in 4th -8th grade, and no more than 25 in high school.

Here is the latest statement from Gov. Crist on this issue: "the will of the people was to do what was passed, and I think we should respect it."

Listen to that Michael Bloomberg and Joel Klein, and beware!!!

GBN News Editorial: April 1, 2007

The planned exchange of positions between New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Tajikistan President Emomali Rakhmon raises a number of concerns. Protests in the former Soviet republic continue, and many Tajiks are calling it the worst trade since the Mets swapped Nolan Ryan for Jim Fregosi. But though New York may seem to have gotten the better end of the deal this time, unintended consequences may ensue in the long run. Does this projection of power halfway across the globe foreshadow the foreign policy of a future President Bloomberg? And with much of the world already questioning our motives in Iraq and elsewhere, will sending an autocrat from the U.S. to control a foreign country only serve to reinforce our image as “ugly Americans”?

All of this may seem like an elaborate April Fools’ joke, and of course it is. Sadly for New Yorkers, Joel Klein remains entrenched at Tweed for the rest of Mayor Bloomberg’s term. And the people of Tajikistan will have to put up with at least seven more years of their President’s university cell phone bans, mandatory name changes, and other quirky decrees. (Though as we reported yesterday, unlike the manner in which our CEC’s are selected, at least all their citizens get to vote in their meaningless elections).

Nevertheless, it still begs the real question as to what a Bloomberg presidency would be like, should that ever come to pass. The concern here is that the same autocratic tendencies that Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein exhibit in running the city schools are not so different from the way President Bush has pursued his own agenda (or the way Mr. Rakhmon pursues his). While Mayor Bloomberg is clearly brighter and less of an ideologue than President Bush, both men continue to insist that they are infallible on every issue, and both refuse to involve those affected by their decision making or to consider alternative points of view. Their methods, as we have seen in recent US foreign and domestic policy fiascos as well as in the the state of the New York City schools, are a recipe for disaster. And that is no April Fools’ joke.

Anti-Klein Demonstrations in Tajikistan

Dushanbe, Tajikistan, March 30 (GBN News): Numerous protests erupted around the country of Tajikistan today over the report that outgoing NY City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein would shortly be assuming the presidency of that country. As reported yesterday by GBN News, the Tajik President, Emomali Rakhmon, will become Schools Chancellor in New York, while Mr. Klein takes over the position of Tajik strongman. While reaction in New York remained muted, the Tajik people were not hesitant to make their feelings known.

Opposition appeared to center around Mr. Klein’s reputation for secrecy and his penchant for imposing his will without reaching for input from the people he serves. While the outgoing President, Mr. Rakhmon, is known for capricious and even ruthless decrees, people here at least seem to feel that he is free of pretense.

One Tajik, who refused to be quoted by name out of fear of repercussions from Mr. Klein, told GBN News, “Rakhmon may be a ruthless dictator, but everyone knows it and he’s right up front with it. But that Klein: He goes all over the city promising to listen when he’s already made up his mind. Then there are those CEC’s. You think our elections are a farce! At least we all get to vote.”

Another citizen quoted Abraham Lincoln: “I should prefer to live somewhere where despotism can be taken pure, without the base alloy of hypocrisy”. This woman went on to say, “I thought we lived in such a place. But now, to have Klein coming in like this … I’ll take the Soviets back any day!”

Amid the fear and confusion, some Tajiks preferred to make the best of the situation. At the Education Ministry, people lined up around the block to apply for a rumored $150,000 a year position of “Chief Family Engagement Officer”. And the country’s game manufacturer was already negotiating with Parker Brothers to develop a new game based on Mr. Klein’s regime. Still, the wide scope and intensity of the protests suggest that most people here feel New York got the better end of this deal.

the Mayor's hypocrisy and contempt for NYC parents

Two articles in today’s NY Sun re class size. First, re the state budget deal:

“... lawmakers and Mr. Spitzer softened a demand by the Assembly that New York City lower its class-size average to the state median level over a four-year period, or risk losing billions of dollars in new funding. Although the exact wording is still being worked out, sources said Mayor Bloomberg will not be strictly required to lower class size by that amount, but will be forced to demonstrate that he is decreasing the burden on teachers.”

According to Albany insiders, apparently this is wrong and the final deal on class size has not yet been struck. It is clear, however, there will be 50 more charter schools for NYC.

Also, during his press conference yesterday, Bloomberg called the effort to require smaller classes with the additional state aid “individual union agendas and some ideological agendas when it comes to education...That is phenomenally dangerous, and hopefully that will not happen."

Randi Weingarten had a great answer: "If believing that helping kids by getting them the best teachers possible and reducing class sizes is ideological, then call me an ideologue on behalf of children."

Yet the Mayor's continued insistence that this is only the union's agenda is a slap in the face to all NYC public school parents, who in every public meeting this year and in every resolution they pass, have repeatedly told Bloomberg and Klein that they believe their kids desperately need smaller classes to succeed. To argue that this is only a UFT issue, and then to try to demonize Randi shows the Mayor's utter contempt for our very existence.

Instead, it is the Mayor’s education agenda, based on more charter schools, privatization, and untested radical funding schemes, which is relentlessly ideological and phenomenally dangerous.

When it comes to his own daughters, who attended private school, of course there’s nothing dangerous about ensuring that they were provided with class sizes of 15 students or less.

If NYC parents ask that their children be provided with what public school students in the rest of the state already receive – classes of 20-22 on average, it’s somehow dangerous.

I guess it’s only ideological to demand smaller classes when it comes to every one else's children but your own.

Check back here for an update on whether the Mayor and his well-paid minions have won their battle to deny our children the smaller classes that they need and deserve – and that according to the Court of Appeals is their constitutional right.

All I heard up in Albany this week was reports of the disinformation campaign the city’s lobbyists were spreading far and wide, in their effort to do everything they could to derail the effort to do the right thing by our kids.

Diane Ravitch on Randi Weingarten's re-election

On March 29, Randi Weingarten was re-elected as president of the United Federation of Teachers by an astonishing landslide, capturing 87% of the teachers' votes.

There are many reasons for the size of her victory, but I would single out these in particular: The fact that the New York Post and the New York Daily News regularly tried to demonize Weingarten made her a hero to rank-and-file teachers. They knew she was taking a beating in the editorial columns because of her defense of the union. If the Post and News had hoped to strengthen her position as the spokesperson for teachers in the New York City public schools, then they could not have done a better job.

Credit must also go to Chancellor Joel Klein, who kept hammering away at the union long after Mayor Bloomberg signed a long-term contract with the UFT last fall. The more that Chancellor Klein and his spokespersons continued to talk about how they were going to diminish tenure or introduce merit pay or do other things unilaterally that would either be rejected by the union or required its cooperation, the more they turned Weingarten into a champion of teachers' rights.

It was ironic that the Department of Education put out a press release claiming that it was starting its campaign to limit the granting of tenure on the same day that Weingarten was winning her big victory. What the Department did, in fact, was just to send out an electronic notice to principals about which teachers were supposed to be certified as qualified for tenure--or not. This is hardly deserving of a press release. The administration has been in charge of tenure review and approval since the day it took charge in September 2002. Why has it taken nearly five years for them to figure this out? The announcement seems to be an inadvertent admission by the administration that it has been asleep at the wheel all these years, not paying attention to its fundamental responsibility for the awarding of tenure to qualified teachers.

Diane Ravitch

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.

Tajik President To Become New Schools Chancellor

March 29, 2007 (GBN News): Emomali Rakhmon, currently President of Tajikstan, will soon become the New York City Schools Chancellor, replacing Joel Klein. In a surprise move, Mayor Bloomberg made the announcement today at a City Hall news conference. The Mayor praised the accomplishments of Mr. Klein, saying that he had done a “heckuva job”, but that it was “time for a change”.

Mayor Bloomberg did not offer any specific reasons as to why he had become disillusioned with Mr. Klein. However, sources said that the Mayor had come to realize that test scores and graduation rates were not going up as fast as desired, and he attributed this to "widespread defiance" of the Chancellor's ban on cell phones.

According to these sources, Mayor Bloomberg had read an article in yesterday’s New York Times about Mr. Rakhmon and felt that not only was his cell phone policy stricter than Mr. Klein’s, but his track record as Tajik strongman showed that he was capable of enforcing it. Among what the Times called a “series of idiosyncratic decrees”, Mr. Rakhmon has banned cell phones and cars for university students and ordered families to drop the Slavic “ov” from the names of new babies. The Mayor was also reportedly impressed that, as the Times put it, the Tajik president “won a third seven year term in November in a presidential election widely dismissed as a farce”.

Mayor Bloomberg dismissed criticism that President Rakhmon is a ruthless, autocratic dictator. “That’s what dictatorial control is all about”, the Mayor said. “Dictatorial control means dictatorial control, thank you very much. He is my representative, and he is going to do things that I believe in”. The Mayor added that Mr. Rakhmon should have no problems serving under him, stating, “We think alike.”

In what was termed a “lateral move”, the outgoing schools Chancellor is slated to replace Mr. Rakhmon as President of Tajikstan.

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.

Students Attempt to Defy Random Scanning

Many parents who oppose Mayor Bloomberg's cell phone ban probably wonder what would happen if their kids tried to defy the NYPD's random scanning patrols. Karim Lopez is an after-school coordinator at a South Bronx high school. Here is an account of events at his school last week, including his attempt to bring in observers from the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU).

And from the NYCLU press release issued today:

Students from a South Bronx high school who refused to walk through metal detectors to enter their school building were intimidated and threatened into complying with the scanning procedures last Wednesday, March 21^st.

When one student refused scanning he was taken to the side, surrounded by up to five NYPD School Safety Agents (SSAs), and threatened with not being able to join his classmates. Faced with this intimidation, the student finally went along with the procedures. Another pair of teenaged boys who refused scanning was brought into a side room and questioned, at times without any adult present, about who had put them up to it. They were threatened with a week’s suspension if they did not agree to the search. For fear of jeopardizing their college careers, the students finally gave in. They were allowed to go to their classes two hours after arriving at the school.

There will be press conference Thursday at 4:30 in front of Tweed Courthouse (DoE). Participating with the NYCLU will be Social Action Youth, Uptown Youth for Peace and Justice, Sistas and Brothas United, Friends of Brook Park, For A Better Bronx and Sistas on the Rise.

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.

New Visions Caves

NYC Public School Parents orginally told the story of how New Visions, an organization seeking to become one of the DoE's Partnership Support Organizations (PSO), was using its control of Gates Foundation grants to force schools to select it as a PSO. Today, Erin Einhorn of the Daily News reports they have backed down on this controversial practice:

Late yesterday, New Visions director Robert Hughes issued a statement saying all schools that qualify for grants will be entitled to them regardless of whether they hire New Visions. He declined to elaborate on why he had changed his mind.

While this decision is a positive development, the episode shines a harsh spotlight on the rushed preparations to eliminate the DoE regional support structures.

"Visions of Cash"

Today, intrepid reporter Erin Einhorn of the Daily News followed the trail of the story that we first broke on our blog last Wednesday, "A Free Choice for Principals?" In the article entitled "Visions of Cash", she describes how the organization New Visions is distributing Gates Foundation grants to new schools but has "decided to attach strings to the cash: It wants a payoff of sorts."

Officials at New Visions have told principals at the start-up schools that they will not get any funding unless they also sign New Visions up as their PSO, or Partnership Support Organization, for the next five years, which means paying them substantial funds out of their limited school budgets.

A principal was quoted that she feels "blackmailed":

"I thought, 'Oh, my God, what a huge conflict of interest,'" the principal said. "We have to join their PSO and pay them for support in order to get this grant that we qualified for?"

The Gates foundation refused to comment; a DOE spokesperson said that "it's too early to comment on what rules PSOs will be required to follow or whether New Visions had broken them."

Just like the Children's First game, or the new Survivor version, this reflects the administration's way of making up the rules up as they go along, to make sure that no one will know what they are until it's too late! Luckily, in this case, the DOE may not be the final arbiter -- there are laws about this sort of thing.

In related news, the LISs (or Learning instructional supervisors, whose positions were established just a few years ago and are now being eliminated) are running scared. They have been reportedly warned by DOE officials in charge of the internal Learning Support Organizations that they will get jobs only if they persuade enough principals that they still supervise to sign up -- and promise to pay cold hard cash -- to the LSO.

A message from an insider at Tweed:

"LISs and others seeking to stay employed have allegedly been told that their invitation to join an LSO will be dependent upon how many schools they bring in with them. Principals are reaching out to colleagues and friends across district and borough lines to put together networks. Parents seem to be out of the loop. The Chancellor made it clear that the choice of support organization is the PRINCIPALS alone."

Is this the sort of school system we want for our kids?

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.

TEACHERS WANT TO BE HEARD ALSO

Teachers are asking to be heard also...by wearing buttons at school that read HAVE YOU ASKED A TEACHER TODAY? Maybe we as parents should also be wearing buttons that say something along the lines of DO YOU CARE WHAT WE WANT FOR OUR CHILDREN TODAY? Interesting read at the UFT site... http://www.uft.org/news/buttonday/

GAME FEVER SWEEPS NATION

March 24, 2007 (GBN News): Due to the enormous pre-sale interest in the upcoming Parker Brothers game, “Children First: A Game of Irony”, based on the NYC school system, the company announced today that it is releasing a national version of the game. It will be called simply, “NCLB: The Game”, although in deference to President Bush, some are already calling it, “Is Our Children Learning?”

The new version will seem familiar to those who know the original game. It will feature many of the same lovable characters: Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein appear like apparitions on the board as they tout their “successes” around the country, and entire school systems go bankrupt as they hire high priced consultants like Alvarez and Marsal.

Players are all wealthy non-educators. They land on squares representing U.S cities, where they endeavor to wrest the local school systems from their elected Boards. Players are then expected to seek assistance from private consulting companies such as Edison Schools and IBM, to whom they pay a large part of their budgets for no-bid contracts. The Rules set numerous “standards” regarding the performance of the cities’ schools. As they pass “Go”, players try to collect enough money to meet these mandates. However, they cannot collect unless their school districts already meet the standards. If they do not, they may then draw “Blame” cards, with which they attempt to place responsibility on anyone but themselves.

The players wheel and deal, and must incessantly reorganize their cities’ school systems to divert attention away from their failures. While the game is challenging, it goes on until all players end up with a final score that “meets rigorous standards”. Thus, the game could go on without end. On the other hand, none of the players actually loses. The only losers appear to be the children themselves.

The Unkindest Cut of All

March 23, 2007 (GBN News): Flush with their success in saving $12,000,000 by cutting out numerous school bus routes in New York City, the corporate "turnaround" firm of Alvarez and Marsal has now aimed their sights at a new cost saving target: school lunches. Starting April 1, the traditional "lunch period" will be eliminated from all New York City schools, to be replaced by an as yet undisclosed academic activity period. In announcing the change, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein lauded the new plan, stating that not only would this move eliminate a cost-ineffective program that had never turned a profit, but would add time to the academic day and thus improve test scores.

Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, as well as numerous parent advocates immediately criticized the planned elimination of the lunch period. In response, Mayor Bloomberg, when reached for comment, held that "Schools are for learning, not for eating". He added that the elimination of lunch would also obviate the necessity of students carrying cell phones to school. "We all know that the only reason parents want their kids to have cell phones is to call and ask what they want for dinner. With no lunch period, they'll be so hungry they won't care what's for dinner."

In a related story, The White House announced today that in a last ditch effort to salvage Iraq, the Halliburton reconstruction contract would be taken over by Alvarez and Marsal. According to spokesman Tony Snow, "If we can't beat [the insurgents] militarily, we'll cut their transportation and starve them out."

A fax today could change your children's lives!

Right now, in the Legislature, there is a proposal to require that the city be required to produce a plan that would lead to smaller classes in all grades, using a portion of the extra funds our schools will receive as a result of the Court's decision in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case.

Huge pressure is being put on our lawmakers from the Mayor and DOE to eliminate all language requiring smaller classes in our schools.

These provisions would be in this year's state budget, due only a week away, on April 1.

The meeting between Queens legislators and Chancellor Klein referred to below occurred because Queens parents, as well as public school parents citywide, continue to be agonized about the huge class sizes their kids are crammed into, with no significant improvement over the last four years and no relief in sight.

Despite the fact that our schools are projected to receive more than $5 billion in additional funds over the next four years, this administration has no plan to significantly reduce class size in any grade -- even though smaller classes are one of the few educational reforms that have been proven to work. For years into the future, our classes would remain the largest in the state by far and among the largest in the nation.

Indeed, NY state's highest court found that our kids were being deprived their constitutional right to an adequate education because of their excessive class sizes.

All public school parents have to do our part to tell our legislators that is their responsibility to make sure our kids have a fair chance to learn by providing them with the smaller classes that students in the rest of the state -- as well as the children of the Mayor and the Chancellor -- already receive.

To send a free fax to the Governor, click here.

To send a free fax to your Assembly member, click here.

To send a free fax to your State Senator, click here.

If you can, personalize the message. Tell them how your child is suffering, and why it is their responsibility to make sure that our schools reduce class size soon!

Children's First Game Update

After a document purporting to be a "contract" for schools Chancellor Joel Klein was finally revealed by the DOE, the game "Children First: A Game of Irony" has been reorganized once again. A new card has been added, if a bit belatedly:

Congratulations! This is to confirm your "contract" as NYC Schools Chancellor, effective five years ago. Tell your driver to take you past "Go" five times and collect $250,000 each time, plus benefits.

Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job! (oops, that's the FEMA guy. Oh well, same difference.)

Klein Says "No" To Smaller Classes

Smaller classes is one of the few policies widely recognized to improve student performance. So when powerful Queens Assemblyman, Deputy Assembly Speaker Ivan C. Lafayette raised the issue of overcrowding in Queens classrooms with Chancellor Joel Klein, he hardly expected the door to be slammed in his face. But according to a press release issued by Lafayette's office, that's precisely what happened:

Despite all of the rhetoric coming from City Hall and the New York City Department of Education, Chancellor Joel Klein made it clear to Deputy Speaker Ivan C. Lafayette (D – Jackson Heights) that there were no plans to utilize any additional state funding to reduce class size. Chancellor Klein told this to a group of Queens’ legislators at a meeting on Friday, March 16^th at Tweed Courthouse, which is now the City Department of Education building.

The reason he gave was that in order to reduce class size, he would have to build new schools, meaning he would then have to hire 500 additional teachers. Chancellor Klein also said that he did not believe any teachers would even want to be placed in these new schools because they would be built in the most overcrowded areas, thereby intimating they were minority areas.

Lafayette's bulletin goes on to criticize Klein for failing to avail himself of funding mechanisms made available by the legislature for schools construction:

In 2005, it was the Assembly that pushed for and achieved legislative changes to the building aid formula cost allowance calculation for New York City. This change in the building aid formula, if utilized by New York City properly, will result in 60% of the cost for New York City schools over the next 5 years if the city proceeds with the 13 billion dollar capital plan, which seemingly has been abandoned.

“To date the city has not taken the time to even understand the state capital formula that pays for a majority of the costs to repair existing schools as well as to build new schools,” stated Lafayette.

Under the old formula, the city would receive at most 25% of capital money for new school construction projects. Under the new formula, New York City will receive up to 60% reimbursement from the State for these projects.

Clearly Klein and Bloomberg have no real interest in pursuing the policies proven to improve student performance. And Klein's rationale for opposing smaller classes grows more and more bizarre. At the same time, Klein inexplicably alienates the very legislators who will decide whether to renew mayoral control of the schools when the current experiment ends in 2009.

For God's sake, Stop! Look! Listen! Por Dios, ¡Pare! ¡Mire! ¡Escuche! Mon Dieu, Arretez! Voyez! Ecoutez!

Luis O. Reyes, Coordinator of the Coalition for Educational Excellence for English Language Learners (CEEELL), attended a meeting with Chancellor Klein on March 14, 2007, set up by the New York Immigration Coalition's Education Task Force (of which Luis is a member). NYIC had sought the meeting to get the chancellor's response to NYIC's “Education Policy Brief: State Funding, Accountability and Successful Strategies for ELL Students”. The Policy Brief is a blueprint to accompany the promised City and State funding increases for English Language Learner (ELL) students.

According to Luis, “the blueprint calls for a 1.0 ELL weighting, but just as importantly, it advocates for tracking of any new ELL funding to ensure that ELL students, their teachers and their parents benefit fully through quality instruction and support services, with public accountability for inputs and outcomes”.

NYIC had sent the document to the Chancellor and his senior staff including Deputy Chancellor Andrés Alonso and Ms. Maria Santos, in charge of the Office of English Language Learners. But the meeting the Chancellor granted, was with Garth Harries, the Director of the Office of New Schools and Brian Ellner, Senior Counselor to the Chancellor. And as Luis relates in this perspective on the meeting, the Chancellor had an entirely different agenda:

Asked to share his response to NYIC's ELL Funding Accountability Plan and its Immigrant/ELL Success Agenda, Chancellor Klein chose to focus, instead, on two major issues: his proposed Weighted Funding Formula and his New Small High Schools Initiative. He indicated he was surprised that we were not more supportive of his weighted funding formula proposals, which would provide different levels of increased funding for ELLs at the three different levels in the public schools. And, he asserted that the small high schools were critical because they provided options to high needs students (immigrant, minorities); and touted the International HS's with their "high concentration of talent and skills" on behalf of ELLs.

Most of the time was spent on the Chancellor's two issues. On the first, we responded to the first by noting the great difference in scale between the Governor's ELL budget proposal (an additional .5 weighting that would generate an unprecedented $350 million per year in additional ELL-generated funding for New York City) and the City's proposal (a weighting that ranges between $180-$300 per ELL pupil at the elementary level to $360-600 at the HS level). On the second issue, the Chancellor indicated there was a dispute about whether ELLs were proportionally represented in the small high schools. He felt they were. We felt they were not.

The bottom line, in my opinion, came down to whether or not we, the ELL/immigrant advocates, were on board with the Chancellor's initiatives or part of the opposition (what he has categorized elsewhere as the "defenders of the status-quo"). There was no owning up by the Chancellor nor his senior aides to the unwritten 2-year ELL exemption policy that has allowed many new small HS's to not admit ELLs. Nor did he respond to the issue of dismantling bilingual HS programs and leaving Haitian, Asian and Latino ELLs without equivalent options in his new small schools.

While the Chancellor did say that he was "cognizant of all the different issues", neither he nor Harries and Ellner engaged the people at the meeting regarding our comprehensive agenda. Instead, we were pushed to be cheerleaders for the Chancellor's initiatives, aked, in effect, to choose sides. Nor did the Chancellor acknowledge that a two-year $45,000 grant for ELLs to 10 new small HS's was a pittance, if not insulting, in the face of the true need.

I have to say that this was one of the most unsatisfying meetings I have attended with Chancellor Klein or with any Chancellor (and I go back 25 years now!). The truth is, that not engaging ELL/immigrant advocates on our terms, and expecting us to be defenders of his initiatives and proposals, is shortsighted, even patronizing. While understandable, given all the negative reaction to his reorganization plan, he is wrong to set himself up as the one and only champion of change. I believe he believes he's on the side of the angels, fighting for equity and real change.

Nevertheless, his tin-ear response to our advocacy on behalf of ELL/immigrants, leads me to the brink of despair. We did not arrive here yesterday; not even 5 years ago, when he was selected Chancellor by the Mayor. Many of us have been battling the Latino and ELL dropout crisis for longer than we care to say. We have grown older and tired (I speak for myself!) from presenting Chancellors with educational reform agendas premised on the need to respect our languages and cultures while insisting on real reform, real resources, and real results.

If there is one thing I would like to get across to Chancellor Klein, it is that we are neither hired help, nor unpaid flaks, and, certainly, not died-in-the-wool defenders of the status-quo. Do not patronize us! Engage us as partners, not supplicants. If you do not, you too will fail. And, if you do, so shall we. The best chance we have to make a difference will have been squandered.

For God's sake, Stop! Look! Listen! Por Dios, ¡Pare! ¡Mire! ¡Escuche! Mon Dieu, Arretez! Voyez! Ecoutez!

Luis O. Reyes

Coordinator,

Coalition for Educational Excellence for English Language Learners (CEEELL)

March 16, 2007

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

"Children First" Game Rule Clarification

The post below, "A Free Choice for Principals?" requires a rule clarification for the new Monopoly-like game, "Children First: A Game of Irony":

According to the rules, if someone lands on one of your schools, they pay you but you must then kick back 10% to the support organization you have chosen. If you have not chosen a support organization, you collect nothing and also lose 10% of your budget due to your "ineffective leadership".

However, remember the "Chancellor" can change the rules of the game at any time. The only check on his power to do this is that he must first consult with the "real stakeholders": Edison Schools, New Visions, and Alvarez and Marsal.

A free choice for principals?

Under the proposed reorganization, the Department of Education is asking principals to choose a support organization – either an external Partnership Support Organization, (PSO), an internal DoE-led Learning Support Organization (LSO), or if their school becomes an empowerment school, they can draw on that network for support.

This initiative is being described as freeing up principals to choose the best services and deals possible from a range of possible sources – which of course, will have to be paid for out of their limited school budgets.

Here is an excerpt from a letter to principals by Joel Klein explaining the rationale:

As you know, an important priority of our Children First school reforms is making sure that all of our principals and school communities are held accountable for meeting rigorous goals for our students and are empowered to make the critical decisions about how best to succeed. You and your school community, not someone who works outside of your school, should determine what you need to be successful and you should have the resources and authority to make it happen. …. When you choose a School Support Organization, you and your school community have the chance to select the team that is best suited to help you, your staff, and your students succeed.

Not until mid-April are principals supposed to receive ”detailed information” about the services being offered by each organization, and in April and May, there are supposed to be a “series of citywide and borough forums to “meet representatives of the School Support Organizations, learn more about the packages of services each is offering, and make informed decisions.”

In the letter, Klein adds that is “too early for you to come to a conclusion about the most appropriate support organization for your school. The School Support Organizations are still in development and will be described to you in detail in the coming months. Any 'decision' to affiliate before these options are fully developed and made known to you would be premature and would very likely short-change your school and your students.”

In fact, the DOE has not yet officially chosen among the organizations that have applied to become PSOs, though New Visions confidently announces on its website that it will be one of them.

Yet in many cases, this choice appears to be more illusory than real.

A recent email from a top staffer at New Visions says they will delay giving out grants to the small schools with the Gates Foundation funds, until and unless these schools choose them as their PSO.

Here is an excerpt: “Remember, by signing this grant agreement you also agree to become a member of the New Visions Partner Support Organization. This is a clear stipulation for receiving funding support.”

And, in case that wasn’t clear enough:. “Only after each of you signs on to our NV PSO will we be able to issue a grant implementation letter.”

Is this an inventive kickback scheme on the part of New Visions, to ensure that funds keep flowing to their organization, in this case in the form of taxpayer dollars? Clearly this will restrict the ability of principals at the small schools to freely choose which PSO might be best for their needs, given the fact that they rely on Gates-funded grants to keep these schools going.

Comments anyone? Do you think the practice of forcing schools to choose New Visions as their Partnership support organization is unethical, illegal, or just business as usual, in the ruthless world that Tweed is intent on establishing in our public school system?

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.

Boss Tweed's revenge?

Another irony in the rich history of Boss Tweed is that he was eventually brought down by Samuel J. Tilden, a reform-minded chairman of the Democratic state committee, NY Governor and a Presidential candidate.

Samuel Tilden would have become President, having won the popular vote and more electoral votes as well, if not for a lot of political shenanigans.

And now, more than 100 years later, Tweed appears to be having his revenge, as top DoE officials are closing down the school named after him -- despite the protests of teachers, parents, students and elected leaders.

The determination of top officials at Tweed to eliminate Tilden HS flies in the face of a positive quality review of the school only a few months ago.

The review pointed out the how how the principal's "efforts and leadership have received enthusiastic support from students, teachers, parents and her administrative staff" and that English language learners achieved a passing rate on their Regents exams 25.3% above similar schools and 16.8% higher than schools across the City. Also notable is that the school is one of the few places that offers bilingual classes to Haitian students. An excerpt:

"From the principal, whose open-door policy welcomes students at all times, to teachers and security personnel, a culture that values knowing and respecting all students is immediately observable."

The small schools that will open up in its place are allowed to exclude all ELL and special education students for up to two years -- where will all these children go?

See also this NY Times column about the situation at Tilden HS, and the website of the school's defenders who are trying to save it from being eliminated.

An update from John Lawhead, Tilden HS teacher: On Tuesday (March 20) we had a free-lance writer who's on assignment from Voice. She attempted to interview the principal. Melody Meyers of the DOE communications office refused to give permission for the principal to talk.

Also check out John's testimony before the City Council here.

When Boss Tweed Controlled the Public Schools

A contribution from Diane Ravitch:

Once in a while, someone complains about the fact that the Department of Education has its headquarters in the Tweed Courthouse, next to City Hall. This is really unfair, as you will see. Most people make the connection between the Tweed Courthouse and Boss William M. Tweed, the corrupt head of Tammany Hall. What they don't realize is that Boss Tweed served as a member of the elected New York City Board of Education from 1855 to 1857.

As his power grew, he decided that the Board of Education was a rich source of patronage. In 1869, Boss Tweed persuaded the state legislature to dismiss the elected Board of Education and replace it with an interim board that was appointed by the Tammany Mayor. Friends of Tammany cried that the independent Board was extravagant, spendthrift, etc. One of the first acts of the Tammany-appointed Board of Education was to measure classrooms and figure out how to squeeze more children into the same space.

In 1871, with Boss Tweed riding high, he amended the City Charter to change the Board of Education into the Department of Public Instruction. The legislature supported the change, and for two years--until the Tweed Ring was exposed--the public schools were operated by the Department of Public Instruction. Except for The New York Times, the other newspapers in the city commended the change, saying that it would bring the schools into a closer relationship with municipal government and would streamline their administration.

Once the Tweed Ring scandal broke, the legislature abolished the Department of Public Instruction and restored an independent Board of Education.

Anyone who wants to read further about the adventures of the Tweed Ring will find this account in more detail in my book "The Great School Wars, 1805-1973," pp. 92-99.

Diane Ravitch

More Toxic Schools on the Way

In January, the Mayor secured City Council approval to build four schools on a brownfield site in Mott Haven. Today, Metro reporter Patrick Arden describes the City's latest plan to reclaim a toxic site for a school, this time in the former Queens County Morgue. Here's what people in the neighborhood had to say:

"The site is contaminated,” said Robert Trabold, president of the community group Hillcrest Citizens for Neighborhood Preservation. “Over the years chemicals were dumped on the soil, and it’s in the groundwater. We said, ‘Well, what will parents think?’”

Mr Trabold asks "What will parents think?" but we know that's never a concern with the Administration that will build twice as many new stadium seats as school seats. Queens has the most overcrowded crowded schools in the City. But that simply means Queens parents will face another of the Mayor's false choices: crowded schools or schools on toxic sites. Here's a link to the full article.

Last November, Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff's staff issued strenuous denials when the NY Times reported that reclamation of toxic sites for school construction was a major component of the Mayor's sustainability effort. This school-in-a-morgue news doesn't make those denials any more believable. If Mayor Bloomberg can move heaven and earth for big real estate developments, why is it so hard to build schools?