A charter school network’s plan to double in size over the next few years could reignite a war over classroom space in New York City, only this time with the ground rules already tilted against the mayor.
A new state law passed in April gives the city just two options to meet the demands of the Success Academy network: It can hand over free space in public or private buildings, or give the schools money to find their own space.
The first option has frequently led to angry protests from the parents and teachers in schools that have to share space. The latter route would come with spiraling financial costs, as well as potential political ones, underscoring the new law’s unspoken aim: to get the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio to be more collegial to the charter school sector.
“There are all sorts of hidden ways that this work can be made much harder than it has to be,” said Eva S. Moskowitz, the Success Academy founder. Ms. Moskowitz is adroit at mobilizing support from parents and public officials. Her march on Albany last winter, after the mayor briefly blocked three of her schools from city space, helped set the new law into motion, and she vowed last week to ensure that “the law is followed.”
With 22 schools serving 6,700 students, her network is already larger than many New York State school districts. She already has approval to open 10 more schools in the city, and said last week that she intends to apply to the state for permission to open 14 more, which would give her 46 schools, in every borough but Staten Island, by 2016.
14 comments:
So, as things stand, the City is now forced to subsidize this woman's business for as many "schools" as she can whip up.
I met Ms. Moskowitz 20+ years ago when she was the PTA pres. at my old elementary school (P6M). She was an operator back then. I see that hasn't changed.
Let her do her thing. It beats social promotion that graduates kids who can't read.
How much does it cost per child/per year? More or less than the DOE?
These charter schools cherry pick their students to make the corporation look good.
So the teachers get paid shit with no benefits while the CEO makes millions!!! Typical exploitative outsourcing story!!!
If parents want a private education for their kids then let them pay for it!!!!!
Close down these schools.
Charter schools choose students via lottery.
"Let her do her thing"
Her "thing"? You mean dumping kids who won't make her test scores look good and have serious behavioral problems into the public system which by law must accept them and give them equal treatment?
You're getting HOSED by the Charter School racket and you've swallowed their advertising propaganda (also paid for by your tax dollars) hook, line and sinker.
Charter schools cost slightly more than the DOE per pupil overall, and a lot more when you adjust for the population they deal with.
They do not choose from all students via lottery. They choose from students with parents who care enough and are active/English-fluent enough to try and get them a good education. And of course, it's no guarantee the kid won't be "counseled out" because he/she isn't making enough progress to prop up those test scores.
Save the kids you can save. Not her problem that there are shitty parents out there. And not mine, either.
"Not her problem that there are shitty parents out there. And not mine, either."
Actually, as long as the city spends 30 cents of your every tax dollar on education, it IS your problem. Maybe matters would improve if more people took their heads out of Eva Moskowitz's shriveled ass.
On the contrary, the pols need to pull their heads out of the UFT's ass and then things would improve.
Yes, Charter Schools have a lottery. HOWEVER, once they get FUNDED by the city in early November, they KICK-OUT all the bad apples. The money stays w/them, the kid is gone and ABSORBED into the only other option, the real PUBLIC School. However, the money doesn't follow the kid. All these kids flood into schools, creating over-crowding, and additional stress for teachers due to extra kids. Then Teachers have to "Preform," up to standards or else get told they suck. Nice, right?
"they KICK-OUT all the bad apples"
works for me. why hurt the good kids with troublemakers.
we got into this problem thanks to "progressive" policies.
Take all the troublemakers and put them in one school. The quality of education in the city would go way up.
The UFT's problems are due in large part to the fact that more of retirees are casting votes than their cohorts still teaching:
http://hechingerreport.org/content/teachers-union-still-draws-support-money-from-retired-members_11502/
Why the younger teachers don't come out and clamor for better working conditions over the greedy ones near or in retirement who push back pay is right in line with voter turnout in general increasing with age. Stupid, but no different from politics elsewhere.
"On the contrary, the pols need to pull their heads out of the UFT's ass and then things would improve"
You don't think their noses are brown from the Charter school operators too? For whatever his reasons, (I think they had a tiff back when they were Councilmembers) deBlasio is actually showing some spine in handling Moskowitz whereas Bloomberg let these people raid the public coffers with impunity while overall NYC education got worse under his rule.
"works for me. why hurt the good kids with troublemakers ...Take all the troublemakers and put them in one school"
Not a bad idea. Now wouldn't it be better if - seeing as you're paying for it - there was actually proper oversight and licensed staff? Or would you rather make them money pits along the lines of for-profit prisons and defense contractors?
If anyone cares to go back to the origin of charter schools, they were supposed to be small experiments in learning and innovation. Lessons learned in the charter schools would be applied to the public system FOR THE BENEFIT OF IMPROVING THAT SYSTEM.
They have since morphed into a separate corporate education system that pays ridiculous corporate salaries to CEO's. They use public space, drain the public system of resources, cherry-pick and/or remove all difficult students and claim wonderful results.
So, if you have small classes of motivated students with lots of outside funding and great infrastructure, students will do well! Wow!
How about the part about transferring these findings to the overall public system? (without the 500K salaries)
If the city had adopted a voucher program, we would still have a robust and cheaper non-profit Catholic school system thus more kids better educated than the standard system, at lower cost.
the rise of charters has greatly reduced the impact of the Catholic school system on reducing NYC education costs.
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