Showing posts with label harlem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label harlem. Show all posts

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Democracy Prep Streamrolls PS 197: Hats Off to Antoine Bogard for Leading the Resistance- Where was the UFT?

The more I think about the shameful performance of Leo Casey at the Left forum, defining public education in a way to include charter schools, the more it becomes clear what they are leaving school after school like PS 197 out there to hang on their own. Leo claims the union has a strategy. They must have studied the actions of France in WWII. 

Marjorie Stamberg reports:
A few of us went tonight to support Antoine Bogard, chapter leader at PS 197 in Harlem whose school has already been forced to co-locate with Democracy Prep, and now they want to grab even more space. The hearing was flooded with Democracy Prep people, all of whom were given yellow t-shirts, caps, pizza ordered in for them, their yuppie frat boy organizers handing out written scripts to the parents, lining up the students who have no idea how they are being used in the privatization wars!


Where were the UFT district and central office people tonight? They should have been out there to support PS 197 students and teachers.


Hats off to Antoine for standing up for public education in that environment! He made the powerful points as to the dramatic rise in class size from kindergarten on now that their school is being squeezed out by the charter.


--Marjorie
Previous Ed Notes reports on Democracy Prep and PS 197:
Stop Democracy Prep Charter Takeover of PS 197M ...
The Racial School Divide in Harlem: A Public Schoo...
Does internal union democracy help organizing ... 
What Ed Deformers Get Wrong About Going to College 
Treat Public Schools Like Ross Global Charter
Jan 13, 2011
Wait till the Harlem charter schools not part of the favored Democracy Prep, Harlem Success or KIPP start to get squeezed out of the picture. We may have to push our new allies off the resistance boat with a stick.
 
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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

"Scarsdale Success" To Give Parents Choice - Finally

EDNN News Reports:

Tired at being barricaded inside their zoned schools, a group of Scarsdale residents have asked some Harlem African-American ministers to open a charter school in Scarsdale, NY. They will urge space be found to cram it in to a current public school. The school will be called "Scarsdale Success" and will be modeled on former NYC City Council member Eva Moskowitz' "Harlem Success" school.

"It is not fair to the people in that community that charter schools are only being opened by white people for black residents in Harlem," said a spokesperson. "Free choice of schools should be open to white folks too. Why should the good people in Scarsdale have to send their children to a conscripted public school without having the freedom to choose alternatives? Our individual rights are being subverted in favor of some misguided notion of collectivism that favors the status quo."

"But they aren't they wealthy enough to send their kids to private schools if they are not happy with the public schools," we asked?

The spokesperson said:
"Do you know what they pay in taxes to support the public schools? A portion of that money should go to open a variety of charter schools so they can have a choice. What if a parent is not happy with the progressive curriculum and wants their kids to have a test-prep-all-day education like the kids in Harlem? What if a parent is sick of all the trips and excursions their kids go on and prefer they stay in school all day and work to close the achievement gap with Shaker Heights, Ohio? What if you are a minority in the community and you don't want to go to the school with the majority-chosen principal? The only model that avoids the tyranny of the majority and respects the individual rights of parents and students is the school choice model."

Won't cramming a charter school into an existing public school cause class sizes to rise? "Class size is overrated. Better to have a class of 50 with a good teacher than a class of 10 with a low quality teacher," said the spokesperson.

"I'm sick of having to elect school boards and having a say in running our schools," said a Scarsdale supporter of the plan. "We want what the residents of Harlem have – no say at all in how their schools are run. Liek them, we want outsiders to come in and take the burden off our hands by telling us how to run our schools. I've noticed too many of our kids do not look at the teachers and nod on cue." We want some Kipp of our own.

Some Scarsdale residents plan to petition Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein to come in and take over their schools. "Better yet," said a parent leader, "we hope Eva Moskowitz gets off her missionary kick and comes on down."

Scarsdale middle school will have to make room for a charter school, causing a rise in class size.