Shtupping in the Charters: Bait and Switch

Some Upper West Side Parents Fit to Be Tied Over Tweed Manipulation

It's not all about horror stories for NYC teachers.
Want to see how the Joel Klein team operates with parent communities?

Here are some excerpts from Bijou Miller, Co-President of District 3 President Council, followed by Leonie Haimson.
Click on the link below to read it all.

For those of you who did not make the joint Pres. Council/CEC meeting at PS 241, I wanted to post this because, in my opinion, what happened tonight was the DOE at its worst- In point of fact, I thought I had seen its worst, until tonight.

this "hearing" was being held under the auspices of the Charter School Institute of the State University of New York. I also found out that someone had bused in a busload of children who were given caps blazoned with the Harlem Success Academy logo.

John White, the Office of Portfolio Development, who is running this show stated that the feeling was that 241 families would not put their kids into another public school-that the DOE felt a charter would attract more families. Let me also say that the DLT was told there were at least two viable options for 241, one a charter and one a public. The DLT was never ever given any information on the public option. We asked for info but he put it off or changed the subject at least twice. It was quite obvious that a charter was the DOE's choice and that Harlem Success was the specific choice. At the second meeting, White had even invited Harlem Success parents to come and "testify" about how great their school was. So the deck was definitely stacked

Leonie Haimson:

I agree with Bijou that this is one of the most outrageous things that the DOE has ever tried to do -- and they have done alot.

To close a zoned school w/out the CEC's approval -- essentially eliminating the zone -- and putting a charter school in its place is blatantly illegal: state law and chancellor's regs require that all changes in zoning must be approved by the CEC.

Privatizing the system and turning the best schools into charters, which then excluded the neediest students, is what they did in New Orleans but it took a nearly unprecedented national disaster to do it. here we only have Hurricane Bloomberg/Klein.

The full posts at:
District 3 (Upper West Side) Meeting and Comments

More from Bijou on charters and PS 241 at the NYC Parent blog.