Leonie Haimson Offers Parents Real Choice: Low class size, rich non-test driven curriculum

There is no little irony in the Daily News assault on Leonie Haimson for sending her son to a private school while supposedly denying choice to other parents without that option open to them.

Leonie has been such a thorn in the side of the deformers, they must disparage her work. How interesting that they chose one of their funding darlings, Gotham Schools and writer Geoff Decker, to do the initial dirty work. And of course their rise and shine linked to the DN piece today. Ka-ching.

Leonie advocates for all parents to have the choice of low class size, a rich curriculum not driven by standardized tests for kids (in the womb), parent and teacher involvement and other real reforms. You know, the kinds of schools leading ed deformers like Gates, Bloomberg, Arne Duncan and others send their kids to but deny that option to the 99%.

A Daily News opinion piece, Don't let the classroom door hit you on the way out, brands Leonie as an advocate "for the bogus cure-all of hiring thousands of additional teachers to reduce class sizes."

The Daily News supports not giving parents choice but removing their choices. Their choices of whether to have an unwanted charter school planted inside the public school their child attends. A charter that offers no progressive education but a rigid military style discipline. That is the only "choice" the DN wants people to have. The kind of choice that will just happen to enrich market-driven charter school chains and test enriched corporations like Pearson which owns so much of a monopoly.

I left a comment:

Why are you denying parents the choice of low class sizes for their children which is somehow "bogus"? I'll bet given a choice you would choose low class sizes for your own children. As Leonie has done for her own child given that the NYC Public school leaders seem to subscribe to the same "high class size is better" that you advocate.

Leonie opted out of the narrow, bogus phony choice system being implemented by ed deform. When that system falls apart people who want the same kind of progressive education the 1% give to their children will be back.

See Leonie's post on her blog: A personal note