NYC Public School Parents Comment on Charter Phony Demand Claims

The charter industry spends thousands of dollars per students to pull demand. One of today's march organizers, the CEO of CMO PublicPrep, recently had to pull an offer to pay families ( $100 in AmEx gift cards + $100  to college fund 529) under pressure form DoE/the charter lobby because it exposes how desperate these schools are to create demand.... Clearly demand does not drive policy- so why does the DoE and charter lobby keep pretending they should? ....

We FOILed the enrollment figures and zip codes of students for CWC Williasmburg (Citizens of the World - run be Eva Moskowitz' husband) and this is what we found out: CWC Williamsburg has only 65 students  (out of a planned 126).  A total of only 39 Kindergartners and 26 1st graders.AND, when we looked at their zip codes, only THREE students come from the school's zip code.
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Remember how Citizens of the World Charter Schools was seeking TWO charter schools in D14 because parents were begging for them?  Walcott, in his comments to SUNY, even said that two CWCs were great, but there was only "sufficient space" for one in D14 (the other is in D17).  Yet Walcott found sufficient space to co-locate more schools in D14 later in the year.

The NYC DOE co-located CWC Williamsburg in the ONLY middle school in the area. We FOILed the enrollment figures and zip codes of students for CWC Williasmburg and this is what we found out: CWC Williamsburg has only 65 students  (out of a planned 126).  A total of only 39 Kindergartners and 26 1st graders.

AND, when we looked at their zip codes, only THREE students come from the school's zip code.  Anywhere from 60-86% are coming from out of the district. We would have a more definitive figure, but one of the zip codes is shared by D32 (2/3 of the zip is in D32).

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We need to push back on the myth that charter schools benefit from what DoE refers to as 'robust demand' which then justifies all the favor, attention and space showered upon them by this administration. Many of us question the accuracy and even existence of these tens of thousands of students on wait lists.

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All the charter schools in my district have claimed enormous demand as evidenced by huge wait lists yet none of them can meet their enrollment targets.

Indeed one of today's march organizers, the CEO of CMO PublicPrep, recently had to pull an offer to pay families ( $100 in AmEx gift cards + $100  to college fund 529) under pressure form DoE/the charter lobby because it exposes how desperate these schools are to create demand.

 

This is the same network that has emailed glossy postcards to the families and students  in the community directly having been given, for free, access to the DoE's registers of enrolled students.

The charter industry spends thousands of dollars per students to pull demand.

Does that undocumented demand justify the creation and colocation of schools that take resources form existing schools/students?

The Mayor does not think that 'demand' for sodas or guns on our streets is reason to allow or encourage their proliferation at the expense of our citizen's health and safety.

At last night's colocation hearing for a new CTE school NOT ONE person or organization attended or spoke in favor of the proposal.

In this year's choice-based  K admissions process in D1 some 3102 applicants applied for 886 seats.

 

Where does that "wait list" and "robust demand" get tallied, weighed and taken into account?

 

Our district seats are getting converted to citywide HS's, G and T and charter schools.

Clearly demand does not drive policy- so why does the DoE and charter lobby keep pretending they should?

 

Such great stuff exposing the myth of charter demand which the press ignores. Keep em coming.