DE BLASIO GIVES IN BIG TO CHARTERS

Curbing mayoral control of schools should be a priority - local control is the biggest threat to the ed deformers.

Posted by Jake Jacobs at NYC BATS FB:

DE BLASIO GIVES IN BIG TO CHARTERS: You might have missed this but in a last-minute deal for a two-year renewal of mayoral control, Mayor de Blasio agreed to circumvent the legislature, pledging to help charters expand through his administrative powers.

The agreement granted permission to revive so-called “zombie” charters, meaning schools that never open or quickly closed.

The really contentious part was the proposal to let charter schools which SUNY oversees hire unlicensed teachers. The controversial proposal grew out of concessions de Blasio made in last year's mayoral control renewal deal, where SUNY was allowed to change some rules so charters could switch authorizers -- about 50 charters did switch over to SUNY in advance of the unlicensed teacher proposal.

But it's not clear whether SUNY has the legal authority to approve the new rules, which would not only let charters hire uncertified teachers, but let charter school executives grant licenses to teachers after three years, even if they were trained by uncertified instructors.

Mayor de Blasio’s position on the uncertified teacher plan has not been made public, but the proposal dropped around the same time de Blasio secretly negotiated his side-deal for renewing mayoral control.

First wondering aloud if the two were linked, Politico’s Eliza Shapiro later reported that withholding details about the exact concessions made to charters seem to be part of the deal struck between de Blasio and NYS Senate leader John Flanagan.

We can wonder whether de Blasio agreed to letting charters hire uncertified teachers to replace the 40% of teachers they burn through each year, but we know the proposal was first championed by Eva Moskowitz, who supports not only Trump's call to expand charters but private school vouchers as well.

http://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2017/06/29/mayoral-control-deal-could-change-de-blasios-poor-standing-in-albany-113160