The counter revolution against charter school invasions keeps growing. This comes from one of the epicenters - Harlem.
When? Thursday, May 24, 2018, 11 AM
Where? Abyssinian Baptist Church (132 W 138th St,
New York, NY 10030)
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS CONTACT:
Dr. Sanayi Beckles Canton, CEC5 cec5@schools.nyc.gov
The District 5 Community Education Council, NAACP, The Harlem
Renaissance Education Pipeline and community at large call for a charter
moratorium and an investment in public schools to promote equity and
transparency in New York Public Schools
“School District 5 leads city and state call-to-action for equity and transparency in all public schools”
New York, N.Y. (May 24, 2018) — Today, community leaders and
stakeholders will converge at Abyssinian Baptist Church (132 W 138th St,
New York, NY 10030) at 11am to announce a call- to-action to end the
structural and institutional disparities in New York public education.
The District 5 Community Education Council, NAACP, and The Harlem
Renaissance Education Pipeline (HREP) will lead the charge to demand
that all public schools, whether DOE schools or charters, in School
District 5 and beyond, are held accountable to the same standards for
equi- ty, respect, and fulfillment.
While charter schools are considered public schools and receive public
tax dollars to operate, they are not subject to the same standards and
expectations as DOE schools. “Charter schools, on their face, are no
better or worse than DOE schools, but because of their model of
governance, they are not accountable to students, parents, or the
community in the same way that DOE schools are,” says Dr. Sanayi Beckles
Canton, President of The District 5 Community Education Council.
In West and Central Harlem, a higher percentage of kindergarteners
attended charter schools in 2016-17 than anywhere else in New York
State. It is also one of the first communities to authorize charter
schools in the United States. In this district that once chartered a
national “charter school shift,” today, District 5 schools are being
pitted against one another to struggle for students, resources, and
co-location. The diversity of teaching and leadership staff,
disciplinary practices, and services to children with higher needs also
glaringly lacks equitability, which compounds the problem of
transparency among public schools in the District.
As the Mayor and Chancellor of New York City push their newly adopted
agenda “Equity and Excellence for All: Diversity in New York City Public
Schools,” The District 5 Community Educa- tion Council, NAACP, and
HREP, along with a collective of over 50 CBO’s and local businesses, are
appealing for reform.
The group is proposing that New York City’s Mayor and Schools
Chancellor, the New York State Education Department, and the New York
State Legislature hold all schools in District 5 to the agenda of
“Equity for All,” which includes:
1. Reimbursement of $12 million of Foundation Aid (CFE) owed to District 5.
2. No new authorizations of charter schools in Harlem.
3. Investment in institutional practices and spaces that give parents
opportunities and re- sources to be involved in decisions affecting
schools in our community.
4. Review and assessment of all current charter schools practices in our community.
5. Creation of an independent agency (i.e. Office of Charter
Accountability and Transparency) where all New York State charter
parents have a clear unbiased pathway to getting as- sistance with
concerns or issues that arise in their children’s charter schools.
6. Changes in New York State charter-school hiring practices, in
consultation with local public schools, to promote more diverse
populations of teachers and leadership staff that reflect the
demographics of the communities they serve, and an annual evaluation of
the impacts of these changes.
7. Enforcement by NYSED of the charter law, which states that all
charter schools are supposed to work in collaboration with local
public schools on educational practices and family engagement.
8. Statewide ratings of charters on how well they follow charter law
regarding sharing best practices with public schools—through
professional development, resources in shared co- locations, and family
and community engagement. These ratings should be considered as part of
the evaluations to renew charters of existing schools.
9. Involvement of the local Community Education Council (CEC) in public
hearings and data collection any time an existing New York City charter
school is looking to expand within a district in order to understand the
community impact that their school will have on local DOE schools.
This call-to-action is paramount as it represents a microcosm of the
national public education debate. Education and business leaders are
making investments in charter schools throughout the United States. If
they don’t insist that all public schools are held accountable to the
same standards of equity, transparent governance, and parent inclusion,
Harlem and Community School District 5’s current position could be
indicative of what’s to come nationally.
With a commitment from the Mayor, Chancellor, and the NYS and NYC
Department of Education, the District 5 Community Education Council,
NAACP, and HREP intends to alter the loom- ing history and trajectory of
public school education in school District 5, and beyond.
The District 5 Community Education Council
Community Education Councils, created by the New York State Legislature,
are the local bodies responsible for en- suring that public school
parents and the public have input in educational decision-making at the
community school district level. The District 5 Community Education
Council supports 23 public elementary, middle and high schools in
Central Harlem.
https://cec5.org/
NAACP | New York State
The NAACP New York State Conference has been a vital programmatic
component of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People for 80 of the 108-year history of the oldest, most effective and
most respected civil rights organization in the Nation. The vision of
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to
ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights without
discrimination based on race. https://www.nysnaacp.org/
The Harlem Renaissance Education Pipeline (HREP)
The Harlem Renaissance Education Pipeline is a Cradle to Career
Collective Impact Partnership made up of a cross- sector of
organizations working together to improve outcomes for families and
students in Central and West Harlem. http://www.hrep.nyc/
PRESS CONTACT
Dr. Sanayi Beckles Canton, CEC5 cec5@schools.nyc.gov 212-470-5852
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