Brooke Parker exposes sham of @CenturyFoundation report on "diversity by design" charter schools

the corporation was projected to receive a total of about $5.6 million dollars by 2016, with more than half of these funds to be provided by NYC taxpayers. ...charter school carpetbaggers attempted to exploit some of the fears of white parents moving into an area with public schools composed of mostly Black and Hispanic students.... For all their talk of diversity, their internal leaked “marketing plan” identified their primary targets in Williamsburg as “Middle/Upper income/predominantly White” and in Crown Heights, “middle/upper income" parents.....Brooke Parker

Exposing charter school scams is some of our favorite reading. I've known Brooke Parker for many years through our Williamsburg connections. She is relentless. Leonie publishes her latest on her blog.

Leonie writes:

Brooke Parker exposes sham of Century Foundation report on "diversity by design" charter schools via leaked Citizens of the World marketing plan and exorbitant fees..
Please share!

Here is Leonie's introduction on the blog:

Here is a column by Brooke Dunn Parker, Brooklyn parent activist, about a recent controversial report by the Century Foundation, which identified 125 charter schools that are supposedly “diverse by design” – though on the whole, most analysts find that charters have  had a segregating effect, according to the AP, NBC News, and the UCLA Civil Rights Project.

Moreover, this list of 125 schools was selected from 5,692 charter schools – only a tiny number.  The methodology is also questionable.  The authors identify these schools by analyzing their enrollment, websites and survey responses from school leaders.  Though the Century Foundation sent their survey about diversity to 971 charter schools, only 86 responded – which means that nearly 40 schools were put on the list even though the school leaders couldn’t be bothered to answer their survey.  
Several Success Academy charter schools were included on their list, including Success Academy Upper West, which has had multiple civil  rights complaints lodged by parents against it.  Finally, the report was financed by the Walton Foundation, the largest private funder of charter schools, who no doubt would like to whitewash their poor record of civil rights abuses.  Please read  the Network for Public Education and Schott Foundation report on how many charter schools violate students’ civil rights.

Check out Brooke’s dive into the issue, informed by her experience with one of the supposedly “diverse by design” charter networks highlighted in the report, Citizens of the World Charter Schools. Brooke has previously written about these schools on our blog, here and here.

 https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2018/06/brooke-parker-exposes-sham-of-century.html


Brooke Parker has fought and exposed Citizens of the World charter when they invaded Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They used Eva Moskowitz' husband, Eric Grannis. Ed Notes published a bunch of stuff on the family scam.

Here is one on Brooke I published back in 2012:

Eric Grannis, Eva Moskowitz husband.

WAGPOPS Brilliant Expose of Citizens of the World Charter Ponzi ...

https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2012/.../wagpops-brilliant-expose-of-citizerns.htm...

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We believe that there is a place in public education for charter schools, but Citizens of the World is bastardizing the original intent of charter schools. ...

Brooke left this comment on the role Eric Grannis played:
Eric Grannis didn’t start it, but he created an organization, Tapestry, that made introductions between the “community,” the charter network that already existed in California, and SUNY. Tapestry was designed to help open charters in North Brooklyn, a district where we already had the most charters outside of Harlem. Tapestry’s marketing led many of us to believe that they were particularly interested in getting white gentrifying families invested in opening charters for their kids. - Brooke Parker

and a few more ed notes pieces:

Community Outrage: What is Eva Moskowitz's husband Eric Grannis ...

https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2012/01/community-outrage-what-is-eva.html

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Jan 27, 2012 - There is so much going on around the Eva Moskowitz Success Charter invasion of Williamsburg (and Cobble Hill) that I could do 5 blogs a day.

Ed Notes Online: Eric Grannis (Eva Hubby) Charter Failure - Two ...

https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2017/.../eric-grannis-eva-hubby-charter-failure.ht...

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Dec 18, 2017 - Eva Moskowitz' was involved in the scheme early on, as Brooke Parker from WAGPOPS reports: Eric Grannis didn't start it, but he created an ...

Ed Notes Online: Trashing Citizens of the World Scam Charter ...

https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2013/.../trashing-citizens-of-world-scam-charter.ht...

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Trashing Citizens of the World Scam Charter Scheme. As registration is happening for citizens of the world (part of Eva Moskowitz empire), if you could circulate these negative articles and have everyone click on them, it would be very helpful. We need to let everyone know that there is significant opposition.

Ed Notes Online: Parents Opposed to Citizens of the World Charter ...

https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2012/12/parents-opposed-to-citizens-of-world.html

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Dec 5, 2012 - Parents Opposed to Citizens of the World Charter: Hundreds, Parents in Favor: 4. The NY State Dept. would allow the Hitler Youth Charter to breeze through and not only would they authorize the Ku Klux Klan Charter School for Racial Harmony but they would wash the sheets. -- Norm at charter hearing.

And here is a Daily News piece:

Charter school boss Eva Moskowitz's husband's group seeks to open ...

www.nydailynews.com/.../moskowitz-hubby-open-new-charter-schools-nabe-success-... Feb 27, 2012 - Group affiliated with Success head Eva Moskowitz's husband Eric Grannis is also looking to open a charter school in Williamsburg. (Bryan ...

Eric Grannis (Eva Hubby) Charter Failure - Two Citizens of the World charter schools will close

For those parents who were scammed and are now crying about the school's closing -- I hear some of them talking choice, choice, choice -- there are many choices in District 14 --- we were all warning everyone about citizens of the world.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2013

WSJ Reports on Citizens of the World Charter Underenrollment

The school's experience demonstrates that charter schools, which often say parents need more choices, can be stung when parents' decisions don't fall their way. It also bolsters opponents who say that, despite claims of long wait lists and tales of parents craving alternatives, there isn't as much demand for charter schools as supporters say... Lisa Fleisher, WSJ.

Lisa Fleisher often writes pieces that are fairly reported. This is another one. I can't think of another ed reporter who has brought up the point we often make about phony demand. Now if the ed press would do a FOIL on those supposed signatures charters use to claim demand.

[I was also pleased to see Lisa tweet some points of contention over the awful NY Times education editorial  - I'll try to recover them and add them to a follow-up piece later.]

One interesting point that Lisa doesn't mention is how few of the kids enrolled come from the neighborhood the school is located in -- I believe less than 5%. She does point out that kids come from as far away as Rockaway -- truly astounding when you think of the commute for little kids. I love that she gives recognition to Brooke Parker and WAGPOPS for the work they do in defending the local public schools in Williamsburg and Greenpoint.

Given that by hook or crook, Citizens of the World has managed to get close to their target, don't be surprised to see kids being dragged off the street -- and I bet there are some hidden incentives involved somewhere since so much is at stake.

Reported on ed notes:

https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2013/12/wsj-reports-on-citizens-of-world.html

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Dec 2, 2013 -
I remember very well the outrage when this charter came into town. Ed Notes covered the school extensively - see more links below. Eva Moskowitz' was involved in the scheme early on, as Brooke Parker from WAGPOPS reports:

Eric Grannis didn’t start it, but he created an organization, Tapestry, that made introductions between the “community,” the charter network that already existed in California, and SUNY. Tapestry was designed to help open charters in North Brooklyn, a district where we already had the most charters outside of Harlem. Tapestry’s marketing led many of us to believe that they were particularly interested in getting white gentrifying families invested in opening charters for their kids.

- Brooke Parker

Here are some ed notes links for background:

Search Results

Ed Notes Online: Trashing Citizens of the World Scam Charter ...

https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2013/.../trashing-citizens-of-world-scam-charter.ht...

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Trashing Citizens of the World Scam Charter Scheme. As registration is happening for citizens of the world (part of Eva Moskowitz empire), if you could circulate these negative articles and have everyone click on them, it would be very helpful. We need to let everyone know that there is significant opposition.

Ed Notes Online: Parents Opposed to Citizens of the World Charter ...

https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2012/12/parents-opposed-to-citizens-of-world.html

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Dec 5, 2012 - Parents Opposed to Citizens of the World Charter: Hundreds, Parents in Favor: 4. The NY State Dept. would allow the Hitler Youth Charter to breeze through and not only would they authorize the Ku Klux Klan Charter School for Racial Harmony but they would wash the sheets. -- Norm at charter hearing.

WAGPOPS Brilliant Expose of Citizens of the World Charter Ponzi ...

https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2012/.../wagpops-brilliant-expose-of-citizerns.htm...

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We believe that there is a place in public education for charter schools, but Citizens of the World is bastardizing the original intent of charter schools. ... The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint ...

Sandie Noyola, principal of my old school, invited the refugees:

PS147 Brooklyn is happy to welcome the students and their families. Thank you for your advocacy in the name of public education WAGPOPS.

Williamsburg and Greenpoint Parents for Our Public Schools (WAGPOPS)

December 15, 2017  · 

Here's an article on the closing of the two Citizens of the World Charter Schools. There are some links to remind everyone the various ways that we tried to close the school before families became invested and children would be hurt.

This is deja vu for our community. We already witnessed the closing of Beginning with Children Charter School and Ethical Community Charter School. Hopefully, SUNY (the charter school authorizers) will learn their lesson and stop forcing charters on communities.

Here is the Chalkbeat article -- don't you wish they actually linked to some background stuff from WAGPOPS 4 years ago?

https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2017/12/15/two-citizens-of-the-world-charter-schools-will-close-at-the-end-of-this-year/

Citizens of the World Charter To Use Dead Souls To Bolster Enrollment in Effort to Stay Open

With the school threatened with closing due to low enrollment (as the so-called charter demand is once more exposed), Citizens of the World supporter Eric Grannis (the husband of Evil Moskowitz) is scouting local cemeteries for recruits.

State Ed Commissioner John King approved of the move. "The dead should not be excluded from the higher order skills gained from the Common Core."

The SUNY charter authorizing body also approved. "Once a charter we authorized has opened it assumes the properties of a black hole: public funds get sucked in but will never emerge due to the gravitational pull of the charter lobby."

James Merriman of the NY Charter School Center who has often said that if there's no demand for a charter, it will fail, said, "Until all the dead souls are given their right to choice the fat lady hasn't sung.  

Afterburn

For people not familiar with CWC they are LA-based. They came to NYC after being contacted by Eric Grannis, a long time charter supporter who is also married to Eva Moskwitz. Grannis has said he had been in contact with white, middle class parents in W'burg who had told him what they wanted in a school and that he then contacted CWC. The goal supposedly was to bring more diversity to charter schools, which many saw as a code word for bring more high achieving affluent kids to charters. Grannis supposedly has no official connection to CWC or the school.

James Merriman of the NY Charter School Ctr has often said that, if there's no demand for a charter, it will fail. Given there doesn't seem to be demand for this one, let's see if it's allowed to fail or if someone will pull a rabbit out of the hat.

Gail Robinson
-----

The reality is that charters are being rapidly expanded in NYC where DOE thinks they can find space for them into a public school building, NOT where there is real demand.

Yet another way in which the co-location policies of the DOE are completely off the mark and are driving bad policies.

This is why Eva has to spend millions on ads and promotional flyers, Democracy prep in Harlem had to send mailers to parents as far south as Lower Manhattan, Girls Prep offered cash rewards to people who recruited more students to the school, and COTW is now hugely under enrolled.
 
This is NOT parent choice at work, or even the free market -- but reflects the overriding preferences of those running the city and their wealthy cronies to maximize and facilitate the corporate takeover of our schools.

Leonie Haimson

WAGPOPS Has Partner in LAPOPS in Cross Country Battle Against Citizens of the World Charter

Eric Grannis (Eva's husband) should be strapped to a public school he is invading and have his liver eaten by buzzards (his heart has been gone a long time). The amazing Brooke Dunn has done it again and keeps doing it. See a previous item in Citizens of the World charter from Brooke at Norms Notes: Brooklyn Charter School Targets Rich, White Parent... as the Ed Deform so-called "civil rights issue of our times" support racist segregation policies while the major media is complicent  - or just too busy trying to find out where parent activists are sending their kids to school.

Many of you know that WAGPOPS! (Williamsburg and Greenpoint Parents: Our Public Schools!) has been fighting Los Angeles based Citizens of the World Charter Schools for the past year and a half.  The good news is that we have a sister organization, LAPOPS! (Los Angeles Parents: Our Public Schools!) in Los Angeles.  We've also developed partnerships with parents who attend Citizens of the World Charter Schools (CWC) in Hollywood (CWCH) and Silverlake (CWCSL).

We've amassed some unbelievable information (with documentation) regarding the schools themselves and the impact on NY for their expansion.

The LA schools are being asked to pay (retroactively as well) 1% of their per pupil funds for licensing, or the right to use the name "Citizens of the World," but here's the rub:  CWC NY schools will be forced to pay 3% of their per pupil funds for the same right to use the name "Citizens of the World," and that % will climb higher in future years - up to 8%!!!  This is NOT standard practice in NY Charters and is just for licensing.   Management and services are separate fees and percentages.

The licensing fee was only mentioned in a single sentence in the proposal to SUNY, and was not included in their submitted budgets, although it was mentioned in the SUNY recommendations to approve the charter.  I'm not sure if SUNY or the Regents are aware of this.  It's a pretty significant figure with millions of dollars funneled out of NY into CWC National. 

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  

CWC has been under-servicing ELLs in their LA schools, and have legal action pending against them from at least 3 families who's children with special needs almost died from negligence, one was found lying in a pool of her own vomit when she picked her child up form school (be sure to scroll to the end where the parents made the Board amend the minutes to include their testimony).  The negligent teacher from CWC SL was promoted to principal of the soon to be opened CWC Mar Vista!  You can't make this stuff up!

http://www.cwchollywood.org/docs/2-27-13%20CWCLA%20Board%20Meeting%20Minutes-updated%204-23.pdf . 

“When I arrived at the school approx 20 minutes later I discovered my daughter lying face down on the office floor, passed out and covered in her own vomit. The two individuals in the office at the time had no idea this had happened as they were occupied with photocopying behind the front desk.”

“The harsh reality of the situation is that if I was not in the front office my son would have died in the classroom.”

“I have been verbally requesting an IEP since the start of school and until February 7, I was ignored. Since this initial meeting on February 7 nothing has been resolved. In fact, my son has not been at school since he is not safe here.” 

The parents in their LA schools (CWC Hollywood, CWC Silverlake, and the soon to open CWC Mar Vista) were forced to consolidate to a "sole member" LA Board with the "sole member" being "CWC National."  This new National Board was made up of all the individuals from the scandal ridden Wonder of Reading (http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/NBC4-Extra---Book-Wars-Episode-Two.html ), notably Kriste Dragon, the former head of Wonder of Reading who folded the organization and funneled $2M into Citizens of the World, placing herself on the Board.  Dragon pulls the strings on all the Boards, and commands a salary of $240K while she lives in Atlanta.  Meanwhile, at the CWC NY "Meet the Principals" events, CWC staff is telling parents that they have a governance structure that is different from the LA schools, even though CWC NY will also be a "sole member" Board with CWC National as the sole member.

The CWC LA schools are financially unstable.  They're using money fundraised from CWC Hollywood to support the sustenance and opening of other schools against parents wishes, and have repeatedly been told by their outside management network that they are running out of funds.  

Finally, on top of 40-50 students leaving CWC SL in the middle of the year next year, CWC SL will be losing all but one teacher.  I've never heard of a teacher turnover rate like that, even at Success Academy!

We got some recent press coverage for CWC spending their resources targeting mostly white, affluent famillies: 

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20130423/crown-heights/brooklyn-charter-school-targets-rich-white-parents-enrollment-plan-shows?cluster_id=177953&index=1&group_hood_id=73165

and

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2013/04/citizens-of-what-world-recruiting.html

Any recommendations for next steps are much appreciated.

Best,

Brooke

Trashing Citizens of the World Scam Charter Scheme

As registration is happening for citizens of the world (part of Eva Moskowitz empire), if you could circulate these negative articles and have everyone click on them, it would be very helpful. We need to let everyone know that there is significant opposition.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/94382088/WAGPOPS-Letter-to-Suny-Opposing-Citizens-of-the-World-Charter-Schools
http://www.williamsburggreenpointschools.org/truth-about-charters/citizensoftheworldcharternewyork
http://thewgnews.com/2012/09/the-demise-of-public-education-mr-mrs-moskowitz-push-more-charters-on-williamburg/
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20130129/greenpoint/parents-sue-state-for-approving-citizens-of-world-charter-school/slideshow/popup/336446
http://thediariesofalawstudent.blogspot.com/2012/05/citizens-of-world-charter-parent-choice.html
http://beatricesindante.blogspot.com/2012/05/wagpops-brilliant-expose-of-citizens-of.html
http://greenpointers.com/2013/01/31/charter-schools-and-wagpops/
http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2012/05/wagpops-brilliant-expose-of-citizerns.html
http://www.facebook.com/events/185195068267404/
http://www.scribd.com/doc/90106044/WAGPOPS-Defend-Public-Schools-from-Profit-Driven-Segregation
http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-01-30/news/Eva-Moskowitz-Bloomberg-Charter-Schools/
http://www.change.org/petitions/no-segregated-schools-in-williamsburg-greenpoint
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20121206/williamsburg/locals-blast-charter-schools-proposed-co-location-williamsburg
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/05/comments-on-applications-of-citizens-of.html
http://bayridgejournal.blogspot.com/2012/12/rally-against-citizens-of-world-charter.html
http://www.facebook.com/events/167687510021996/?_ft_=fbid.386935824718359
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=576777532350915&id=112111438837256
http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2013/01/brooklyn-parents-in-williamsburggreenpo.html
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/05/citizens-of-world-charter-parent-choice.html
http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2013/01/brooklyn-parents-in-williamsburggreenpo.html
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=276284055389&story_fbid=439308849439285
http://dianeravitch.net/2013/01/14/do-affluent-white-neighborhoods-need-charter-schools/
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2012/04/guest-post-silver-lake-parents-unite-in.html
http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2012/02/finally-williamsburg-and-greenpoint.html
http://browse.feedreader.com/c/Ed_Notes_Online/295466535
http://www.greenpointnews.com/calendar/5010/public-hearing-about-co-locating-citizens-of-the-world-charter-school-in-jhs-126
http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2012_05_16_archive.html
http://www.k12newsnetwork.com/2012/05/williamsburg-public-schools-draw-heightened-contrast-between-their-approach-pr/
http://thediariesofalawstudent.blogspot.com/2012/05/comments-on-applications-of-citizens-of.html
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/03/charter-schools-and-their-segregating.html
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20130129/greenpoint/parents-sue-state-for-approving-citizens-of-world-charter-school
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nyceducationnews/message/43526
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nyceducationnews/message/50127
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20121206/williamsburg/locals-blast-charter-schools-proposed-co-location-williamsburg
http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/the-weekly-update-cyber-buck-high-stake-testing-and-charter-school-its-all-about-the-children-right/
http://musicthatwelike.blogspot.com/2012/10/parents-sue-suny-over-charter.html
http://www.facebook.com/advocatesforjustice/posts/374269002667000
http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-01-30/news/eva-moskowitz-bloomberg-charter-schools/4/

WAGPOPS Letter to Suny Opposing Citizens of the World Charter Schools www.scribd.com WILLIAMSBURG AND GREENPOINT PARENTS: OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS! Representing the District 14 Parents and Co...

Fight the Moskowitz/Grannis Machine at Public Hearing, Dec. 5, 6PM

Harlem and Williamsburg/Greenpoint have become two of the most lucrative real estate pieces in what they consider "THEIR PORTFOLIO"...
Under the guise of improving schools they have pushed through ridiculous and unproductive co-locations and flooded our community with unwanted and unneeded charter schools. --anon.

I really want to go to this but was already committed to attending a meeting of Change the Stakes with Bill Ayres (see announcement tomorrow). I covered MS 126 as a district 14 tech specialist in the last 4 years I worked.  I have not yet received permission to publish the name of the author so I am keeping it anonymous.

Subject: Community Hearing : December 5th 2012 at MS 126 6:00 PM

It is no secret that the powers that be are out to take over every piece of real estate they can in District #14.

Under the guise of improving schools they have pushed through ridiculous and unproductive co-locations and flooded our community with unwanted and unneeded charter schools.  Make no mistake, this not an accident. It
is a major part of their agenda.  When the charter school cap was raised last year they fought and - everyone caved into them - to maintain the right to expand charter school without a saturation clause.

The reason is at the heart of the struggle: The communities they are flooding with charter schools: 

Harlem and Williamsburg/Greenpoint have become two of the most lucrative real estate pieces in what they consider "THEIR PORTFOLIO".     Just look at the name of the office that handles school closings, co-locations etc. The Office of Portfolio.

Regardless of anybody's opinion or the stated position of any politician or union, Mayoral Control, via the Panel For Educational Policy, amounts to absolute Mayoral authority.

The Panel does as they are told and has never gone against the Mayor since he fired two members for going against his first proposal.  Thus, we can expect that anything proposed, (my guess is that the Mayor and Chancellor draft the proposals for submission) will in fact be passed by the majority, as they are appointed by the Mayor.  We may not like it but that is the reality of the system that has been created and approved by the State Assembly/Senate.

That said, the reason folks like myself were so vocal about the need for the saturation clause is because we are the ones who are now  forced to live with the results of the failure to obtain such a provision.

DISTRICT # 14 IS NOW SATURATED WITH CHARTER SCHOOLS as a result of the failure of everyone to demand such a clause.   So now we are faced with yet another charter school proposal, as well as the threatened closing of one of our neighborhood High Schools.  

To add insult to injury in a case of that does not pass the smell test, Eva Moskowitz' husband Eric Grannis is now trying to open a Citizens of The World Charter School here in District #14,which he hopes to locate at MS 126.  The expansion of such a charter will only serve to drain much needed resources from our District's public schools.   I understand and respect (though I totally disagree with)  the law that allowed the charter school cap to be lifted, however, this latest school would create a situation where almost 1/3 of District #14 students would be in charter schools.  That is not equitable.  It is totally unfair and I believe it is purely political.

If Charters need to expand let it be to other Districts where parents are actually asking for them.  Our CEC is on record as being against any more charters opening in this community.

There will be a mandatory Public Hearing about this proposal.  I doubt that we will be able to change the outcome but  I encourage all of you and the families of public school students to attend.  These schools belong to the communities they serve not any one person's "portfolio".   We went into this to serve the people not run a real estate trust.

Please come out and show your support of Community Public Schools and voice your opinion about the latest proposed charter school.  Today it is MS 126 being proposed for co-location and Juan Morel Campos HS being slated for closure, tomorrow it could be your school or mine.

The Hearing for The Proposed Co-location of Citizens of The World Charter School  at MS 126 will be held on :

Wednesday December 5th at 6 PM
in the Auditorium of
MS 126
424 Leonard Street
Brooklyn, NY

I look forward to seeing you and hearing our parents teachers and school leaders speaking truth to absolute power.

Parent Brooke Parker Won't Back Down as Eva and Eric Keep Glomming Up School Buildings (Condos, Here We Come)

If the Moskowitz/Grannis education reformers have their way, we will have reformed ourselves into a brand new district, with public schools brimming with students with special needs, who don’t speak English, or who come from our most impoverished families—students the charter schools have kicked out because they won’t lift the schools’ test scores. By the time the charter schools open, 46% of our district’s kindergartener’s will be enrolled in them and none will be any better than the neighborhood schools they destroy....

The fine print was left out of COW’s Powerpoint presentations: the schools are privately managed and responsible to a Board of Trustees, not parents or educators. Parents are powerless in COW school governance. Forget about all the evidence that shows that teachers are effective after several years in the classroom, COW will hire teachers fresh out of Teach for America with only five weeks training. COW also wouldn’t lease their own buildings, but would “co-locate” or take up space inside at least one of our neighborhood public schools. 

COW told parents that their charter schools will close if they don’t fulfill their promises. But they lied to them. Charter schools stay open for five years before their charter is reconsidered, regardless of whether they fulfill their promises. Charters don’t close from under-enrollment or under-performance or high teacher turnover or parent dissatisfaction. Charter schools close because of financial mismanagement, and even then, rarely.  We know how well deregulation served our economy.

--- Brooke Parker, WAGPOPS

This piece by Brooke is so good I am salivating. No I haven't stopped writing about Chicago. But in the midst of Chicago news let me go local and make the connections to the strike which does have to do with charters. We know that there will be an enormous expansion of charters in Chicago as there is here. The CTU could never stop that so don't expect a massive victory to reverse the ed deform movement. At best they will hold the line on a few things and maybe pick up a few wins. Let's hope they get something on class size even if minimal

Bloomberg will open up 50 more charter before he leaves office and you will hear peep and poop from the UFT. In my follow-up post you'll read Karen Lewis' letter to parents about charters, a letter you will never see Michael Mulgrew or Randi Weingarten write.

Here Williansburg/Greenpoint parent activist Brooke Parker of WAGPOPS! lays out the local landscape of where the privatization charter movement is going. Our taxes end up paying for 2 separate and unequal school systems.

OP/ED The Demise of Public Education: Mr. and Mrs. Moskowitz* Push for More Charters in Williamburg

http://thewgnews.com/2012/09/the-demise-of-public-education-mr-mrs-moskowitz-push-more-charters-on-williamburg/ 

Posted by The WG News + Arts on September 11, 2012 in Issue 38, Latest News · 0 Comments

By Brooke Parker

Eva Moskowitz, CEO of Success Academy, who earns close to half a million dollars a year, is one of the highest profile figures in the charter school industry, touting charter schools as the solution to “waste in education.” There’s a lot of money to be made in charter schools when you add up the start-up financing grants, charter management fees, new market tax credits, no-bid contracts, and minimal oversight.

While charter schools receive slightly less per pupil from the city than public schools, the city’s Independent Budget Office concluded that when you factor in that they don’t pay for their use of space, utilities, janitorial services, or school safety agents, charter schools generally spend over $700 more per pupil in public funds each year, and that’s not including the substantial private money they receive. And all those public dollars are spent while charter schools, in general, don’t perform any better than public schools. So much for the idea that charter schools are less wasteful.

Success Academies have been widely criticized as punitive and militaristic, with a model that has not appealed to white middle class families in spite of the millions Moskowitz has spent marketing to them. Remember the posters splashed all over the Northside and the Bedford Avenue L train? They didn’t work. Moskowitz didn’t get the parents she was aiming for.  Success Academy Williamsburg is up and running in JHS 50, in spite of significant community opposition, but its population is largely students of color, not the wealthier Williamsburg families the ads targeted.

So Moskowitz’s husband, lawyer Eric Grannis, on the board of an equally militarist Girls Prep charter school chain, is bringing in a new chain of charter schools just for Williamsburg’s newest population. It’s called Citizens of the World Charter Schools.

If the Moskowitz/Grannis education reformers have their way, we will have reformed ourselves into a brand new district, with public schools brimming with students with special needs, who don’t speak English, or who come from our most impoverished families—students the charter schools have kicked out because they won’t lift the schools’ test scores. By the time the charter schools open, 46% of our district’s kindergartener’s will be enrolled in them and none will be any better than the neighborhood schools they destroy.

In February of 2011, through a private neighborhood listserv, Grannis invited parents to a series of meetings promoting charter schools in Williamsburg. He claimed there “seemed to be parents who are not satisfied with their options and want other ones.” Grannis, who does not live in Williamsburg and has never set foot in any of the local schools, just wanted “to help out the neighborhood.” He wanted to give us more options, more choices, more charters, and he offered parents a way to get in on the ground floor in free, new schools created for their children, where they might be guaranteed admission. About three dozen parents attended five meetings held at the new condos and high end children’s stores. Few, if any, had children that were school aged yet.

Grannis arranged for his guests to be wowed by one charter school in particular, Citizens of the World (COW), a chain out of Los Angeles with only a single year under its belt, but with plans to expand nationally. Parents left the meetings sure that COW would offer something new, more child-centered and progressive than any of our neighborhood schools. None of the attendees understood that what COW claimed as proprietary to their school model had already been implemented in all of the neighborhood schools: COW did not invent differentiated instruction, balanced literacy, or project-based learning. And contrary to what COW would have parents believe, our neighborhood schools are replete with service learning projects, even winning trips to the White House for outstanding community service.

The fine print was left out of COW’s Powerpoint presentations: the schools are privately managed and responsible to a Board of Trustees, not parents or educators. Parents are powerless in COW school governance. Forget about all the evidence that shows that teachers are effective after several years in the classroom, COW will hire teachers fresh out of Teach for America with only five weeks training. COW also wouldn’t lease their own buildings, but would “co-locate” or take up space inside at least one of our neighborhood public schools. These co-located public schools will lose vital space that the city Department of Education does not count as “classrooms,” including music and art rooms, libraries, science and computer labs, and rooms designed for kids with special needs.  All in the name of more choice. 

Finally, COW will funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars from the public schools to their COW Management Organization, a much needed cash cow for a brand new charter school chain already facing financial problems in their flagship school in LA. No wonder COW kept their meetings secret, never met with any elected officials, and used unethical tactics, like having Spanish-speaking families sign pro-COW petitions that were written in English and, stranger still, having a real estate lawyer procure signatures for pro-COW petitions from new homeowners at their closings.

Parents were told that we need new schools to accommodate our quickly growing population. This is simply not true. While we do have more “middle-class” children now, it’s impossible for newcomers to imagine a time when all of our public schools were full, along with over a dozen (now closed) Catholic schools. In spite of the condos being built, the new baby stores, and the waiting lists for private nursery schools, our Bugaboo parents simply aren’t giving birth fast enough to replace our Latino, Polish, and Italian families. Sadly, white middle class people are only seeing white middle class babies. When funds follow children into schools, we simply can’t afford new elementary school options without deleteriously affecting our existing options.

Education reformers manufacture parent demand for charter schools by preying on overblown fears of urban schools, and then applying their enormous marketing funds to promote charter schools as a panacea. It’s a lot like the pharmaceutical industry manufacturing symptoms for an illness you didn’t know you had in order to sell you a pill that will cure it. Our neighborhood schools don’t have a defensive marketing budget. Can you imagine the public outrage if it were discovered that education dollars went to glossy mail outs and fancy dinners? And then there are schools like COW that flat out lie about our neighborhood options to increase demand for their product.

Reformers believe schools should open and close willy nilly at the whim of the market. If a group of people want to create a school based on a harebrained scheme putting five year olds in class sizes over 30, sitting in front of no-bid contract computer programs, assessing themselves with no-bid tests, then open one!  And place that school inside a neighborhood public school to squeeze it of vital resources. Competition is always good and new is always better, right? COW told parents that their charter schools will close if they don’t fulfill their promises. But they lied to them. Charter schools stay open for five years before their charter is reconsidered, regardless of whether they fulfill their promises. Charters don’t close from under-enrollment or under-performance or high teacher turnover or parent dissatisfaction. Charter schools close because of financial mismanagement, and even then, rarely.  We know how well deregulation served our economy.

 If we allow greed to precede community, we’ll create an education apocalypse, not to mention the radical resegregation that occurs when schools like COW target white, middle class families while others target lower-income parents of color. Ours is a district which houses an exceptionally high population of children who don’t speak English, and no charter schools are targeting that population.

On the other side of this divide are local public school parents who know that our educational landscape has improved with engaged parents and new leadership open to new ideas. That’s how we got our dual language programs, greenhouse roofs, school bands, winning chess teams, and a range of impressive arts partnerships. There are proven strategies that create strong schools: small class size, experienced teachers, meaningful curriculum, strong and experienced leadership, diversity in the classroom, and engaged parents. Without outside corporate interference, our neighborhood public schools have been headed in that direction. We believe that’s worth fighting for.

So, marching forward, righteous public school parents gathered across the district, including those who attended the early Grannis meetings, and became WAGPOPS! (Williamsburg and Greenpoint Parents: Our Public Schools!).  WAGPOPS! discovered that there was a group of parents across the country in Silver Lake, Los Angeles (a neighborhood described as similar in spirit to Williamsburg) fighting COW schools, too. And they collected some pretty damning information about COW, including financial scandals. We became bi-coastal. WAGPOPS! flooded the mailboxes of the SUNY Charter School Institute (the organization that authorizes charter schools), asking that they reject the COW proposals. WAGPOPS! wrote a community impact letter opposing COW and gained support from all of our elected officials, even those who initially agreed with lifting the charter school cap. WAGPOPS! stood for all of our neighborhood public schools and children: We want our kids in class together! No GMOs in our food, no corporations in our classrooms! Shop local, school local! Keep public money out of private hands and put it in the classroom!

In the Dr. Seuss version of this story, everyone would be moved, as we were when the tiny Whos were finally heard, because they spoke as one. And Grannis would have packed up his suitcase and left. But there’s real money involved. And we lost. The SUNY Board of Trustees, without a single member having knowledge of our district’s schools or even a background in public education, disregarded the opposition to COW and approved the schools. The only lesson we have to learn from COW—Citizens of the World—is about the erosion of democracy.

For a copy of the letter regarding Citizens of the World, see: http://www.scribd.com/doc/94382088/WAGPOPS-Letter-to-Suny-Opposing-Citizens-of-the-World-Charter-Schools

Joint the WAGPOPS! mailing list to find out about upcoming meetings at facebook.com/WilliamsburgGreenpointParents or e-mail williamsburggreenpointschools@gmail.com.
*aka  Eva Moskowitz and Eric Grannis.