- Limited proposal to have local CECs vote on Charter Co-locos while closing schools removed from agenda.
- No role for District Leadership Teams (DLTs) or School Leadership Teams (SLTs).
- Now that the UFT's two co-located schools in District 19 in
East NY Bklyn will be removed after the UFT gets its own building, it is
safe for them to enter the water of challenging co-locos.
- Does UFT move undercut alliance to kill mayoral control?
Ask people at the 33 threatened
closing schools or the ones already closed and threatened to be closed
if they want CECs to vote on this issue --- but won't happen in UFT
proposed legislation.
Amidst charges by some parents of a betrayal and hijacking of their agenda, the UFT will be holding a joint press conference on Tuesday Feb. 28 at 10:30AM at Tweed to announce proposed legislation that would give Community Education Councils (CECs - the Tweed version of local school bds) a vote on charter co-locations in public schools.
Various parent groups and individuals had been working on legislation in the fight towards ultimately ending mayoral control and wanted inclusion of both colocos and school closings in the legislation but feel their efforts have been hijacked by the UFT who rounded up their usual arm candy/paid off usual suspects to join with them.
While lots of Assembly members have been invited among the usual suspects are DFER Darling Brooklyn Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (who is running for Congress - see below if you think he is not a DFER darling) and Harlem Assemblyman Keith Wright who not long ago declared he would
oppose renewing mayoral control, (if you're asking why the UFT would climb into bed with a DFER Darling you haven't been reading this blog). Wright will be pushing the bill with Jeffries joining in -- when he isn't spending his DFER money on his congressional campaign. [I must throw in that Martine Guerrier is going to run for Jeffries' seat with lots of DFER support. Martine's story deserves its own post].
Wright deal after Wadleigh turnaround on closing: Do you smell school closing politics?
The Wright story is a prime example of how closing down of schools is political and not educational. Not long after Wright threw his bomb about not supporting mayoral control (coming from a supporter in Harlem this is not good news for the charter lobby or Bloomberg) the school he was trying to keep open -- Wadleigh -- where Cornel West visited --- the DOE pulled them off the list and Wright goes silent on mayoral control. Watch the UFT leaders brag how they worked behind the scenes to keep the school open -- while selling everyone else out.
CEC would get vote on co-locations but not on closing schools
While the bill would keep the DOE from force-feeding charters into public schools – some parents think this would be a significant victory even if mayoral control continues – a sister provision put forth by some parents requiring a CEC vote on closing schools was not included despite a big push from many real reformers, leading to charges that the charge of UFT hijacking.
No little irony here considering we have been attacking the UFT leadership for many years for putting on a phony show about fighting closing schools (after almost a decade of supporting this policy). Ask people from the schools closed and about to be closed if they wanted the CECs to vote on closing schools.
More usual suspects:
*AQE, NYCC and CEJ, all in some way receiving funds from the UFT will be in attendance supporting the gradualist approach to corralling the mayoral control monster. At the rate they are moving, we might see some progress by the next century. I hope you're all still reading ed notes then when we can trumpet the victory. *[Alliance for Quality Education, NY Communities for Change - formerly ACORN and Coalition for Educational Justice --- one day I'll do a piece on all these orgs -- are they real or are they memorex?]
All I will say now is, this deal is the ultimate in dirty politics where everyone from DFER to UFT leadership to Bloomberg get a little bit of what they want and preserve some of their power while parents and kids and teachers lose. Another example of a big tent created to serve multiple motives, instead of supporting truly parent led legislation that would really help our kids and reign in mayoral control which is out of control.
Charter lobby begin campaign to take control of selected CECs in districts they want to occupy --- in a year the UFT bill will be an anachronism. Note these 2 Gotham Schools reports.
Charter lobby pushes for seats on the CECs
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Feb 7, 2012 ... The request was the centerpiece of this year's Charter Lobby Day, which drew more than 1200 charter parents to Albany today to push the CEC ...
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Feb 8, 2012 ... On Tuesday, more than 1200 charter school parents traveled to Albany as part of Lobby Day. Their main ask was that legislators set aside seats ...
There is even more irony in that the charter lobby's main legislative ask is for seats on the CEC, their way of using their muscle to control the CECs so these selected CECs will vote for the charter co-locos.
In fact charter parents who live in the district already have the right to be on CECs via Borough President appointees or if they are a parent of kids in a district school in the past 2 years. Thus, gaining a "victory" as is usual with the UFT, may very well prove Pyrrhic if a quid pro quo is reached where CEC's are allowed to vote on charter colocos but charters get to use their money to push themselves into control of CECs. Can you imagine the day when Eva tosses an enormous pot of money into pushing her candidates for CEC? What would it take? Just buy off selected public and charter school parents in targeted districts for charters. If a public school parent works for a charter org that still allows them to be on CEC.
Push for more parent and teacher voice scuttled
Some parents were pushing for a role for SLTs and DLTs as a counter to the "CEC only" option but are being ignored in the deal, not surprising given that including SLT's, though also severely flawed, might allow for a rank and file teacher voice in the process. (Does the UFT fear that the teachers in the two schools the union charters co-locate might vote them out?)
What is a CEC and
how is it chosen?
The CECs are the Bloomberg created versions of local school boards from the old days, but eviscerated of any real power and chosen in a severely limited process that is far more undemocratic than even the old school board elections pre-mayoral control. I won't get into any more detail here other than to say that with each election cycle the DOE screws things up more and more. [
Parents sue to stop Community Education Council ... - Ed Notes Online].
Summing up
A coalition of parents were pushing a comprehensive plan to at the very least limit the absolute power a mayor would have over the school system, with an ultimate goal of ending mayoral control and were working with some political forces to accomplish some of their program. The UFT moves in and coopts them while severely weakening the controls they were asking for. Standard op procedure for the UFT.
Now also notice how deeply entrenched up the ass of DFER the UFT's partner, Hakeem Jeffries, is:
Just in case you have not had enough, this was posted to a listserve by a parent activist and former charter school parent:
The charters ALREADY have their bill introduced for charter parents to be on the PEP and CEC. It's been introduced in the Senate and Assembly. They're lobbying hard for this in an election year with loads of campaign cash to give out. Legislators haven't heard from any public school parents who object to charter parents being on the PEP or CEC's.
This is why parents AND teachers at all schools must have a say in school closings and co-locations. We already have charter parents who are BP appointees to the CEC's, we have those whose child has been in a public school in the last two years who are eligible to serve and now we'll have it in the law any charter parent can serve.
Funny thing is they're still not complying with the 2010 law requiring them to serve a comparable amount of students with special needs and ELL's and every charter have a PA/PTA but they want charter parents on CEC's and the PEP.
I guess it's okay to violate charter parent rights under the law and use us as puppets to undermine public school parental involvement structures to create more charters where more parents' rights will be violated.
Please start calling your legislators and tell them NO to charter parents
on the PEP and CEC's and that they should enforce the 2010 charter
reforms.
Thanks.
http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?sh=printbill&bn=S06100&term=2011
Read the bill below -- if you dare:
