Ed Deform is the NAFTA Equivalent: The Neo-Liberal Assault on Blue Collar Workers and Unions Includes Teachers

I'm writing this as a topic for discussion at tomorrow's ICE meeting. Does the analogy of NAFTA and ed deform as the same type of neo-liberal attack hold water in terms of the loss of blue collar and public school jobs as a way to lower labor costs and funnel the profits into private hands?

As we read analysis after analysis of the Democratic Party's abandonment of the working class as the reason for the Trump victory. But how many of these analysts on the left and left center delve into the Democratic Party's abandonment of public school teachers and their unions, despite the slavish worship of UFT/AFT/NEA leaders  for their almost meaningless little stool at the table?

Commentators talk about blue collar workers but neglect that the major assault has been launched by both parties on teachers and public schools. That giant sucking sound of job loss Ross Pirot warned about NAFTA in the early 90s is being echoed in the public schools by the charters and the upcoming vouchers. But no one is paying much attention to the analogy.

To me there is a similarity between a corporation going to Mexico and New Orleans and Detroit going charter - the very same idea is operating -- the same type of shift to paying lower wages. While some people are fooled by the social justice rhetoric of charters, their mostly positive response to the Trump destruction of public ed shows what they are really about. And note that some big corp just paid around $125 million for 5 charter schools in Florida.

There's charter gold in them that hills

The gold rush is on.


As long as the Democratic Party that shilled for ed deform and charters have ed deform people like Hakim Jeffries and Corey Booker and Cuomo, teachers who are being chopped will not be won over. I know my readers can't stomach what I am about to say but De Blasio was the only one who had the guts to take on Eva and he was slaughtered and backed off -- and even though so many schools are in awful shape and teachers are pissed - just see what options you have next year in the election when the choice will be DeB or an Eva Moskowitz clone -- and I bet some of the angry people who are pissed at DeB and Farina will put their head in the noose and vote for the Eva Clone because to them deB is too liberal. Good luck with that.

Trump-supporting or Jill Stein voting teachers in the UFT were so pissed at our union leaders they will never vote Democratic Party until the Republican Party screws things up so badly they have no other choice -- like imagine if non-Hillary voters find themselves with a vastly reduced pension and without a job as a giant sucking sound that makes NAFTA look like pablum decimates their jobs.

I don't see a lot of ways around this other than to think of a Bernie like party --- it would be left of any Dems and for the right wingers in the UFT out of the question but by then there may no longer be much of a UFT.

KIPP Forces 5th Graders to 'Earn' Desks By Sitting On the Floor For a Week

One hundred 10-year-olds spent the first week of school sitting on the floor. What was it they were supposed to have learned?...
KIPP spends a great deal of money promoting its brand of total compliance, segregated charter schools as the “tough love, no excuses” solution for schooling in urban communities disabled by poverty and lack of hope. KIPP and its billionaire supporters contend that we cannot wait for an end to poverty to properly educate the children of the poor. No one I know would disagree with this premise, but everyone I know disagrees with KIPP's conception of what "properly educate" means.
KIPP requires the poorest urban children, those who have received the least in life, to earn everything at KIPP, from paychecks for good behavior and working hard to the very shirts they wear. At some KIPPs, children must even earn their right to sit at a desk (rather than on the floor) for 8 to 10 hours a day.
......... Jim Horn, Schools Matter and Alternet

There were some people on Facebook skeptical of this report.

Watch these videos of Achievement First parents talk about their children sitting on the floor. May not be KIPP but might as well be: https://vimeo.com/30227766, https://vimeo.com/30238788, https://vimeo.com/30266020.

We did these riveting interviews for our movie,

The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman

   due to Leonie Haimson organizing the interview and doing the questioning. I just turned on my camera. I thought we would be there for a few minutes instead of over 2 hours. We were able to use just a bit of the footage in the movie but for me it turned into one of the most powerful statements we made. People in Providence used the footage to help fight  Achievement First.

Teacher Gets Job in Charter School, Cries When Sees Contract

I heard this story today from a non-teacher friend about his daughter. It is not easy to convince the general public about onerous charters. But I didn't have to say much after he saw how his daughter reacted when she saw all the things she would be required to do as a charter school teacher, a lot of it without pay. She cried - and then heard the magic news - she was offered a position in a local public school. She threw the charter contract in the trash.

This happened in my own neighborhood so it hits close to home. Teachers want unions, they want rights, they want to get paid for their work, they want health care and a pension.

Now of course as a UFT non-tenured teacher newbie she won't have a lot of rights for many years - maybe never. Another daughter of a friend in a public school in her 3rd year just had her tenure extended. Out of about a dozen teachers, all of them were denied by the superintendent and a howl went up - so a handful got tenure -- and a principal admitted to me many denials of tenure are due to principal career decisions to show stats to indicate how tough they are on tenure -- especially after Cuomo-like attacks about how could teachers be competent when so many kids do poorly on tests.

With charters proliferating, and with their high teacher turnover and burnouts, replacement shock troops are needed - especially low-salaried newbies. Inexperienced teachers goes a long way to explain the need for harsh discipline codes and big pushouts in charters. The ed deform agenda is aimed at undermining public schools and one aspect is to drive down the competition for teachers so charters can lower salaries and benefits -- increase their labor pool.

Your "choice" really is my business - Lorna F.

Why free-market economics lead to nothing but harm in our public education system....Two recent articles that prove why free-market economics lead to nothing but harm in our public education system.

Thanks to Lorna, a Brooklyn public school parent for sending this. I've gotten into discussions with charter school parents who rigorously defend their right to "choice." I ask them what about the choice of parents who do not want a co-located charter in their schools?  Then I bring up the end game of the charter school movement -- the abolition of public education - when they will have no choice other than charters. So they say there will be competition and I say the end game will be like the phone company - charters will be forced to combine into conglomerates like Success and KIPP --- as things mature and there are no public schools to attack and scam kids from, they will start to scam from each other and the losers will be closed or absorbed.

The many negative effects of co-location in NYC schools.
http://www.tc.columbia.edu/i/a/document/31783_Co-location_and_SBE_6.3.pdf

Moody's downgrades yet another public school district because of ballooning charter costs.

Moody's places the Philadelphia School District's (PA) Ba2 rating on review for downgrade

			Moody's places the Philadelphia School District'... Rating Action
			View on www.moodys.com	Preview by

Eva Moskowitz/Success Academy Once Again Prove It's About Real Estate, not Children

Today's reports at Chalkbeat point to the phony show Eva put on yesterday about gaining space for her 3 poor little denied charters. Even the usually fawning press looked through the cracks to see that there were actually negotiations going on while Eva openly lied to say they were not.

What the press is not getting is that what Eva is really complaining about is that she is not getting the 3 hand-picked public school buildings she really wanted:

• The beautiful building in Harlem housing the Mickey Mantle school for special ed kids - PS 149.
• The very large August Martin campus in Queens.
• And the  Murry Bergtraum massive building in lower Manhattan.

I've been saying since day 1 of the Moskowitz political operation - this is about real estate -- the long-range plan is to totally take over public school buildings in targeted locations where the buildings themselves have value -- imagine the day when Eva occupies the entire building after getting the public schools kids tossed -- like she wants the autistic kids out at Mickey Mantle. Her hedge fund pals offer to "buy" the building for a song -- "hey, the DOE won't have to pay to maintain it -- we'll help you out by taking it off your hands - then shortly after - whammo -- air rights and condos. Imagine what Murry Bergtraum in lower Manhattan is worth?

She will not satisfied with the substitute buildings de Blasio is offering and will look to any excuse to raise a ruckus to try to get back into the buildings she wants.

Here are the links from Chalkbeat.

Inn fighting

Success CEO Eva Moskowitz ratcheted up pressure on the de Blasio administration to find new space for three of her schools.

• Chalkbeat,
• Capital New York,
• Daily News,
• New York Post

Malcolm Smith, Another Charter School Crook, Takes a Fall

Today's news of Smith's arrest skips over the role he played in the charter

school playpen. Which goes to prove you can do anything you want when it comes to charter schools and get away with it but don't step on certain toes when it comes to getting in the way of the agenda of the 1% to put in their choice of mayor. I'll leave you to peruse the Ed Notes and Wave posts regarding Smith but make sure to check out the visit of our pals from Rochester on a very hot July day in 2010 to fight Smith's ed deform agenda attempt to turn the schools over to the mayor. James and Camille showed up for that I remember. (I have tape of that somewhere).

If we could only have the time to dig into Rhee and Klein there would be hope they end up doing a perp walk too.

(A teacher goofs for 10 seconds and it done it while these scam artists get away with it for years.)

See ednotes on smith below:

UP YOURS: Are Charter Schools so unregulated, or 'private', they are exempt from providing students with their constitutional rights?

Hello Boston Globe. UP (Yours) IS the mainstream charter movement.

Charter crooks abound. I don't mean stealing in the classic sense but creating an entire industry feeding at the public teat. Here is a follow up to my earlier post (just read Inside Colocation and seethe) on the usual outrages by Success Academy schools, something we will wait til hell freezes over for the NY Times to cover. Before I get to Lisa Donlan's pointing out how the lead shield put around charters protects them from accountability, Boston based EduShyster today reports on the end of the love affair between the Boston Globe and UP (Yours) Academy charter.

It’s time now for another installment of EduShyster’s favorite telenovela: “Nos Encanta Los Escuelos Charteros.” This long-running series features the Boston Globe in the role of love-besotted suitor, intent on showing its love for local charter schools through cartas de amor, otherwise known as news articles. When we last tuned in, the Globe’s mad luv for local miracle school UP Academy, appeared to have hit a rough patch. EduShyster can now officially confirm that the Globe and UP Academy are done, splitsville, broken up.

What went so wrong?
The Globe went public about the split last week, airing UP’s dirty laundry all over the Metro section...

Edushyster exposes the sleazy connection between a mayoral aide and UP:

With the Mayor all but out of commission since October, and his powerful aide Michael Kinneavy presumed to be running the show, it might strike the more conspiracy-minded among us as a bit rich that Mr. Kinneavy sits on the board of UP Academy, which stands to benefit directly and most profitably from the legislation. (UP keeps a cool 15% commission each year for miracle-izing the formerly public schools in its growing orbit). I believe that this is what is known as a conflicto de intereses.

Apparently, the Boston Globe, which had lavished loving praises on Up, felt spurned since it had been fed charter pablum and bought it hook, line and sinker. I guess hearing this kind of crap made them take notice...

by the time you factor in 20% annual student turnover AND the multiple categories of students shunted off to enclaves of non-excellence, it turns out that this former-public-school-turned-miracle-charter isn’t so miraculous after all. And that’s not all. The Globe acknowledged what EduShyster reported late last year, 

-----

But the true tabloid take-a-way was the Globe’s recounting of a young student with behavioral problems being driven to a nearby public school by UP administrators and dropped off, still wearing her UP Academy uniform. 

Did you get that? I’ll let the Globe break it down for you again for emphasis:
Ultimately, of the pupils eligible to apply at the Gavin, 84 percent enrolled at UP Academy last fall. But as the year progressed, 44 of those former Gavin pupils left. A few of those students landed at the McCormack Middle School in Dorchester. The pupils generally had discipline problems, and UP Academy drove one girl there while she was wearing her school uniform, said Paul Mahoney, dean of students at the McCormack.

Actually, the real Boston Globe take-away from this sleazy affair? Not that there is an inherent fatal flaw in the charter movement...

Last week, a Globe editorial took a swipe at Mayor Menino, warning that his love legislation to UP Academy and other in-district charter schools actually undermines the “mainstream charter movement.”  

Hello Boston Globe. UP (Yours) IS THE MAINSTREAM CHARTER MOVEMENT. 

This ties into this great work done NYC Lower East Side Parent activist Lisa Donlan.

Charter schools can call themselves public all they want (and have the term sprinkled into state law) but the courts will need to determine soon just how "public" charter schools are, in fact. 

 Are they so unregulated, or 'private', that they even are exempt from providing students with their constitutional rights, as the quote below might indicate?

The District’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education in August proposed rules that would govern discipline policies at all public schools, including charters. They called for minimizing suspension and expulsion of children 13 and younger and outlined due process rights for students. Charter leaders mounted a vigorous opposition, saying the federal law that established D.C. charters frees them from such local mandates.

If so, this would give a whole new meaning to separate and unequal!

Lisa
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/01/02/judges-look-at-whether-charter-schools-are-public/

 
Charter schools are publicly funded but increasingly people are asking whether many of them more resemble private schools. 

Here’s a different look at this notion from Julian Vasquez Heilig, an award-winning researcher and Associate Professor of Educational Policy and Planning at the University of Texas at Austin. A version of this appeared on his Education and Public Policy blog.

By Julian Vasquez Heilig

The common refrain is that charter schools are public schools. Critics, such as Diane Ravitch, have said that charter schools accept public money but act private. I have levied a variety of critiques at charters despite the fact that I was an instructor at an Aspire charter school in California and that I currently sit on UT-Austin’s charter school board. See CI’s full thread on charter schools here.

At the recent UCEA convention in Denver, I had the pleasure of presenting in a conference session about charters schools and equity. At the conference I was blown away how judges are treating charters schools as private schools and the implication that these choices have for student who attend those schools. I have excerpted below from a law journal article authored by Preston C. Green III, Erica Frankenberg, Steven L. Nelson, and Julie Rowland.

Citation: Green, P., Frankenberg, E., Nelson, S., & Rowland, J. (2012). Charter schools, students of color and the state action doctrine: Are the rights of students of color sufficiently protected? Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice, 18(2), 254-275.

A recent federal appellate court decision suggests that students of color should also be concerned about the legal protections that charter schools might provide to students.¹⁸Because state authorizing statutes consistently define charter schools as “public schools,”¹⁹ it would appear that charter school students are entitled to constitutional protections.²⁰ Students attending public schools have challenged deprivations of federal constitutional and statutory rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which establishes a cause of action for deprivations of federal constitutional and statutory rights “under the color of state law.”²¹ Students have sought damage awards pursuant to § 1983; “actions for injunctive or declaratory relief are [also] a major portion of the case law.”²² However, in 2010, the Ninth Circuit concluded in Caviness v. Horizon Learning Center²³ that a private, nonprofit corporation running an Arizona charter school was not a state actor under § 1983.²⁴ The Ninth Circuit specifically rejected the assertion that charter schools were state actors because they were defined as “public schools” under the state statute.²⁵

Although the Caviness case was an employment case, it is important to recognize that a similar analysis could lead to the conclusion that charter schools are not state actors with respect to student constitutional issues. Students attending public schools are guaranteed constitutional protections.¹⁵⁶ There are constitutional safeguards for student expression.¹⁵⁷Public school students are protected from unreasonable search and seizure.¹⁵⁸ The Constitution also requires public schools to provide procedural due process safeguards when suspending or expelling students.¹⁵⁹ Of the seven states in the Ninth Circuit with legislation authorizing charter schools,¹⁶⁰ only Oregon guarantees that all federal rights apply to charter schools.¹⁶¹ With the exception of Oregon, state legislatures do not compel charter schools to follow constitutional guidelines with respect to due process. California and Idaho merely require potential charter school operators to disclose their disciplinary policies in their initial charter application.¹⁶² Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, and Nevada do not even demand that charter schools disclose their disciplinary policies at the time of application.¹⁶³

Students of color attending charter schools should be concerned about the potential lack of constitutional due process protection. Studies of data at the national, state, district, and building levels have consistently found that students of color are suspended at two to three times the rate of other students.¹⁸⁰ African-American students should be especially concerned about the possible lack of due process protection.¹⁸¹ According to the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, in the 1970s African-Americans were two times more likely than white students to be suspended from school.¹⁸² By 2002, the risk of suspension for African-Americans increased to nearly three times that of white students.¹⁸³ Further, a study of office discipline referrals in 364 elementary and middle schools during the 2005-06 school year found that African-American students were more than two times as likely to be referred to the office for disciplinary issues as white students.¹⁸⁴ The same study found that African-American students were also four times more likely to be sent to the principal’s office than white students.¹⁸⁵

Because of their foci on autonomy and accountability, supporters of charter schools have argued that they are the perfect vehicle for addressing the educational needs of students of color. This article points out, however, that charter schools may not be state actors under federal law with respect to student rights. Consequently, students of color may be unwittingly surrendering protections guaranteed under the Constitution in order to enroll in charter schools.

I have already discussed how charters can wield contracts to exclude students from schoolhere. In conclusion, Professor Green commented via email:

The key takeaway about Caviness is that it’s unclear whether the constitutional rights of kids are protected in charter schools. In a NEPC brief, Julie Mead and I point out that charter school statutes can address this confusion by clearly stipulating that children are guaranteed the same rights in charter schools as they would receive in traditional public schools… there are important implications for African-American males with respect to Due Process, suspensions, and expulsions.

TODAY: Occupy Brooklyn Charter Schools Teach-In and Film Screening of TITBWFS

Occupy Brooklyn Charter Schools Teach-In

Charter Schools and the Impact on Public Education
Thursday, January 19th 2012
6pm     Occupy Brooklyn General Assembly
7pm     Film Screening: The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman written and directed by NYC public school teachers and parents
8pm     Panel and discussion with NYC educators and parents


The Commons388 Atlantic Avenue (between Hoyt & Bond)
Brooklyn


Refreshments Available
Organized by Occupy Brooklyn’s Education Working Group

www.occupybk.org

Charter School Attrition Exposes BS of Supposed High Grad Rates

Take a look at these examples of charter school attrition. C.A.S.I.L.I.P.S. does excellent work.
https://sites.google.com/site/casilips/graduation-rates

I'll just throw up - I mean that literally and figuratively - just a few charts (we feature similar charts taken from Edwize in out film that wow the audience.) Go to the site to see a gaggle of them.

I'm picking on SEED in Washington DC because it was featured in Waiting for Superman as the nirvanna of charter schools. See the trailor where Davis Guggenhein left out some inconvenient truths:
http://www.seedschooldc.org/page.php?pid=64

Wowie - ONE HUNDRED PER CENT GRAD RATE - if you just manage to lose a bunch of kids who might not have graduated along the way.

Actually, don't get me wrong. I think the SEED concept of boarding during the week (like they do in the Cuban PUBLIC SCHOOL System) is great. But let's be honest about the whole thing.

Here is the way SEED has been described in all the hype:

SEED School of Washington DC

From an August 13, 2010 webpage with video segment on the NewsOne website
"In a neighborhood where only 33 percent of students make it through high school and few go on to college, the Seed School in Washington DC is making a difference to get its youngsters on the road to success.  Most students entering the Seed School do so three grades below grade level. Upon entry, students are set up in dormitories during the week and allowed to spend weekends at home. This year, the school proudly reported a 100 percent graduation and college acceptance rate."  A video segment on SEED from MSNBC can also be viewed on this webpage.

Here's the bad news:

GET LOTS MORE CHARTS HERE:

CASILIPS - Citizens Against Special Interest Lobbying in Public Schools

The Gallery of "100% Graduation Rates"

All the schools mentioned below have been publicized as having "100% graduation rates." Each of the graphs below shows the enrollment of a cohort of students (class) as these students pass from 9th grade to 12th grade over a 4-year period. In each case, the number of students in the cohort group drops significantly from 9th grade to 12th grade, indicating large attrition. Yet the schools were able to claim "100% graduation rate" on paper by recording all students who departed as "transferring" to other schools by "choice."  It is questionable whether enough followup was done to ensure that these departing students really did continue their education.  Further, it is not clear why a high school should be so completely absolved of responsibility for attrition.  A better way of measuring graduation rate is needed.

Lisa Donlan on Legal Loopholes in Charter Law

One of the reasons focusing on the legal route - ie. see UFT suit on closing schools - is that there are always loopholes. And when there are not, they often just ignore the law and say "Bite me." And the wus politicians put their tails between their legs and skulk away after making some whimpering noises. My strategy: build organizations capable of backing up legal actions in the streets. (Even that relatively mild walkout at the HSA ameba hearing led by Bill Hargraves has some impact in terms of rallying the troops. But imagine when we can have a thousand people? Remember the Marine Park rally that stopped a charter school invasion last year? (Have to run and no time to find the link - but if you search the blog you will find it - May 2009.)

Here Lisa Donlan in a comment on the video of the walkout points out the loopholes:

I recently posted this recap of the legal issues we ran across (that DoE has run a truck through to quote our top Regent) in the charter re-authorization process. It is a way of expanding charters that escapes the latest laws and attempts at checks/balances, transparency.

I hope folks are disturbed by these legal loopholes that have benefited charters and blocked public discourse about our public schools:

SUNY only holds hearings for initial charter sitings in DoE buildings - expansions get a total exemption from the hearing process and any public scrutiny/feedback.

SUNY hearings in connection with schools’ use of NYCDOE space, only have to be held prior to the first time a charter school occupies a particular public school building.

SUNY outreach is only as good as DoE outreach- and we know how good that is (per Judge Lobis)!

SUNY does not have access to NYCDOE parents and students, backpack or mailed notice is accomplished with the assistance of the NYCDOE.

You have to FOIL renewal applications. The Institute does not at this time post renewal applications online; they are readily available through the Freedom of Information Law.

Whatever the intentions, the language of the law means that only the Chancellor's feedback is legally considered in these hearings.

Comments received from “school district” in the parlance of the Charter Schools Act means the New York City School District as a whole rather than a community school district such as CEC One. Therefore, it is the New York City School Chancellor’s comments that SUNY CSI must legally “consider”

Finally, the charter authorizers rely on the charter and DoE to tell them that there is sufficient space for the co location.

The Institute’s initial recommendation that Girls Prep’s plans for the future, which included expansion in PS188 was based on Girls Prep’s analysis of its space needs as well as the space utilization analysis and related material prepared by NYCDOE, which indicated that the space was under-utilized and that expansion of Girls Prep would not have an adverse impact on either of the other schools in the building.

Lisa Donlan

As Mulgrew Attempts to Spin Horse Manure Into Gold...

Under Assault Asks:

What's the helmsman doing?

This absolutely glorious Sunday morning has been nearly ruined for me by a UFT post I just read that the charter school legislation passed by Albany this week addresses "most of the UFT's key concerns."

I kid you not. That's the title of the UFT post:

Albany passes charter school legislation that addresses most of UFT's key concerns

What Mulgrew seems to be happy about is this: "We changed the conversation about charter schools." Changing the conversation, though, isn't what I thought we've been paying for the union to do.

Read Full post

Ed Note:
A couple of things. First, no matter what the law says we all know they will violate it and beat it to death. Parent input? GIVE ME A BREAK! What this means is another hundred non-unionized charters. The union will tell you they are going to organize teachers at these charters. Sure an inept union for its current members will attract teachers from charters who will find that the UFT can't protect them any more from evil employers that they can current UFT members. But they will be very adept at collecting dues. What these hundred schools mean is that they will take kids from public schools which will mean increasing layoffs over time. And when the quota is filled they will come back for another lifting of the cap.

No more non-profits? Watch them morph into something that can make a profit. By the way, Eva is a non-profit. $370,000 a year for running 4 schools, multiplied by 40 when she gets her wish. Call it what you want- maybe personal profit- which there is plenty of room for.

This comment on the NY Times about Believe Charter Schools which we exposed last week with a photo of a Wanted Poster with a hundred dollar bounty for recruiting new students, shows outrageously high salaries:

As a former employee, I can honestly say that I cannot BELIEVE (no pun intended) that there is not enough oversight from the Chancellor to expose the atrocities that are happening on an almost hourly basis at all there of these schools. Principals/”Superintendents” are fired and escorted out of the building midday, months after being publicly hailed and showered with praise by the CEO Melendez. There have been three different principals in the last two years, and the recklessness and haphazard manner with which decisions are being made about how many is spent, and who assumes positions of leadership make it seem as if ideas were drunkenly drawn from a baseball cap. There are people in that building making six-figure salaries who have not made a single contribution to the students or organization at large in their three years. What a great way to make a quarter of a million dollars! The majority of leadership positions are held by people in with less than one, or even zero teaching experience which has led to a major disconnect between themselves, the rest of the staff, and the kids. Don’t trash all charter schools…trash this one and all the others like it. Stop giving 5 years extensions to places like this and then walking away for long periods of time only to do one day “state visits” which consist of student and staff file checks and cursory classroom observation which are hardly enough to unveil the corruption that exist just below those surfaces.

Boy, do I have emails from Eddie Melendez over the last 6 months - nasty, gangster-like stuff - after he tried to harass Susan Ohanian, one of the top educators in this country. Eddie is a classic POS (Piece of Sh-- for those not familiar with the term). Semi-literate ramblings.

Read all the comments about the Believe horror story at the NY Times CityRoom blog.

UPDATED: Recruitment Poster for Charter School: Hey Kid, Wanna Make a Hundred Bucks?

UPDATED:

Jenny Medina picked up this story after I sent her the photo after I read her very good piece on charter school scams and the need for more scrutiny that appeared Wednesday. She published an excellent piece on the Wanted Poster at the NY Times City Room blog, also yesterday. See below for her story (and she gave Ed Notes a good pop).

For background, I have lots of contacts who sent me the picture and story as I worked my whole career in District 14 and spent my last years in the system doing tech support work at a number of schools, IS 126 included. That is the school where you may recall the same charter invaded the school library and the teacher made a you tube about it that got some notoriety. See Dismantling the IS 126 Library. Rumors are that the teacher was put in the rubber room as punishment.

Sources are saying that as a result of our exposure and the Medina story (followed up by the Post and News) the DOE may be looking to punish the people (grilling the gang at 126?) who revealed the story while ignoring the school's attempt to bribe the kids. Also see Caroline Granan comment about similar stuff at KIPP in San Francisco.

When I visited KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy, there were posters plastered all over the school offering prizes (Gap and Old Navy gift cards) to get new families to apply. I think someone is being naive to think that’s novel. And that’s at KIPP, where (all chorus together) “all KIPP schools have long waiting lists,” according to Paul Tough in your very own newspaper.

Ahhh. Those waiting lists. I hear that just about anyone who wants into a charter who meets the smell test (no ELL, Special ed, parent signs pledge to give pint of blood every day, etc) can get in.

And some charter school teaching buddies are telling me that getting and keeping good teachers is getting tougher and tougher and they're even trying to lure teachers away from each other. Wait 'till the cap is lifted. It will be the wild west. But demand even in a down economic market may drive some salaries higher. However, I get loads of teachers looking for jobs contacting me and all of them are desperate to get into a public school and look at charters as a last resort. Yes, the young do think of pensions and health care and the stability of seniority protections that a public school teaching career can bring- at least until the UFT sells that out too.

By the way, over the past few months I and Susan Ohanian have received some "lovely" notes from this particular charter school operator (and buddies), some of which I will share with you real soon.

Click on the pic to read




This photo of a poster on a 3rd floor wall at a charter based at IS 126 in Williamsburg/Greenpoint was being passed around by parents and community groups as outrage grows.

Can you BELIEVE this? They make the poor kid who recruits some sucker wait an entire semester before collecting his 100 bucks. They must have electronic force fields keeping them in. (I know more than a few parents who have been there, done that and left.)

What happened to all those waiting lists to get into charters that they are so desperate they have to bribe kids with a hundred bucks to get recruits?

For a hundred bucks I'll enroll there myself.

Students at $100 a Head?

Jennifer Medina

A sign in a charter high school offers one way to build up enrollment.

We know about schemes to pay students for high marks. And we’ve written about some of the marketing tactics schools are using to attract families. But one charter high school in Williamsburg is taking a step further – offering a $100 reward to any student who recruits another teenager to attend the school.

Last night we were sent a photo purporting to show a sign posted on the third floor of Public School 126 at 424 Leonard Street, which houses the Williamsburg Charter High School as well as its two spinoffs, Believe Northside Charter High School and Believe Southside Charter High School.

Evoking the old “Wanted” posters of the Wild West, the flyer asks for help to “recruit students who you feel would benefit from the exceptional opportunity to attend Believe Schools in all grades.” It promises $100 for each student recruited, provided they enroll and “remain for at least one term with us!” (The same picture also turned up Tuesday night on Education Notes Online.)

Jacqui Lipson, a spokeswoman for the schools, declined to comment but did not deny that the sign was up.

Charter school advocates typically boast about how far demand outpaces supply for seats in charter schools. Just last month, the New York City Charter School Center announced that more than 55,000 students had applied for 11,000 seats in charter schools.

Ms. Lipson also declined to say how many students applied to each of the three schools this year, directing the question to the city’s Education Department. We’ve asked and will post the answer as soon as we receive it.

Why Did the UFT Cancel Harlem Charter School Protests?

That is the question of the day as UFT strategy becomes just a bit clearer.

We reported on April 15 on the UFT district 5 rep Dwayne Clark's call for a picket this past Monday morning before school at the following schools. Here was the announcement Clark sent out:

UNITED FEDERATION OF TEACHERS CHARTER SCHOOL INVASION PROTESTS MONDAY APRIL 19, 2010@ 7:15 A.M. PS 197M SCHOOL ENTRANCE
Chapter Leaders of PS 175, PS 92, CAH, PS 194, PS 197, PS 123, and PS 133:

The UFT is engaging in an action on Monday, April 19th in the morning before school begins. We are asking that your school have at least 3 - 5 members leaflet outside your school because you have a Charter school in your building or geographically located near your school. This campaign does not involve the entire District but your school was selected. I will be providing you with flyers at Friday's Chapter Leaders meeting for Monday morning distribution. Please start speaking to your members to volunteer to leaflet outside your school. Your support in this endeavor is greatly appreciated. I will see you on Friday. COME OUT AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!

I wrote this last Thursday:

With Harlem being the epicenter of the invasions, there seems to be a stronger UFT response coming with this announcement from District 5 UFT rep Dwayne Clark. Is this the usual UFT holding action to give the impression of a response to keep GEM and the CPE from making inroads? Or is it a legitimate turn in direction regarding charter schools on the part of the UFT? Or are we seeing a local action on the part of Dwayne Clark who must clearly be perturbed at what is happening to the schools in District 5? (Last summer a retired UFT District Rep was at the rallies). Note the language used below borrows from GEM by calling it a "charter school invasion" instead of the DOE term "co-location" the UFT has been using.

Can GEM, the CPE and the UFT work together on these charter school issues? GEM member Antoine Bogard is the chapter leader at PS 197 and is supportive of this UFT initiative. While I don't think the leadership is changing direction (the UFT charters are like any other avaricious charter and looking to expand), I do think that we all can work locally together. The GEM ally CAPE group in PS 15 has maintained a good relationship with the UFT with the idea that they will take all the support they can get in their battle against Goliath.

People on GEM noted the use of GEM lingo: "charter school invasions," pretty strange coming from the UFT since they have 2 charter schools invading space in public schools in East NY. (Hmmm. Maybe GEM ought to pay a visit to these schools and protest the UFT invasions.)

We were curious why PS 241 and PS 30, which both have HSA Evil Mousekawitch schools in them, were not included. Teachers at PS 241 contacted Clark and leaflets were dropped off soon after. We received this email from a PS 241 teacher later that day:

PS 241 added themselves to the UFT protest as we were blatantly left out. However upon receiving more info on the "protest" as well as the fliers UFT wanted to have us hand out we realized it all was a sham. The UFT organized no such protest. They want us to do their bidding and work for them. The fliers spoke about how the UFT is working to support charters and wants to organize with them. We refuse to participate as this is not a real protest. We will not help the UFT to recruit members from the charters they have not protected us from!

The next day, the UFT cancelled the protests.

So this is what these "protests" are all about. Trying to get the public school teachers in a building to help organize charter school teachers by telling them about all the benefits of UFT membership they are missing. I mean, how can they live without paying a thousand bucks a year in UFT dues for all that great representation?

Actually, we still do support the idea of unionizing charter school teachers, but how much gagging do these teachers at public schools have to go through?

At the PS 15/PAVE hearing the other day, the teachers took a different tack. There is such enmity towards the PAVE administrators, they have been reaching out to PAVE teachers and building alliances and will be urging them to go union. The UFT leadership may see this as a win-win. The ambivalence for those PS 15 teachers who agree with so much of what we have to say about the UFT is how to sell a it to the PAVE charter school teachers. Clearly, the teachers at PS 241 and other Harlem schools are having a problem doing that.

REMINDER: Tonight is the PEP meeting at Prospect Hts HS on Classon Ave in Brooklyn (across from Botanic Garden) where the PS 15/PAVE and PS 123/Harlem Success invasions will be decided. We will be there taping.

I am processing a video of the PS 123 hearing from April 12 which will be up this afternoon of Councilwoman Inez Dickens speech. GEM has a video up of a different part of the meeting on the blog.

Charter School Invasion Hearings, A Change in Charter School Tactics and UFT Ambivalence

Someone asked what the purpose of the UFT demos are given that the UFT charter schools have invaded schools themselves. If they are part of a building process, that's great. If only a photo-op for the NY Teacher than a waste of time.

PS15/PAVE charter school hearing: April 14, 2010

Last night was the third PS 15/PAVE charter school invasion hearing where the parents and teachers at the school was powerful. CEC15 President Jim Devore grilled the DOE reps intensely for a half hour and it was fun to watch the squirming. PS 15 teachers and parents are beginning to reach out directly to their counterparts at PAVE, with one intention being to invite the PAVE teachers, some of whom do not seem all too happy in the Spencer Robertson stable, to go union. That ought to be fun. In the meantime, some disgruntled PAVE parents and CAPE have been meeting. That ought to be just as much fun. We had a few GEMers there last night to support the PS 15 crew. CAPE's Julie Cavanaugh sent out this to the supportive community:

Tonight was a huge victory. PAVE was demoralized, we were united, strong, effective, researched and informed, passionate, and on point. You all amaze me and I am so proud to stand with all of you. Thank you everyone for your sacrifice, for your words, for your commitment...Onward and upward... PEP...HERE WE COME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The next legal battle... bring it on!!!! My deepest love, gratitude and caped appreciation,
Julie

Julie is right. PAVE brought in an architect/consultant to talk about the new $40 million plus school (the DOE is putting up $26 million). She watched in horror as the passions flew. I told her she better break ground tomorrow. Boy, did the PAVE gang pick the wrong place to invade.

I have lots of video for future archiving - we may make a film at some point - but if I get a chance I will put up some of the great stuff that was said.

PS 123/Harlem Success hearing: April 12, 2010

I was at the rousing PS 123/Harlem Success invasion hearing on Monday April 12 and it's been wonderful to see this Harlem school community get themselves organized. The teachers and parents did an amazing job. They even had posters made up of the Klein/Moskowitz letters. GEM has been involved since the end of the last school year and was there with our banner this time too. I have about an hour of video and am working on a 10 minute segment which will be posted hopefully by tomorrow (today is wife appreciation day and a celebration of our tax refund).

A change in charter school strategy

The absence of charter school parents and teachers at both hearings was noticeable. This seems to mark a new strategy - charter schools around the city often work under a joint plan. They now seem to be keeping their parents away from these hearings. Why bother? They know these hearings have no impact. In addition, some of the charter school parents may have been affected - and infected- by the host schools' passionate defense.

The PEP to endorse the invasions will take place next Tuesday (Apr. 20 at 6pm) at Prospect Heights HS campus in Brooklyn. We know that the public schools will be out there. Will the charter schools feel it necessary to organize their troops (with buses and pizza and who knows what else) for the PEP when it is a fait accompi? (Repeat this 5 times and see if it has a beat.)

Is Moaning Mona turning into Magnificent Mona?

If you've been following the chronicles of charter school independent parent Mona Davids, who started out attacking teachers and declaring out and out support for any invasion, we have seen a recent change in direction as she has come out for more transparency and rights for parents in charter schools. Mona was at both the PS 123 and PS 15 hearings (we must stop meeting like this, Mona). Shifting alliances are in the works and though some people are still mistrustful, we have hope for Mona. I have some good video of her at Leonie's Class Size Matters parent workshops last Saturday. We are not totally converted yet, but how long will it be before we officially dub her "Magnificent Mona?"


Where is the UFT?
As far as I could tell there was no UFT presence to support the PS 123 community, but I left early. GEM, on the other hand, had a strong presence and has developed an excellent relationship with the 123 community and some other schools in Harlem. The Coalition for Public Education (CPE) also came out in support (GEM and the CPE are developing strong lines of communication.)

There was a bit of UFT presence with District 15 rep Bob Zuckerberg making a tepid statement that there should be a cap on the time PAVE could spend in the school. Not exactly an attack on the invasion. He brought along NY Teacher ace reporter Jim Callahan and a photographer. So look for a UFT spread on the event. I have video and will put something up when I get some time.

The ambivalent nature of the UFT response to charter school invasions is obvious, given that two UFT charter schools have invaded space in public schools (George Gershwin MS which I went to is one).

With Harlem being the epicenter of the invasions, there seems to be a stronger UFT response coming with this announcement from District 5 UFT rep Dwayne Clark. Is this the usual UFT holding action to give the impression of a response to keep GEM and the CPE from making inroads? Or is it a legitimate turn in direction regarding charter schools on the part of the UFT? Or are we seeing a local action on the part of Dwayne Clark who must clearly be perturbed at what is happening to the schools in District 5? (Last summer a retired UFT District Rep was at the rallies). Note the language used below borrows from GEM by calling it a "charter school invasion" instead of the DOE term "co-location" the UFT has been using.

Can GEM, the CPE and the UFT work together on these charter school issues? GEM member Antoine Bogard is the chapter leader at PS 197 and is supportive of this UFT initiative. While I don't think the leadership is changing direction (the UFT charters are like any other avaricious charter and looking to expand), I do think that we all can work locally together. The GEM ally CAPE group in PS 15 has maintained a good relationship with the UFT with the idea that they will take all the support they can get in their battle against Goliath.

I am curious why PS 241 and PS 30, which both have HSA Evil Mousekawitch schools in them, are not included.


UNITED FEDERATION OF TEACHERS CHARTER SCHOOL INVASION PROTESTS

MONDAY APRIL 19, 2010

@ 7:15 A.M.

PS 197M SCHOOL ENTRANCE

Chapter Leaders of PS 175, PS 92, CAH, PS 194, PS 197, PS 123, and PS 133:

The UFT is engaging in an action on Monday, April 19th in the morning before school begins. We are asking that your school have at least 3 - 5 members leaflet outside your school because you have a Charter school in your building or geographically located near your school. This campaign does not involve the entire District but your school was selected. I will be providing you with flyers at Friday's Chapter Leaders meeting for Monday morning distribution. Please start speaking to your members to volunteer to leaflet outside your school. Your support in this endeavor is greatly appreciated. I will see you on Friday.

COME OUT AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!

Dwayne Clark, UFT District 5 Representative
52 Broadway- 10th floor
New York, NY 10004
212-598-6800- work
212-510-6424- fax

PS 197M: 2230 Fifth Ave/135th St; Train #2 to 135th St.

Divide and Conquer: PS 30 VS Harlem Success Academy Charter School Invasion

February 22, 2010 was a volatile night at PS 30. The PS 30 community clashed with Harlem Success Academy II in what did not make for a pleasant evening. Harlem Success Academy II is looking for a home after the PS 123 community fought hard to get them out. The PS 30 community was brilliant in their defense of their school.

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN0F5xWKF3I

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E9fnQCozB8