I Enter Mayoral Control Debate on @BrianLehrer on WNYC

I just got off the phone after appearing on Brian Lehrer show (one of my must listens every day) on WNYC defending local school boards and attacking mayoral control. Brian seemed surprised to have 3 teachers on the line to support local school boards, given the narrow and biased debate. They picked me to rep the group.

Here's the embed code for the 33 minute segment -- I'm 23+ minutes in:

Brian Lehrer

I tried to make as many points as I could based on recent blogs by Patrick Sullivan, Leonie Haimson and James Eterno -- all links are in my post, Did UFT Boycott DeB Mayoral Control Rally? Patrick Sullivan: What Would Be The Impact of End of Mayoral Control

Here are some quick points I made:

• Local control was only pre-k to 8. High schools were never decentralized.
• My district had corruption and patronage and I and others consistently opposed that but we had a monthly forum in the neighborhood where parents, teachers and community members could make their points, in addition to having school board elections to challenge their control.
• There is much greater corruption under mayoral control - as we've seen over the past 15 years -- add up the money lost in the districts and compare.
• The 1996 law put curbs on the districts -- more accountability.
• We could control the machine politics with more oversight.

When Brian asked me about how charters would deal with that I pointed out why isn't their buying of politicians more corrupt than what ever local school boards did?

Charters in no way want local control because most communities don't want charters. Ben Max of Gotham Gazette, who was on with Brian disagreed with me and said some neighborhoods want charters.

I disagree -- if we had local school boards, the people who supposedly want charters would be involved in controlling the public schools and would have the ability to make the kinds of changes they want.

Charters have used mayoral control as their main instrument. Since de Blasio is not in their pocket, they are unhappy, though from what I've seen he has given them almost everything they want.

Later I got this tweet from Ben Max:

Ben Max @TweetBenMax	Jun 21
@NormScott1 @BrianLehrer good talking with you earlier, Norm. interesting points. isn't this charter point negated by the state, though?

I replied:

Norm Scott   @NormScott1 Jun 21 @BrianLehrer charters fear local bds.@BrianLehrer Parents that supposedly want charters would control public schools and negate charter or run them.

 charters fear local bds.@BrianLehrer Parents that supposedly want charters would control public schools and negate charter or run them.

Some parents will want to be involved in local school board. I can also see highly funded charter school supporters running in some crucial districts and charterizing the entire district, though I believe they don't want everyone -- so maybe select the juicy stuff for themselves. So there could be a downside to this too.

Brian Lehrer Hearts Campbell Brown: A Play in One Act

Leonie Haimson: Lehrer seems eager to get the views of people like Campbell Brown.

	Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer)
9/20/13, 9:41 AM @campbell_brown would love to have you join in this afternoon if you're free. #30IssuesChat

Diane Ravitch: Who is Campbell Brown?

Leonie Haimson:

Campbell Brown is a former TV reporter married to Dan Senor (who used to work for Bush); Senor is a board member for StudentsFirst.

 Brown started making noise last year that DOE should be allowed to fire any teacher accused of sexual abuse whether or not it was proven by court or approved by independent arbitrator.  She was the first person given time to testify to Cuomo commission in NYC last year – along with some other politically connected astroturfers.

 Since I think this issue was too volatile for StudentsFirst – esp. since Rhee’s husband has been repeatedly accused of sexual abuse of minors -- she started new organization called the Parents transparency project http://www.campbellbrown.com/2013/07/the-parents-transparency-project/

http://www.parentstransparency.org/

that ironically won’t reveal their funders.

 Now it says “The Parents´ Transparency Project is a watchdog group whose mission is to bring transparency to the rules, deals, and contracts negotiated between our state and local governments and the teachers´ unions.”  Joe Williams is also on the board.

 She now serves on the board of Success Academies, and Turnaround for children.  She is all over the place.  Sure to be featured on Education Nation this year.

Ellen: Sex sells......even for Brain Lehrer and WNYC.  Did Murdoch take them over as well? 

Diane Ravitch: I will be interviewed by Brian Lehrer on Monday morning.

Leonie H:

Well thank god he’s having you as a guest -- someone who actually knows something about our schools – in addition to Campbell Brown who seems to have jumped to the head of the list I suppose b/c of her celebrity and sensational claims.

THE END 

 

Who owns the media, even the “public” media? A Teacher in Bed-Stuy Posts to Beth Fertig's Blog

A teacher posted this today on Beth Fertig's News Blog on WNYC's website:

When will the press expose the “distraction”, to use Obama’s term, that charter schools provide for a system that is truly unwilling to reform itself? I am a teacher with 30 years in the DOE. My elementary school in Bedford-Stuyvesant experienced reform in the early 1990s, sponsored by the Office of School Reform and the UFT. It worked and transformed us in meaningful ways.

Twenty years later we are reaping the benefits of that initiative and are expanding our enrollment while all neighboring schools are losing theirs and subsequently having to share their building with a second or third school, sometimes a charter school. We benefited from funding opportunities then that no longer exist for us now, because funders are putting their money into charter schools.

We have devastating midyear budget cuts that they don’t have. Who will expose the fact that while they may have a lottery for their students, ultimately they get to pick and choose them and their parents? They cap their numbers by the late October head count and begin to weed out the troublesome and academically low-performing students from then on in time for the state exams.

Of course, they are going to look like they are doing a great job. We have to take those students back and work with the students they don’t want. In the end this exclusive private system within the public system is being supported by cuts to our budgets. The majority of public school children, who will never attend a charted school, will lose out in overcrowded classrooms in schools that have had to drop arts-in-education partnerships and after school programs, the services that made us great and helped to bolster their achievement and love of learning.

Who in the media is going to question a system that won’t spread reform to every school in order to benefit every child? Who wants to understands what is really happening in our midst, in the name of “school reform”? There is a travesty going on and they get away with it, because no one will report it.

Begs the question: Who owns the media, even the “public” media?