from the Nation:
On the first Tuesday in March, thousands
of students, parents and teachers rallied at the New York state capitol in
Albany to protest what the media quickly dubbed New York City Mayor Bill de
Blasio’s “war” on charter schools and minority students. Eva Moskowitz, the
founder of the Success Academy charter network and one of the mayor’s fiercest
critics, closed all twenty-two of her schools so that students and staff could
participate in what she called “the largest civic field trip in history.”
But it wasn’t merely a field trip; the
rally was a political event, in protest of de Blasio’s decision
not to approve plans for three Success Academies to co-locate with traditional
public schools, and more broadly his proposal to charge rent to charters
occupying city school buildings. (The mayor approved forty-five other
co-location proposals, five of them put forward by Success Academy.) Moskowitz
has been the most vocal opponent of the new mayor’s education policies, though
few have been enacted. As the debate intensifies, staff and students at Success
Academy are being increasingly drawn into the political battle—or pushed into
it, according to several employees who spoke to The Nation on condition
of anonymity.
“I don’t want to say it’s hostile, or
abusive, but definitely I feel that coercive measures are taken,” said a staff
member who works in the school’s administration. “The rally really demonstrated
this lack of boundaries.”
The teachers and staffers who spoke to The
Nation said that although they were never told they would lose their
jobs if they did not attend the rally, they didn’t think they had much choice
and were afraid to ask for an exception. “An option was not presented. The
schools assigned everyone with a job, so you were either going to be an
instructional coach or a bus captain,” one teacher explained. “They weren’t
really asking us if that’s what we wanted to do. They were telling us that
that’s what we were going to do instead of teaching for the day.” Many charter
schools like Success are nonunionized, and celebrate the fact that they can
fire teachers more easily than schools with teachers' unions can; many charter
teachers have described a culture of fear resulting from job insecurity.
Because all of the schools in the
Success network were closed, parents who did not want their children to attend
would have had to keep them home or find alternate childcare, with a week’s
notice. The schools sent home fliers and put stickers on the jackets and
backpacks of students asking families to accompany their children to Albany.
“[De Blasio’s] threats to overturn approved school co-locations and to assess
rent to public charter schools are placing our schools, and your scholars, at
risk,” reads a letter sent to parents. Although civics lesson plans were
prepared for the bus ride, one teacher said that some students watched movies
instead, including The Lottery, a documentary about a Success Academy in
Harlem.
“It feels a little exploitative,”
another teacher said about taking students to Albany. “They’re five. They’ll
hold whatever sign you hand them and believe whatever you tell them.” The teacher
acknowledged that parents had the choice to keep their children home from the
rally but added, “I did wonder what parents would do if they couldn’t come on
the march—how they would arrange for child care.”
Success Academy declined to answer
several specific questions about the staff members’ claims, but offered the
following statement:
Last week, 11,000 charter school families and educators
voluntarily showed up to a rally in Albany despite frigid temperatures and a
long bus ride. They did so because their children's right to a high quality
public education is under attack, and they wanted State lawmakers to know how
much their schools mean to them. It was an inspiring and emotional event filled
with people who care deeply about the power of public education to change
lives.
City councilman and education committee
chair Daniel Dromm said he will hold an oversight hearing about whether
Moskowitz violated any state education regulations. “It’s shocking to me that a
CEO thinks they can close a whole set of schools and then bus those children up
to Albany for totally political rally. I have deep questions about the
appropriateness of that,” Dromm told The Nation. “She’s using children
as pawns in a political war, and that’s very problematic.” Dromm also said he
has concerns about the source of funding for Success’s political activity; the
organization receives public funding and is a c(3) nonprofit, which may devote
only a limited portion of their activities to lobbying. According to Dromm the
hearing, tentatively slated for April, will also focus on other aspects of
charter school finances, including compensation for executives like Moskowitz,
who made $475,244 in 2012.
While students are the face of
Moskowitz’s campaign, the financial muscle comes from Wall Street. The trip to
Albany was paid for by Families for Excellent Schools, a nonprofit chaired by a
venture capitalist named Paul Applebaum. Although the group’s mission is to
“grow a movement of families and schools that drives grassroots demand for
legislative and electoral change,” four of the five founding board members,
including Applebaum, work in
the financial sector. Families for Excellent Schools is also behind a
multimillion dollar ad campaign and a website, charterswork.org, which is currently promoting
the hashtag #SaveThe194, referring to the 194 students who attend a Success
Academy in Harlem whose application for co-location was one of the three denied
by the de Blasio administration. (Read Jarrett Murphy’s blog post herefor
more background on the co-location decisions.) .. . . .
wow, scary
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