The NAACP Case Against NYC

Ben Jealous in op-ed at the NY Daily News:

The NAACP fights for the rights of all children. As the civil rights organization that represents the most parents and children of color in the most places across this country, we know well the anguish of parents with few to no choices for quality education. That anguish fuels the sense of urgency with which we approach the fight to ensure all children have access to quality education.

In recent years, this anguish has led us to support a range of local and state reform efforts, including
* Suing the State of the New Jersey multiple times to require it to abide by its state Constitution and provide equitable, quality education to all of its children.

* Backing teacher tenure reform and the ability of parents to impose reform on schools in California.

* The reform of zero-tolerance policies in Florida, and the end of discriminatory discipline practices across the country
* The firing of all of the teachers at consistently failing Central Falls High School in Rhode Island
* Increasing the state education budget and decreasing the state incarceration budget in states as diverse as North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
In a country whose politicians and education advocates are increasingly ideological and partisan, we are an unwaveringly independent voice for treating all children fairly. We simply want good public schools, regardless of type, for all kids.

We tried for many months to avoid the current lawsuit against New York City about the separate and unequal treatment of children based on which school they attend in a particular school building. We have brought our suit because the situation is urgent and needs to be addressed immediately.

We are literally facing a tale of two schools, except these schools are often located in the same building - one a charter, one a traditional public school.

The charter school on one side of the hallway is freshly painted and supplied with new textbooks. The traditional public school has peeling paint and old, dated textbooks. Students in the charter school have more access to the library; those in the traditional public school have less. One school has children in proper classrooms; the other has kids in the basement. Some children have easy access to functional rest rooms; others do not.

Such disparities are forbidden under New York State law.

We know that requiring the city Education Department to comply with the law may not be popular in all corners of the city, but it is the only way to ensure that all children will be treated fairly.

The NAACP believes the city should prioritize fixing these inequities so that every child in New York City - not just the 4% who enter charter schools by lottery - has an opportunity to succeed academically, with an equal chance to reach for the American Dream.


Anything less allows unnecessary tensions to fester in communities. Such visible disparities pit parent against parent and student against student. It divides us when we need to be united in the essential struggle to create the kind of educational system that allows all of our children to flourish.

The situation in New York City is neither the fault of the charter schools nor the operators of those schools. It is not the fault of parents. It is the fault of past chancellors who have historically flouted the law, refused to engage parents and failed to invest in improving schools for all of New York's children.

In the past two years, we have won two lawsuits against New York City for failing to properly engage parents before attempting to close their schools.

We hope that in his new role as city schools chancellor, Dennis Walcott will ensure the city approaches this situation differently and more expeditiously.

As one of the lead participants in the lawsuit, we are open and eager to discuss all options for redressing the inequities, moving closer to a first-rate education for all of New York's children and ensuring all kids can attend their school of choice this fall.

The struggle of black parents to create a better life for their children is one that we at the NAACP have held close to our hearts since our founding more than a century ago. We know that a good education is one of the most effective pathways out of poverty. There is no greater frustration than for a parent to know that there are no good schools for his or her child to attend in the neighborhood. Personally, I know the yearning as a father to give my daughter the best education possible.

It is this passion that has driven, and will continue to drive, our fight for all children.

Jealous is president and CEO of the NAACP.

The New Eugenics in Harlem

The following comments were offered in response to this post on the boasting of a veteran Teach for America regional manager:

As a teacher educator in NYC, from an elementary education program that just graduated 80 certified teachers, most of whom could not get a job in a public school due to the hiring freeze, I am handling distress call after distress email from recent grads in charter schools. I have been meeting with the first year teachers, visiting them in the classrooms, and listening to their descriptions over drinks on Fridays. This is what it boils down to: we have charter schools proliferating in Harlem, run by white CEOs and founders, who are making large salaries (Eva Moskowitz of the Harlem Success series of schools--chain?--makes in excess of $300,000 per year). The children in these schools are mostly all children of color -- and mostly Black: African American, African, and Caribbean American.

The focus on learning is reduced to getting higher test scores. The focus on behavior is reduced to compliance and punishment and is according to one school leader who resigned, "The most punitive atmosphere I have ever seen in a school in my entire decades-long career." The children are subjected to draconian behavioral expectations for long hours with few breaks for play or recess. The parents are subjected to various humiliation tactics for violations of the dress code. (One of these white-run charter schools reguires girls to only wear dresses.)

I have heard too many of these stories in the past month to sleep well at night. This landscape reminds me of white northerners who went to the South after the U.S. Civil War to set up 'schools' to educate the children of newly emancipated enslaved Blacks. The curriculum of most of these "schools" was designed around the habits and skills needed to serve in positions as housekeepers, child care workers, servants, maids, railroad porters, carpenters and other menial jobs that Blacks were expected to fill.

These white philanthropists wrapped their racism and social control in a mantle of charity and liberalism. Today's so called reformers are clear in their treatment of young Black children: in the name of educational equity, they are repressing and subjugating young children and their families.

What shall we do?

Oligarchs On the Move to Choose Houston Superintendent

As Dunc inserts himself in the New York City schools battle on the side of Bloomberg and his continued privilege of choosing and dismissing members of a puppet School Board, what was to be a public search for a new Superintendent in Houston just went private:

The Houston school board hopes to keep the public from finding out who is in the running to be the next leader of the state’s largest school system until the field is narrowed down to a single candidate.

Houston Independent School District trustees agreed Thursday to keep secret the names of the candidates who interview for the superintendent’s job because the best candidates want their privacy protected, the trustees said. The decision is at odds with a request from the city’s largest business organization, the Greater Houston Partnership, which called for a transparent search shortly after Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra announced earlier this year that he will soon step down. . . ..

And here is the real story posted by Caroline Grannon on Saturday at Examiner.com (from an fearful insider). As you can see, the tentacles of Bloomberg and the School Deformers are struggling to get another urban school system in their grip in order to apply their preferred brand of cultural eugenics to the black and brown children of Houston:

The Wolf at the Door: Are school-reform radicals hijacking the Houston Independent School District's Superintendent process?

The Houston Independent School District (HISD) has avoided becoming just another urban system in perpetual crisis. Its leaders have encouraged racial and political moderation and incremental reforms. The district pioneered magnet programs, and continues to offer families a host of specialized, high-quality choices, particularly at the high-school level. Its students outperform school districts which have opted for radical reform in most categories of the recently published National Assessment of Educational Progress comparisons.

Now some members of HISD's nine-member elected school board want to change course and adopt drastic measures. They want Houston to follow in the footsteps of school districts like Philadelphia, Washington D. C., New Orleans and New York City by choosing a new superintendent in the mold of Michelle Rhee or Joel Klein [chancellors of D.C. and New York City schools, respectively].

According to HISD board member Paula Harris, HISD has gone as far as it can under the current model of reform; now it needs a change agent to “shake up” the district, which she labels a “monstrosity.” Natasha Kamrani, wife of the CEO of YES PREP charter schools, has repeatedly mentioned both Rhee and Klein as the kind of leader HISD should pursue. Harvin C. Moore IV, a founding member of the KIPP board and its longtime treasurer, is another supporter of uprooting reform.

The school board selected the firm Heidrick & Struggles over four competing firms to manage its superintendent search. This is a sign the school board's reform-radicals may have their way. Heidrick & Struggles has a history of directing districts to candidates advocating charter schools and subcontracting to private agencies, specifically in Philadelphia and Buffalo. Heidrick & Struggles also has close ties to the charter-school movement and to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's mayoral control approach in New York City.

Richard Greene, a managing partner in Heidrick & Struggles’ Chicago headquarters, was recently the chief operating officer for the KIPP national foundation. KIPP plans a $100 million expansion in Houston. KIPP and its junior partner, YES PREP, hope to use this private money to create a separate school district of 21,000 students cut from the heart of HISD.

The Heidrick & Stuggles board of directors includes two high-level Bloomberg allies. Robert E. Knowling is the former founding CEO of the New York Leadership Academy, Mayor Bloomberg’s factory for churning out new principals who see things his way. Richard Beattie heads up New Visions for New Schools, a partnership nonprofit supporting Bloomberg's reforms in some New York City schools.

Beattie is also chairman of the Simpson Thacher & Bartlett law firm, which provided free legal services in arguably the most important school-finance suit in New York City's history. This suit brought several billion dollars in extra state funding to the city schools, which aids the big-spending mayor who has upped school spending by five billion bucks in five years.

One major candidate for Houston mayor, Councilman Peter Brown, has called for creating a mayor-controlled district from the inner-city portions of HISD, allowing more suburban areas to carve out new districts.

Heidrick & Struggles and school board members have emphasized that this search would be open and transparent, without a predetermined outcome. HISD Board President Lawrence Marshall has promised “100% transparency.” The firm has held 30 community and stakeholder meetings to come up with a job description and list of qualities the next district leader should have. The list turned out to be highly amorphous, including just about every imaginable positive quality one could desire in a political leader.

HISD's board is replacing Dr. Abelardo Saavadra, the first Hispanic to hold that position in a district where 60% of students are of Hispanic origin. Houston Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenberg recently derided Saavedra for his lack of political savvy, and some on the school board seem to agree, nearly pushing him out last year.

Saavedra had a tendency to announce his policy proposals well ahead of time, and hold town-hall meetings all over the city before finalizing his decisions. In some cases, as when he sought to reduce transportation for magnet students this past spring, Saavedra was opposed by organized groups of parents and his proposals were nixed by the school board. This sort of popular revolt will not be a problem for future superintendents if advocates of mayoral control have their way.

Once Heidrick & Struggles presents its candidates to HISD's board, parents and teachers' organizations will have limited, if any, influence on the final decision. The search firm and the HISD board have decided to issue the name of only one finalist.

Parents and Teachers Fear Retaliation from Charter School Corporation

Here's a case of what happens when civic responsibility gets shifted to corporate control in the corporate town of Pingree Grove, the fiefdom of Wyman "Clint" Carey. From the Daily Herald, for Cambridge Lake, IL:

If you feel you haven't had a say in what happens at the Cambridge Lakes Charter School, Pingree Grove will give you a chance to offer your input and ask questions next week.

A town hall meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. March 14 in the Cambridge Lakes community center, 1125 Wester Blvd., Pingree Grove.

Village President Wyman "Clint" Carey announced the meeting Tuesday. On Monday, the Pingree Grove village board named him village liaison to the Northern Kane Educational Corp., the nonprofit organization that runs the charter school.

The announcement comes a week after Carey met with Larry Fuhrer, executive director of Northern Kane, and Jerry Conrad, chairman of the Northern Kane board, to discuss his concerns.

Carey said parents have expressed concerns about the charter school to village trustees. One of the main complaints is a lack of communication between the charter school and parents.

"There's a feeling that there's a frustration that they aren't being heard," Carey said. The village president said he hopes "to get the parents together (to) voice their concerns or their support."

"The village just wants to see a successful charter school," Carey said.

Fuhrer addressed parents' complaints about communication on Monday.

"I don't think it's valid," Fuhrer said. "Will it be addressed? Of course."

Carey has invited Fuhrer and Conrad, who is also vice president of Cambridge Homes, to the town hall meeting. Fuhrer said he'd probably attend, and Conrad was not sure if he would.

Cambridge Homes, which developed the surrounding Cambridge Lakes subdivision, also developed the charter school. Most of the more than 500 students who attend the school live in Cambridge Lakes. Charter school teachers and parents have said they fear charter school officials will retaliate against them or their children if they express their concerns openly. At a staff meeting last week, charter school officials threatened to take action against employees who had been involved in "the recently publicized acts against the interests of Northern Kane Educational Corp." Union officials, labor officials and teachers understood the "recently publicized acts" to be a barely veiled reference to employees' recent efforts to form a union.

Carey said he understands how parents and teachers feel and may try to allay their concerns by allowing them to ask questions anonymously.

Fuhrer said parents would not face retaliation for speaking out.

"I don't know of any parent that's ever suffered any repercussion, so why would it start this week?" Fuhrer said.

Carey said he hopes his appointment as liaison to the charter school will improve communication between the village and Northern Kane officials.

"I can bring concerns directly to the (charter school) board … and also listen and hear what's going on," Carey said.

Fuhrer said the village has always had a seat at the table.

"We've welcomed that relationship from the very first day," Fuhrer said.

Carey also addressed communication at his meeting with Fuhrer and Conrad last week.

"What I was trying to stress is to reopen the lines of communication between the village and the charter and to try to promote more open lines of communication between the parents and the charter," Carey said.

Fuhrer said his discussion with Carey and Conrad was productive.

"Was it a useful meeting? And were we able to look at some things and think through them? Yes, we were," Fuhrer said.

Conrad said Monday it's important for parents, teachers and officials from the village and Northern Kane to meet to discuss solutions.

"It's got some bugs and problems that need to be worked out, and the more people get together and talk, the better chance that has to happen," Conrad said.

Northern Kane is also under contract to run Pingree Grove's parks and recreation program until the village is able to start its own program, Carey said.