You Take That Mush, and Eat It

Well, they had a meeting over at the Ross Charter School. That's the school run by billionaire Courtney Ross. As you may recall, Ms. Ross did not care for the digs first offered her by the city, so they decided to push her school into the NEST school, the one parents had spent hundreds of thousands of their own dollars fixing up. As those nasty NEST parents fought Ms. Ross in the press, of all places, there was no choice but to relocate them.

So the DoE placed them in their state-of-the-art facilities at Tweed. I often think of them in my trailer. After all, who knows if they could fit 34 kids in a state-of-the-art classroom? Who knows if Ross kids could do without AC, or computers, or soap in their bathrooms? You have to be a real man to put up with that sort of thing (even if you're a little girl).

You'll be happy to know that the Trustees (Ms. Ross was not in attendance) determined to keep class size at twenty.

While your classes may appear to still have 34 (or more), in actual fact they will only have 33.5. That's because of the great strides we've made in class size, and don't doubt that in five or ten years you'll only have 33.2.

And stop whining. In Mr. Bloomberg's New York, it's all about rugged individualism.

Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Screen

Chancellor Joel "El Exigente" Klein doesn't play favorites. He just calls 'em as he sees 'em.

That's why he went out of his way to condemn the NEST-M school. He does not care for the selection process. It's failed to meet his exacting standards for objectivity. Klein's criticism, of course, is totally unrelated to the parents successfully having fought his proposed placement of a billionaire's charter school in their building.

His removal of the NEST principal, despite the fact that her school was excellent by all accounts, is also completely unrelated. When the parents protested, and were hauled away by the police, it had nothing whatsoever to do with their actions. The chancellor adores parental involvement. The impending audit of parent association finances is just a coincidence.

Furthermore, the fact that the billionaire's charter was placed in the very best facility the city had to offer was another coincidence. What NEST should have done was let absolutely everyone and anyone in, and let the building swell to 250% capacity (and growing), just as my school has. After all, no one's died in a fire, and no one's been trampled to death in my building.

Not yet, anyway. But the point is you don't see us rejecting students for any reason whatsoever.

Uncle Joel and the Parents

Let's see, the DoE bounced the NEST school's principal after the parents successfully fought off the arrival of the Moneybags Charter School. Then, they installed a principal who caused a bunch of those troublemakers to be hauled off in the paddy wagon.

Now, they're doing a friendly little audit on those nasty folks who dared involve themselves in the school their kids attended.

Is something going on here? Nah. It's just a coincidence.

Doubtless parents all over the city are saying, "Gee, I want to get more involved in my kid's school too."

Thanks to Schoolgal

Empty Nest

Well, not quite. But the executive board of the NEST+M parent association (the school that successfully fought a gazillionaire's charter moving in) is stepping down in protest. The parents claim Klein's new principal is on a mission to quash their involvement. Can you imagine the NYC schools chancellor doing such a thing?

After all, Chancellor Klein has repeatedly claimed to support parents (despite having hired a deputy who maintains they have nothing whatsoever to do with the success or failure of their children). As for the principal, she supports them too. That must be why she called the police to have them hauled away forcibly.

The principal seems to feel parents ought to appreciate such treatment.

"There is a very silent and supportive parent body and they tell me they're the majority."

Ah, the old "silent majority" argument. That's the one Nixon used to claim protests against the war didn't reflect the will of the country (The Teacher Rebellion by David Selden reports that Unity expelled teachers for opposing that war, yet another proud chapter in the glorious history of our union leadership). I particularly like the new twist of "they tell me." Clearly, the ejected parents neglected to "tell" her they represented the majority. If only Al Gore's supporters had shown such foresight...but I digress.

Could Joel Klein be so vindictive as to install a confrontational principal after having removed the principal who prevented a charter from degrading the NEST school (just as he's degraded mine and scores of others)?

You tell me.

Thanks to Schoolgal

related: see The Chalkboard here, and especially here.

Let Them Eat Cake

While 1.1 million New York City students get by on scraps, and 75% of NYC's high schools suffer from overcrowding, billionaire Courtney Ross gets to reject sites for her charter school. The NEST school, largely improved and supported by NYC parents, was not the first choice after all.

Before opting for space at NEST, the founder of Ross, Courtney Sales Ross, had been shown space on the top floor of P.S. 147 on Bushwick Avenue in the remote eastern reaches of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, across from a housing project.

Ms. Ross rejected that space.

If this doesn't prove that Ms. Ross's charter is more important to Bloomberg than the schools the overwhelming majority of NYC kids attend, I don't know what does.

Here's a comment from Norm Scott:

The space at PS 147 in Williamsburg in Brooklyn (not the fancy part) that Courtney Sales Ross rejected included the amazingly large space of the classroom I taught in for 27 years on the 4th floor. The entire floor is empty of kids now except for the computer lab. An old building but in fabulous shape with high ceilings and big rooms, yet Ross tried to squeeze into NEST with the support of Klein when the PS 147 space was clearly empty and available. Then she gets further rewarded with space at Tweed.

Why did Ross reject this space? Maybe because she would have to accept kids from the projects across the street? Or maybe the neighborhood is just not chi-chi enough for Ms. Ross? Poor dear. She would have had to go into Brooklyn to visit her school.

Actually, it doesn't much matter to me why she rejected it. The fact that she had such an option, while I teach in trailers behind a building at 250% capacity, shows clearly that "Children First" doesn't actually apply to those attending public schools.

It also takes a great deal of wind out of the sails of those who called the parents of the NEST kids racist for fighting this mayor. They worked to make a great school and wanted to preserve it. Despite the lip service this administration pays to parental involvement, when these parents actually put hundreds of thousands of their own dollars into a school they loved, what was Mayor Bloomberg's response?

He tried to cut it into pieces. Thanks, Mayor Bloomberg. Doubtless scores of parents will work to improve the decrepit buildings you offer their children, so that you can give them away to petulant billionaires.

It's the trickle-down theory. If you aren't a billionaire, don't forget your umbrella.

A Charter Finds a Home

Mayor Bloomberg, on the heels of the NEST-Ross fiasco, has decided to award the non-union Ross charter school the best classrooms in the city--the state of the art facilities at Tweed, funded by city taxpayers. While public school kids are sent to trailers, hallways and bathrooms, the Ross students will be fine.

A note to the teachers working for Ms. Ross--avoid talking about union salaries and benefits. You know what happens to people like that.

"Boy, how nice is it for a privately run school to get such wonderful attention!" said Carmen Colon, a parent who runs a group of parent leaders. "It would be nice if our public schools were getting this type of attention."

Stuart Marques, a spokesman for teachers union president Randi Weingarten, said the move "certainly shows where the chancellor's priorities are."

Perhaps if public schools received this sort of consideration, they wouldn't be in the state they are now. In fact, all things being equal, a lot of people think public schools are just as good , or even better than private schools.

Personally, even beyond what test scores say, I think they're better. I can't muster much sympathy for bazillionaires like Ross who deny working people their right to unionize. However good her school may be (and it's certainly getting better treatment than any public city school), the kids who leave it, thanks to her "vision", are going to enter an economy with even fewer opportunities.

Thanks to Schoolgal for the tip!