Big news for NYC charter schools. Civic Builders was awarded $4 million by the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation yesterday to help build nine new charter schools to be located in "chronically underperforming school districts." Read the full press release here.

As a follow-up to yesterday's post on NY Congressman Anthony Weiner's complaint that NYC should have gotten a couple of billion more dollars to implement NCLB. One reader noted that Weiner came out very strongly in support of Chancellor Joel Klein's decision in the summer of 2004 to limit the number of transfers out of failing schools so as not to disrupt the few good schools the city has. You can see one of Ryan Sager's old blog posts about it here.

The reader raises an interesting point: "So he's for the money part, but against the transfer part."

I think though, to be fair to the Congressman and the rest of the Democratic Party, we've been extremely consistent in our desire to get the money without having to do any of the work for the city's children that accompanies it. This is not a flip-flop, just a consistently misguided policy stance.

This story about the performance of public school students on math compared to other kids was one of the most emailed-stories of the weekend on the New York Times web site. These kinds of comparisons are closely-watched by people in every type of school imaginable under the sun - traditional public, charter schools, and private schools alike. The National Alliance For Public Charter Schools put out a statement calling the story "misleading" because it presents an incomplete picture of student achievement in charters because it uses old data from 2003. (NAPCS notes that the 2005 scores showed marked improvements for charter school kids.)

The study is getting lots of attention from opponents of school choice, who argue that the data suggests things are just fine in public schools without charter schools, vouchers, or tax credits.

The Chalkboard agrees with NAPCS' Nelson Smith that it is important to remember these particular scores are an incomplete snap-shot. But the Chalkboard also agrees with EdWize's Leo Casey (UFT) that it's not good enough for charters to simply outperform their local districts. It is worth factoring-in a student's background when we look at New York-specific data so we determine what difference charter schools are making in the lives of our most vulnerable children.

Wouldn't it be interesting to see a New York version of this kind of study, and one that looks not just at one set of scores, but a progression that shows whether the charter school "movement" is a movement in the right direction for the kids who need charters the most? (Opponents who want to stop charters will always find something else to quibble with, but The Chalkboard thinks this measure should matter greatly to charter supporters, and to parents who are trying to find the best publicly-funded education for their children.)

The Buffalo Board of Ed passed a resolution last week saying the state’s new math tests (as a part of NCLB) are extremely unfair because state officials didn’t give Buffalo schools enough early warning that they were supposed to actually be teaching their kids math. Blind-sided, they were. Now that the board understands that math is kind of an important subject, they’ll try to make it happen. But for gosh-sakes, they shouldn’t be held responsible for bad test scores in the mean time, since they seriously didn’t know it was part of the deal. (Blame for this should probably be aimed at whomever came up with the “Three R’s” thing, and for not making it clear to Buffalo public school leaders that two of the R’s don’t actually start with the letter R.) This is the same board that thankfully doesn’t want to sponsor charter schools.

Also in “math news that doesn’t add up” today: The NY Post’s Dave Andreatta notes that never before has the state required students to answer so few questions correctly on the Regents Math A exam as this year. Kids who took the exam last week only need 23 out of 84 points, or about 27%, to be told how wonderful they are.

NOTE: Please notice The Chalkboard’s remarkable restraint in not commenting on the, um, interesting photo the Post used to accompany this story.

Nearly 470 administrators in NYC nearly lost out on a chance to fight over $1.5 million in performance bonuses because “they didn’t bother to turn in a three-page essay that they had eight months to complete,” the NY Post reports. What is there to say? The principal’s union and the city are trying to work out a contract, perhaps they could use this as a bonding moment of sorts.

This whole episode flies in the face of my longstanding theory that the competence of school administrators is directly correlated with the amount of money that is at stake. In NYC, for example, educrats have tremendous difficulty getting timely materials for NCLB tutoring to parents (because it means the city will have to pay for tutoring if anyone actually signs up) but when it comes to beating the bushes to get kids to return their free and reduced-price lunch forms (which brings in federal funds) the entire city Department of Ed becomes a model of sweat-equity and efficiency.

Maybe I was giving them too much credit?

NYDN’s Einhorn writes up the utter confusion surrounding the (latest, mid-year) change in school start and/or end times as part of the new tutoring program negotiated in the city’s contract with teachers. Lots of people at all levels trying to make this work, but it’s nearly impossible not to get messy in some spots, as it pushes out other long-standing school programs and practices. The Chalkboard’s kids happen to attend a school that is ending at the same time as usual (3 p.m.) but now will be opening 10 minutes later in the morning (8:40 a.m.) Great news for the struggling kids who will get extra tutoring time. Shorter school day for everyone else. Stay tuned.

Teachers union boss Phil Rumore seems to be onto something, particularly for afterschool activities. Follows the tragic gun-point mugging of the assistant principal at Performing Arts Academy last week. See brief story here.

Playing the dutiful role of the pol who wants to bring home the bacon, Congressman Anthony Weiner (who was the only Democrat in the 2005 NYC mayor's race who seemed to remember to drink his coffee each morning) is complaining that NYC only got $4 billion in new cash over the last four years under NCLB. He says the city should have gotten $6 billion. Didn't Weiner get the memo that we don't really do the whole NCLB thing in NYC? (Shouldn't that be his complaint?) It's getting better, but the city was appallinglyingly slow to offer tutoring to kids in failing schools, and the federally-required transfer options to better schools? Uh, we don't HAVE any better schools! At least that's been our excuse. Someone should send Weiner the transcripts from the City Council Education Committee hearing on NCLB Implementation from October 2004. Then-Deputy Secretary Eugene Hickok, while being careful not to be too critical of a Republican mayoral administration, explained that the city was only spending a fraction of the nearly $1 billion in new NCLB money that year on anything remotely resembling NCLB. NY Sun version of Weiner's rant here.

Former NYC Department of Education lobbyist Steve Allinger is now working as the top legislative arm-twister for NYSUT. Some observers have noted that despite Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein’s strong support for charter schools downstate, Allinger was never really a big fan and didn't exactly help push the ball up the field with any real sense of urgency. He’ll be right at home with NYSUT, which is pretty much the one thing standing in the way of more charter school options for kids in the Empire State. See the news here. Meanwhile, in NYC, Allinger will be replaced by veteran policy wonk Terence Tolbert. See the release here.

Seth Andrew wasn’t exactly going to turn down any monetary donations if they were offered, but it wasn’t the real reason that more than 100 people were gathered inside his Harlem apartment building last night. Celebrating the birth of a bouncing baby charter school, this was about making connections.

Andrew, the founding director of Democracy Prep (the school opens its doors in Harlem next fall to 135 sixth graders, before eventually growing to be a 685-student grades 6-12 school) said he needed help from all corners of the community to make the school a success. After putting a dynamic leadership team together and months and months of planning, Andrew was ready to start getting things rolling by bringing on new supporters.

“Every single one of you knows people who are teachers, who are parents, and who run community organizations,” Andrew said, explaining why they had all been invited to the Friendraiser. “I’m deputizing you now to be spokespeople for Democracy Prep.”

That in a nutshell, is the essence of the Friendraiser. Show up, hear what the school is all about, volunteer to help, and then go forth and spread the word. As has become obvious to most school reformers, you need as many friends as humanly possible – politicians, donors, idea people, etc. – to survive in the rough and tumble educational and political climate.



Democracy Prep, which will provide students with a college-preparatory education grounded in civics, was authorized by the Board of Regents in December.

Some of those who attended the Friendraiser were no strangers to charter schools, but others came to hear about the concept and how they might help in turning around Harlem’s long-troubled schools. “You have the opportunity to be creative with a charter,” board member Dr. Robert North told the crowd. “But they also hold you accountable.”

The room for the Friendraiser was filled with food and drinks. Colorful posters aligned the walls explaining why the need exists for a school like Democracy Prep in Harlem, and how the school will work to fill that need. Supporters and politicians were given special red apples on a plaque to honor their help in getting the school started.



Politicians like Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Councilman Robert Jackson, and Assemblyman Keith Wright (all Democrats from Manhattan) turned out in person to show their support for the school. For Jackson, the newly appointed chairman of the Council Education Committee, it was about supporting a good school plan, not about supporting charter schools. “I’m not there on charters yet,” Jackson told a small crowd that gathered before the official celebration. (Jackson, a plaintiff in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case, when asked about the case involving Dianne Payne, said he supported every parent’s right to fight for their kids.)

Others, like Rep. Charles Rangel (who serves as honorary chairman of the school’s board of directors) and newly sworn-in Councilwoman Inez Dickens sent along staffers to represent them. (Sen. David Paterson is also a supporter of the school, but he suddenly finds himself busier than usual.)

How valuable are these kinds of contacts? The representative from Inez Dickens’ office said on her way out that one of her first tasks of the year will be to help Democracy Prep find itself a school building.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Charter Chuck was nowhere to be found at this Friendraiser.

See the press release for the event here.

Because the stakes are so high for so many folks involved in all of the various budget debates and log-rolling (both in the State House and in local districts) there undoubtedly will be lots of numbers and projections presented in the coming weeks. We will try to stay on top of the ones that seem relevant.

But this report from NYC's Education Priorities Panel on city education spending is a good example of how differently reasonable folks can look at the same big-picture budgeting issue. The report describes the following climate: 16,000 fewer city students for this school year (declining birth rates) coupled with a school budget that has grown by nearly 3/4 of a billion dollars in the last year. So again, just to be clear enrollment goes down, spending goes up.

Many charter school operators have been conditioned to think in terms that are the exact opposite, i.e. that dollars follow students, and as enrollment increases, spending follows accordingly. One longtime charter school person the other day told me she couldn't understand why so many people have trouble seeing that if students leave a school system, the cost of educating the child leaves along with them.

Many CCLs (Charter Cap Lovers) will note that it is much more complicated than that, but it is worth noting here how drastically different people are capable of viewing this phenomenon. On the one hand, there are those who think that actual enrollment should play a role in funding (a school with 10 kids gets less than a school with 20 kids.)

But on the other end of the spectrum on this debate are those like the EPP, which calls "reprehensible" the idea that funding for individual NYC schools would decrease if enrollment also decreased. Notes the EPP:

In the rest of the state, school district budget policies have resulted in
higher per-pupil expenditures and smaller class sizes whenever there is a
student enrollment decrease. Current city budget policies will not result in
these instructional improvements, but the reverse. Class sizes will not
decrease because enrollment decreases immediately result
in fewer teachers. Any school where student registers have declined will also face
difficult choices as to what out-of-classroom staff to eliminate, not just the reduction
of teaching staff.

To be fair, EPP makes a very interesting case in noting that state funding to NYC will continue to increase (and 3/4 of a billion dollars a year is quite an increase) when enrollment decreases, raising obvious questions about where it is all going (if spending at the school-level is decreasing due to enrollment.) Watch for these differing opinions and viewpoints over enrollment and spending patterns to get interesting very soon. Some districts that have been complaining about having to make payments to charter schools could just turn out to be spending much, much more per student in their own schools when all is said and done.

Is there a battle shaping up between advocates on each side of this one? A few weeks ago, at a pow-wow on Preschool that was held in Manhattan, some Preschool diehards were grumbling that they were having trouble making political headway because the smaller class size lobby was sucking up all the air around state and national policymakers, forcing frustrated preschool-backers to fight for budgetary leftovers. I thought to myself: My God, has it really come to this?

Then the annual fundraising letter/survey arrived at The Chalkboard's home from the Democratic National Committee. (The Chalkboard and his wife once gave money to the DNC during a very heady Crosby, Stills and Nash concert in Milwaukee in the early 90's. Long story, but now we get hounded with the fake "grassroots survey" every year, undoubtedly along with most left-leaning readers of this blog.)

(Note: The rest of this post is for Democrats only, especially if you attended meetings of the Kerry-Haters-For-Kerry club in 2004. Republicans, please skip ahead. This needn't concern you.)

This year's survey from Howard Dean lists three possible priorities for national Dems on the issue of education:

#8. Thinking about the issue of education, which of the following is your number one priority? Please select only one answer.

• Funding for early education programs like Head Start.
• Funding for elementary and middle school education to reduce class sizes.
• Funding for tuition aid programs to make college more affordable.

Good grief. Aside from the annoyingly limited options, is this fight between these factions for real? Thankfully, the whole survey thing is bogus. (You try telling Reg Weaver that surveys show the public isn't in synch with the NEA's legislative agenda! Weaver to DNC: "Surveys? We don't need no stinking surveys!") If the question is for real, however, it might not be too early to start predicting that Dems will once again get their backsides handed to them by Republicans on the education issue. For another look at the problem, click here.

Charter Chuck runs a charter school that gets good results for his kids. But he thinks that merely running a good school is enough to keep the charter school and school reform movement in the right direction. He has never invited an elected official to the school for a tour, doesn’t think it is worth his time to cultivate good relationships with the press, and doesn’t even pay attention to political developments impacting charter schools. Charter Chuck has never asked the teachers and parents at his school to contact their legislators to urge them to life the cap on charter schools. He has never organized parents to “pick-off” local elected officials who don’t support better public school choice options through charter schools. Charter Chuck forgets that this is not just an educational battle, but a political one against powerful forces who would love nothing better than to see his school closed. Charter Chuck is a huge problem. Charter Chuck is one of the reasons New York State still has a cap on the number of charter schools in its midst. But it’s not too late for Charter Chuck to get moving.

The activist parents group NYC Hold has posted this list of "Education Terminology Every Parent Must Understand." Jenny D blogs about it here. We had a little fun with a contest in this regard last summer while guest-blogging on Eduwonk.

Buffalo News Columnist Bob Watson isn't a huge fan of unlimited numbers of charter schools in New York State. But with the recent sobering headlines about Ford Motor Co., he draws some interesting comparisons between the absolutely awful state of Buffalo's schools and the lackluster automobile industry back in the 1970's. His solution: bring on some quality competition for the failing schools that everyone he quotes in the column (including Phil Rumore) agree aren't good for anyone's children.

Rick Hess also draws on the auto industry comparison in this book.

UPDATE: This was a pretty good exchange some time back on BuffaloPundit about the usual whining that goes on in places like Buffalo about the financial impact of charter schools.

Regarding this post from earlier in the month, Albany Supt. Eva Joseph has a bone to pick with Todd McKee. “I want to make this clear: we don’t have ‘an educational crisis.’ " She writes:

We have challenges regarding student behavior. But to confuse recent behavioral
incidents with "order," which is a structural matter, and conclude that
there is an "educational crisis," is an overstatement.

Joseph is shocked, saddened, and dismayed that anyone would think that this kind of stuff is symptomatic of a larger problem, and makes perfectly clear she doesn’t believe charter schools will offer anything better. When Legislators from around the state start touring Albany’s charter schools and public schools to look for these “structural” differences, will all of the schools look exactly the same? Note: Parents seem to disagree with Joseph’s pronouncement in droves. But they are just stupid parents, apparently.

Fear not, Albany parents! In the Times Union, Albany’s Asst. Supt. Linda Jackson-Chalmers, tells readers that educrats have known about gang problems in its public schools for a long, long time and that one of these days, the little hoodlums are going to disappear and the public schools will be safe again. For more than 5-years, she writes, they have been doing things like sponsoring workshops. Kudos to Albany school leaders for recognizing that there is nothing gang members fear more than… workshops.

Little-known tip: Gang members really hate it when you make them break into small groups and write “mission statements.” May want to work that into the “fighting gangs by having workshops” model.

SIDE NOTE: How can you tell when a public school district is completely unraveling? When the superintendent and her assistant both have to have letters to the editor printed assuring taxpayers that they are not, uh, completely unraveling.

It’s like you can never get sick of reading about this crazy case. What a threat to public education. And these guys are supposedly accountable?

Depressing story here. The city used to own this competition. Now our only salvation is the kids in private schools like Horace Mann. Somebody give that girl a tax credit she can use toward her lab fees! Make that double for the suburban kids from the Empire State who did make the cut.

Regarding this case, the editorial board urges Spitzer to think carefully about how he will respond to Queens mom Dianne Payne’s request for help for her two youngest children. They write:

Mr. Spitzer, as the state's lawyer, could advise the governor - or the governor
could direct Mr. Spitzer - not to challenge Ms. Payne. The mother would then
only have to wait for Judge DeGrasse to rule one way or the other, avoiding a
protracted legal fight with all the powers of Albany. The state, the city, and
the courts have years to bicker about dollars. Rayshawn and Daquasia have one
shot at a real education. Governor Pataki and Attorney General Spitzer must not
stand in the way.

1.) This guy was apparently been secretly taping female employees when they used the bathroom at Brooklyn’s Westinghouse High for years. He also apparently taped female students in the locker room, using hidden cameras. Yuck!
2.) The guy lives with his mom and sister. Zoinks!
3.) The NYC has no idea how long he has worked as a handyman in schools because custodians, by contract, can pretty much hire whoever they want. Sick!

Daily News version is here.

In his comments this week before the Joint State Fiscal Legislative Committees, Bloomberg said he not only supported lifting the cap on charter schools (old news) he seemed to come out in favor of the increasingly popular education tax credit.

Said Bloomy: "It’s important for us to look at all the options that will improve education for our students. And in that vein, I also look forward to working with the Governor and the Legislature to explore the proposed education tax credit in the Executive Budget. It’s something that the Legislature should consider."

Those were there words of James Merriman, executive director of the SUNY Charter School Institute, after the final charter schools were approved yesterday under the stifling cap that was included in the original state charter law. Without a change in the Legislature, no more high-quality charter schools will be allowed to open in the state. See Times Union story here.

Plenty of folks are working to lift the cap, however. Lawmakers from both major parties and from all over the state held a press conference in Albany to urge common sense in lifting the cap:

"There should be no cap on charter schools. That's not taking anything away from public schools. That's competition," said Sen. Ruben Diaz, D-Bronx. Diaz was joined by a host of other politicians, many of whom are backing a bill to remove the cap entirely (Gov. Pataki has proposed pushing up the number of charters allowed from 100 to 250.)

Assemblymen: Sam Hoyt - D, Buffalo; Ruben Diaz Jr. - D, Bronx; Adriano Espaillatt - D, Washington Heights; Roger Green - D, Brooklyn; and Michael Benjamin - D, Bronx.

Senators: Marty Golden - R, Brooklyn; Jim Alesi - R, Rochester; Ray Meier, R, Utica; and Malcolm Smith, D, Queens.



Reporter Rick Karlin notes that the urgent push for more charter schools is coming from "black and Hispanic lawmakers and activists, who note that kids in their districts and neighborhoods disproportionately go to poor-performing public schools. They say such students should have options to switch schools that may offer alternatives." They have teamed up with Republicans who like the idea of school choice. Opposition is coming from educrats who want more cash for their troughs and teachers unions.

UPDATE: These guys aren't engaging in competition, they are draining public schools of badly-needed funds. Children Last.

UPDATE II: The UpstateBlog writes up this "future of school choice" in NY issue as well, and is particularly impressed with True North Rochester Preparatory Charter School trustee James Gleason's comments about finding new schooling alternatives so that student performance in urban areas will start to show some signs of life. The Democrat and Chronicle story on True North is here.

UPDATE III: Note in the Times Union story that a few pols like Assemblyman Ron Canestrari want a cap on the number of charter schools in Albany. This is extremely good news for kids who like to torment their teachers by grabbing their wigs and throwing them around the room.
Parents and teachers who think schools should be better than that should fugheddaboutit.

Former N.Y. Post editorial writer Ryan Sager posts here about DGF Eliot Spitzer’s decision to tap Senate Majority Leader David Paterson as his running-mate. According to Sager, Patterson’s past support of charter schools is noteworthy:

Eliot Spitzer has shown some hints of favoring education reform in the
past, and he even said he supports education tax credits in theory the other day
(which surely made Randi Weingarten's week worse). But Paterson, by virtue of
who he is and whom he represents, is indicative of a broader trend that should
trouble the teachers unions. Minority legislators in New York (all Democrats)
have been throwing more and more support behind charter schools as their
communities experience just how amazing some of the programs -- like KIPP and
Achievement First -- really are.

The unions can't hold the line against this for long. They're losing
more and more ground every year -- up to the point where, now, in 2006, we have
a Democratic gubernatorial candidate who supports tax credits and his
running-mate who supports charter schools.

Also, along the same lines, but written before the Paterson announcement this week, Tom Carroll writes in the Post that the possibility now exists for a "sea change in educational policy."

But not so fast. Randi Weingarten weighs in here on the proposed tuition tax credit. She doesn't dig it all that much.

Last month’s 60-hour transit strike in NYC temporarily crippled entire swaths of the Big Apple, including many of its schools. Regular lesson plans were by-and-large scrapped, and thousands of kids instead spent their school days watching Disney movies that they had already seen.
While more than 90% of public school teachers made it to their schools during the strike, citywide, only 61% of the city’s public school students made it to the babysitting sessions/schools (31% of high schoolers showed up.) Not a whole lot of education happened. “We just went to the gym and played with some volleyballs,” one Stuyvesant High School student told NY1 at the time.

But some charter school teachers, administrators, and parents went all-out to make sure students wouldn’t miss a single minute of instruction time. “If you miss a day at our school, you are missing a lot of learning,” said Deborah Kenny, founder of Village Academies, which runs the Harlem Village Academy Charter School. Kenny mobilized her team to call the parents of all 160 students in the days before the strike to find out whether they had contingency plans in place. If the parents needed help, the school quickly found other families who lived nearby to form car pools, or traveling (usually by foot) teams of Village Academy students and chaperones.

“Many of our kids take cross-town buses or subways, so this was important to us,” Kenny said. “We tried to team parents up with other parents.” The message from the school to its families was clear: No matter what happens with the strike, we don’t want your children to miss a minute of class time.

The results were positive, in more ways than one. Student attendance during the strike was 80% and teacher attendance was 100%. “It was extraordinary,” Kenny said of the teachers’ dedication. “Some arrived in their cars at 5:30 a.m. and sat in their cars until the building opened.” Parents who didn’t even know other parents in their neighborhoods found they had bonded during the experience. “It was really an upbeat week, despite all that was happening with the strike,” Kenny said.

Attendance at the school usually averages 96%, and this sort of school-to-parent communication is commonplace throughout the year. Teachers, for example, are required to make regular telephone calls to parents to update them on their student’s progress.

Another write-up on the Village Academies can be found here. To see how teachers describe the school, click here.

Last year, the blogger Jenny D. posted some fascinating transcripts of New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s back-and-forth with U.S. Education Commissioner Francis Keppel during a hearing on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (parts of which, in its current form, are now known as the No Child Left Behind Law.) She apparently was cleaning some stuff up and decided to post it again. It’s really an interesting read. Check it out here. Here’s a sample from that crazy high-stakes-testing, right-wing Kennedy nutcase:

RFK: Obviously I am completely in accord with the objectives of
the bill. All I wonder is whether we couldn't give further protections to the
child by certain requirements. Now what I ask is whether it would be possible to
have some kind of testing system at the end of a year or 2 years in which we
would see whether the money that had been invested in the school district of New
York City, or Denver, Colorado, or Jackson, Mississippi or whatever it might be
was coming up with a plan and program that made it worthwhile, and whether the
child, in fact, was gaining from the investment of these funds.

And then there were none… Trustees of the State University of New York are expected to grant the final four charters allowed under the law today. Whether New York will continue to be able to provide quality new schooling options for kids and their families will depend on leadership, courage, and common sense. (It will also depend on existing charter schools to show New Yorkers why more are merited. That means you…)

Expected to be approved today: Green Tech High (Albany), Carl Icahn Bronx North, North Rochester, and Achievement First – Bushwick.

Don’t miss these important paragraphs in the Albany Times-Union story on Green Tech High:

James Merriman, executive director of the Charter School Institute, which
advises the trustees, said the Albany city district has a poor record of serving
black and Hispanic high school students, who make up Green Tech's target group.

Citing a high dropout rate and poor test scores, Merriman said Albany
High School students "appear to have done worse" than those in other schools
across New York with similar socioeconomic and racial demographics.

Randy Daniels, a trustee and former New York secretary of state who is
seeking the Republican nomination for governor, agreed. "In a school district
that has demonstrated failure, generation after generation, it needs all the
competition it can get."

Already, two proposed schools made it through the rigorous authorization process and were deemed charter-worthy, but they had to be put on a theoretical waiting list in case the cap is lifted at some point: Carl Icahn School of Far Rockaway in Queens and the Collegiate Charter School of Brooklyn.

See the NY Post story here, and the NY Daily News story here.

Yesterday The Chalkboard weighed in on a curious op-ed piece in the NY Times by Teachers College professor Amy Stuart Wells. In addition to checking out the Reisenbach situation as an example of tough-minded accountability within the charter school movement, one reader suggested she could get a good look at the charter vs. underperforming neighborhood school phenomenon by hoofing it three blocks from the Ivory Tower. The reader writes:

I think she can make it the three blocks to KIPP Star to see what it's all
about. After that she can go next door to PS 125 to compare their 5th grade and
up thee blocks to the 6th grade at MS 172 Adam Clayton Powell for Law and Social
Justice (remind me to never allow a public school to be named after anyone I
love, it's a travesty to think of social justice as a place where 7% of 8th
graders can read on grade level). In all of one hour door-to-door from her
office, she'll have seen more than enough to get the point.

Where else should ASW head for the inside scoop? Write us at Thechalkboard@nycsa.org.

Chris, over at The School of Blog, notes than more NYC schools were added to the state's SURR (Schools Under Registration Review) list. Not clear whether Chris' middle school is on the list.

If you start out at Columbia University Teacher’s College on W. 120th St., you only need to walk approximately 6,124.8 feet (about 2,722 paces for a healthy walker with long legs like The Chalkboard) before you come to the building that once housed the John A. Reisenbach Charter School. (If you don’t like walking in those sorts of neighborhoods, a TC prof would only need a 4 minute cab ride to get there.)

Reisenbach was closed by the state in 2004 because it failed to show high enough levels of academic achievement. It was extremely controversial at the time because it appeared that test scores for the school were on the rise, and because parents at the school had done their homework and determined that, despite the school’s shortcomings, it was still better than any of the traditional public schools in the area.

The Chalkboard only mentions this because of the curious op-ed piece that appeared in yesterday’s NY Times by professor Amy Stuart Wells. This line in particular made me want to get out the cyber measuring tape to remind myself what Stuart seemed to miss from right under her own nose: “…there is little evidence that charter schools are being held more accountable for student achievement than are regular public schools.”

Come again? If one were to draw a circle around the TC building, with a radius equal to the distance to the old Reisenbach building, how many public schools (that performed more poorly than Reisenbach) have failed the kids of Harlem for decades but have been allowed to remain open for business as usual? Hello, District 5! The entire district would have had its charter revoked back when Bucky Dent was making mincemeat out of the Bo-Sox.

Even charter skeptics like NYSUT (see below) hailed the “accountability” measures that kicked into gear when it came time to reauthorize Reisenbach’s charter after five years. (Headline on this NYSUT article: “State Holds First Three Charters Accountable.”) Does anyone really believe that charter school operators like Randi Weingarten and Eva Moskowitz aren’t going to be held more accountable for their charter schools than the average public school?

A couple of quick points on this piece:

-- Charter laws (and the culture of charter schooling) differ sharply from state to state. Decisions about what to do with New York’s charter school law should be based on New York’s experience, not the experience of other states with other laws and other styles of authorizing and accountability. Wells is using national data and anecdotes while making the case against more charter schools in New York. Here, even if you disagree with some of their decisions, you have to acknowledge that SUNY’s Charter Schools Institute has earned a national reputation for rigorous oversight, both at the application stage and for its charter renewals (and at all times in between.)

-- Regarding the AFT report on charter school performance, isn’t the official union-line supposed to be that the AFT had nothing - I mean nothing - to do with that report? That it was merely passing along information as a disinterested party for the public good? Even so, the AFT-funded EPI noted that both the AFT and the NY Times had “overinterpreted” one-year NAEP data.

-- If you follow Wells’ logic in the piece, New York State legislators should probably also ban high-quality suburban public schools from operating because they tend to attract fewer students who don’t know English (making the job that much harder for urban public schools) and because migration to the suburbs serves as “new kinds of sorting machines, leading to more racial or class segregation within local communities.” Why do charter schools get the blame from Wells on this front when suburban public schools (and the elite private schools that TC professors send their kids to) create this sort of effect all the time?

-- Why does Wells think New York State has become a playground for for-profit education management companies? Compared to states like Ohio, where the public financing of charter schools practically requires that chartering be done by for-profit operators, New York has been shockingly quiet in this regard. Again, she is advocating against lifting a charter cap in New York State based on a charter climate elsewhere. (Even so, for-profit operators are a drop in the overall charter school bucket nationwide.)

-- Wells does offer an important lesson that public school leaders should keep in mind: rather than focusing on the quantity of traditional public schools that will exist in the new world order, perhaps New York’s kids deserve more of a focus on quality public schools. To quote Wells, pay “more attention to the data than the rhetoric.” If you want to see how that’s done, watch closely the next time a charter school tries to get its charter renewed in the Empire State.

UPDATE: Our friends at the California Charter Schools Association note that the West Coast example (used as an argument for a charter cap in Albany, N.Y.) of the closing of the California Charter Academy doesn’t fit either. The chain of schools, which ended up staying open way too long because local authorizing school districts were making money off of them, were closed AFTER accountability measures were put in place at the request of the association and charter school leaders statewide. The CCSA also helped find seats for about 80% of the displaced charter students in higher-performing charter schools nearby. See L.A. Times story reprinted here.


Also in the weekend papers:

The Buffalo News says that parental choice should be the cap on charter schools.

The NY Times notes that Gov. Pataki’s proposal to give parents a $500 tax credit that could be used for tutoring or private school tuition is more popular in the Democratic-controlled Assembly than many observers expected. The story notes that these pols are responding to the frustrations of parents with the current state of education. Among the highlights of the Times’ story:

“We need to give parents options.” – Assemblyman Karim Camara, D-Brooklyn.

“Too often the money goes to the system. Seldom does it go to the parents and the children.” – Assemblyman Vito Lopez, (BDPB) Brooklyn Democratic Party Boss.

In Albany, the Catholic Diocese announced its plans over the weekend to close the St. James school at the end of this school year. They are hoping to steer students toward St. Casimir. This marks the ninth school closed by the diocese since 2002. See Albany Times-Union story here.

In New York, the Daily News finds once again that it is cheaper to buy books on Amazon.com than it is through the Department of Education’s purchasing system. Note to NYC charter schools: May want to check and re-check the math on any “back office” services the city provides. Caveat emptor, baby.

For several months, charter schools have been receiving Freedom of Information Law requests from the New York State United Teachers for all sorts of information from charter schools. Some of the requests are for basic information: number of students, number on free and reduced lunch, number of special ed students, etc.

Other parts are more interesting: how much the school spends on board meetings, number of students who return to their districts, number of teachers returning to the school each year, and a list of all non-public sources of funding.

Charter schools are public schools, so this information is ripe for inspection. (The Chalkboard would be interested in some of this information as well, particularly to compare the cost of charter school board meetings with district Board of Education meetings.) Who knows what NYSUT – right now the biggest obstacle for the expansion of charter schools – will want to do with the information.

It would seem the two most obvious options for NYSUT would be to (1) use the worst information they can find as a hit-piece on charter schools, or (2) use the information to begin the process of more actively organizing charter school teachers. (The Chalkboard isn’t opposed to union shops in charter schools, particularly if charter schools aren’t treating teachers more like professionals than the local public school district does.)

There is also a third option: they could use the information for both (1) and (2) at the same time. Recent happenings at the national level suggest NYSUT could be planning to both fight fronts simultaneously. Mike Antonucci’s EIA Communique from last week notes (see Item 3) that American Federation of Teachers officers met recently to try to figure out what the heck to do about all these charter schools that are popping up everywhere. The union apparently will seek to further regulate charters at the local, state, and federal levels while simultaneously attempting to organize charter schools themselves, according to its house organ newsletter.

This union strategy makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Unions are huge businesses and this “if you can’t beat ‘em, then regulate and join ‘em” strategy could ultimately help the union’s membership (and revenues) grow. It particularly makes sense if you think in terms of the unions’ self-interest and the possibility that charters may be on the verge of achieving some sort of critical mass, one where it makes more business sense for the unions (i.e. it’s cheaper) to organize than it is to attempt to completely dismantle them, as has been the case. Hopefully, however, the high-stakes push to make numbers won’t turn charter schools into mirror images of the crappy public schools that reformers are trying to make extinct. (See Philip Livingston Middle School post below.)

Additional note: Remember the tension that exists within the unions on this issue when you consider what the UFT is doing in New York City with its new charter school. Plenty of union members aren’t exactly thrilled that the UFT is entering the charter school movement, regardless of the union leadership’s motivations. The Chalkboard continues to think chartering was an extremely gutsy move by Randi Weingarten and that the children of East New York are better off because they have a choice like the one the union is offering. Hopefully the UFT will help the charter movement better articulate precisely which part of the traditional school bureaucracy it is most happy to have left behind. Check out this update on the union’s new charter school by the Associated Press.

United Federation of Teachers delegates, frustrated that they were portrayed on prime time television as lazy obstructionists who are partly responsible for the poor quality of public education, have voted to organize a petition drive and rally outside the Manhattan offices of ABC News. Official story from New York Teacher is here. Mike Antonucci’s EIA blogs on it here.

UPDATE FROM LAST WEEK: The UFT’s Leo Casey writes to take exception with this post, particularly the suggestion that adults in Nixzmary Brown’s school could have done more to help save her life. Writes Casey:

To say that "school employees who allowed her to miss more than 40 days of
school and who allowed bureaucrats to dither over the case," is really wrong,
not just because they did exactly what they were supposed to do - report the
case to ACS, which is responsible for acting on those referrals - again and
again, but because they are ordinary hard-working educators, who did their best
to serve the children placed in their care. They should not be used to make
political points. I can only imagine how they already feel, even though that
poor child's death was not a result of any failure on their
part..

What do you think? Was there any more the adults at the school (and the regional and central offices) could have done? If you call ACS and NYPD and nothing happens, is there anything else you can do? Email thechalkboard@nycsa.org about this or anything else on your mind

Albany school officials owe a serious apology to the legacy of Philip Livingston, a New York delegate to the Continental Congress in 1776 and an influential signer of the Declaration of Independence. While it’s touching that Livingston has been honored with his name on the plaque, school officials have disgraced this real-life patriot by allowing the school to turn into a living hell for teachers and students. This story in Saturday’s news describes a 12-year-old boy who was arrested and charged with menacing after he allegedly threatened and spat upon his teacher. Cops said the kid went to the teacher’s classroom door and shouted obscenities, causing the teacher to close the door. But the determined kid returned later when the teacher was alone, shoved desks out of the way to get at her, cornered her, and then spit in the poor woman’s face and hair.

An isolated incident? Hardly. Despite a “zero tolerance policy” instituted by school officials last spring, the school is one of only five in the entire state to meet the ridiculously watered-down definition of a “persistently dangerous” school under NCLB. (In the 2004-05 school year, Livingston tallied one case of arson, two intimidations with a weapon, and 14 weapons possession cases – not to mention stabbings and several fights off campus.)

Albany school officials obviously have a lot on their hands, and teachers in the district are no strangers to harassment. (Ed: These teachers need a union or something!) According to the Times Union story:

The Friday before Christmas, four Albany High School students were arrested
after they allegedly harassed a teacher in her classroom.

Two girls confronted the teacher, Johnsi Ingram, as she sat in her
classroom, police said. The girls were joined by two boys and the four
surrounded the veteran teacher, taunting her and touching her in front of her
class, police said.

The teacher's wig was taken off her head and tossed around. Ingram was able
to get away and reported the incident to school security.

The kicker: One of the girls accused of taking the teacher’s wig off and throwing it around the classroom is the daughter of an Albany Board of Ed member.

Note to teachers in Albany Public Schools: If you want to work in a public school where the kids don’t pin you in a corner and spit in your face, (not to mention not throwing your wig around the classroom like a football) New York's charter schools are always on the lookout for the best and brightest education professionals to participate in their exciting reform efforts.

The staunchly pro-voucher N.Y. Sun has been hounding DGF (Democratic Gubernatorial Frontrunner) Eliot Spitzer regarding his stance on Gov. Pataki's proposed $500 tax credit for parents of public (including charter) and private school students for qualified "education expenses." On Wednesday, Spitzer told the newspaper he believed there were "serious constitutional issues" with the plan. But in today's paper, Spitzer clarifies, saying his previous statement "should not be construed to imply that I believe that there are such problems in Governor Pataki's proposal, or that I am opposed to education tax credits." He added: "In fact, I support the idea of education tax credits." Spitzer echoed Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's remarks that they shouldn't be talking about tax credits until the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case is settled.

Spitzer's Democratic challenger Thomas Suozzi says he also supports the tax credits. Republican candidate John Faso also supports the credits, and accused Spitzer of having to run his official statements on the issue past UFT President Randi Weingarten before he says anything to the press.

It will be interesting to see whether all of this talk about parent empowerment and school reform will have any impact on what happens with charter schools in the pending state budget. It will also be interesting to see what this gubernatorial race will mean for charter schools (or even better, what charter schools will mean for this gubernatorial race. Please email The Chalkboard (thechalkboard@nycsa.org) any time you hear candidates on the campaign trail talking about charter school issues.

Speaking of the CFE case: Eduwonk weighs in on an interesting development here. Attorney Eric Grannis, who is on the board of Bronx Prep Charter School and a co-founder of Girls Prep Charter School, is representing a Queens PTA president who has an interesting perspective on the case. NY Post story here.

Speaking of having to run everything past the UFT: New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has officially tapped Councilman Robert Jackson (a plaintiff in the CFE case) to serve as chairman of the council's Education Committee. Even before he got the nod, Jackson faced questions from the N.Y. Times about whether he was in Randi Weingarten's pocket. (Weingarten lobbied Quinn on Jackson's behalf.)

Look for Jackson in our upcoming feature on influential New Yorkers who opt to send their kids to private schools. (In fact, if you'd like to nominate someone for the list, contact thechalkboard@nycsa.org.)

New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein yesterday announced the next phase of his Children First reorganization, which he promises will push more cash and authority to the school level. One of the key (and most promising) features is that it will essentially undermine his previous restructuring, which amassed a great deal of power in regional offices and inside the Tweed courthouse administrative building - and not necessarily in schools.

These days, everyone talks about empowering principals, teachers, and parents at the school level, but when push comes to shove (and mid- and upper-level bureaucrats face the prospect of giving up power and control) it ends up being more talk than action (i.e. it's not in the bureaucrats' self-interest to loosen the grip.) This is a major theme in my new book.

Why will this reorganization be any different? And why should teachers and parents be as optimistic as The Chalkboard thinks they should be this time around? If you listen carefully, you'll notice that Klein understands that you can't push power downward to the school level without a bunch of ball-busters on board. I'm talking about people who truly understand the concept of empowering entrepreneurial school leaders and staffs to control their destinies, and who can look into the eyes of well-respected big-wigs in the Department of Education and remind that they are not as powerful as they used to be in the old world order.

Remember, this plan requires rethinking how things work, i.e. the central and regional administrations exist to serve the educators, not the other way around, as is the current practice.

The best news coming out of this reorganization just may be the people Klein has brought on to help him move these bureaucratic mountains: Chris Cerf, a former Clinton administration staffer who most recently served as president and COO of Edison Schools (and a great guy, to boot) and the consulting firm Alvarez and Marsal, which was baptized in the cut-throat world of public school politics when it was hired to clean-house in the troubled and shockingly-bloated St. Louis Schools (and is now involved in restructuring the New Orleans schools.)

Read the NY Times story here, NY Post story here, NY Daily News here, and NY Sun here.

Frank Corcoran, a founding teacher at the KIPP Academy Charter School in the Bronx, was recently honored as a Disney Teacher of the Year. (Thanks to Whitney Tilson for the heads up.) I've peeked in on Frank's math class before: looked like a combination between martial arts and math. You have to see it to understand, but it was unlike any math class I've ever seen. Read about this star teacher here. His resume lists a previous stint in Teach For America (don't they all?) and the fact that he is the "Grand Poobah of the KIPP Algebra Society." (The only blemish The Chalkboard can find is the fact that he got his degree from Notre Dame, which is evil and must be destroyed. Because his kids are performing so well, however, we'll overlook this small problem for now.)

Speaking of KIPP, the Washington Post's Jay Matthews (the best out there in in terms of education writing) has signed a book deal to write about the KIPPsters, and writes this week about a new report tracking the performance of KIPP Nation.

The Chalkboard has long admired the discipline and determination the message people at the UFT display when it comes to sticking to their talking points. It's a thing of beauty, and one reason unions like the UFT are so effective at reaching their legislative and policy goals. A running joke (cloaking pure admiration) among NYC reporters is how the union is so effective at inserting the phrase "smaller class size" into press releases on issues that have nothing to do with class size. (Picture the headline: Chancellor Klein cancels school due to snow: UFT says smaller classes would have prevented cold front.)

Like headlines and stories in The Onion, this kind of thing generates chuckles because it is completely outrageous - yet it is still grounded in enough of a sliver of truth that it makes you spit out your coffee (or other beverage of choice) when you hear it.

Turns out we may have to stop joking, though, because the reality itself is starting to one-up the jokes. And if you believe this report in the alternative New York Press, it's getting rather sick. Columnist Azi Paybarah, providing a report on some of the interesting stuff that didn't get much coverage out of this week's Martin Luther King Jr. celebration because it was drowned out by Hillary Clinton's plantation comments, writes:

But the final and crowning tribute to King was delivered by United
Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, who came within a hair of
saying smaller class sizes could have saved Nixzmary Brown, the abused Brooklyn
girl who was beaten to death last week by her step-father.

"So my urgency is, you know, I know my members, reported, reported,
reported what happened to that child this week," Weingarten told the
churchgoers. "But what happens if we could, what happens if we have 20 kids in
our classes. You know what would happen. You know what would happen."

Seeming unable to get any kind of response from the crowd, which had been applauding,
yessing and standing up for other speakers, Weingarten added, "You know how much
we could connect and touch with kids. Not saying in a bad way. But touch
with kids and connect with kids if we had that input."

For those of you upstate who may have missed it, the story of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown is one that has kept all of us in NYC up at night for the last week, as we wondered how so many adults (school employees who allowed her to miss more than 40 days of school and who allowed bureaucrats to dither over the case, cops and Administration for Children's Services employees who seemed to be more interested in attending their department's holiday parties last month than in saving the girl's life, clueless and uncaring relatives, etc.) allowed this long-tortured little girl to slip through the cracks. (Reports indicate Nixzmary's step-father tied her to a chair and made her eat human feces and cat food.)

The Chalkboard happens to personally prefer small classes that are under control to large out-of-control classes for his kids, but isn't this "smaller classes might have saved her" stuff a bit over the top? If the adults involved at all these levels (DOE, ACS, NYPD) are as clueless as they seem to be, would it matter if there were 5 kids in every class?

The folks at Community Charter School in Rochester have succeeded in leaping over one of the most significant hurdles today for charter school operators: they have a building that is ready to go. They also have an ambitious plan in place to open up a high-quality co-ed school, before eventually opening up single-sex schools for boys and girls. But school children in Rochester will never be able to enroll in the school as long as the state's cap on charter schools stays at 100. There are simply no more slots left for those who want to bring quality schools to communities throughout the state. See the TV news report here.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ Todd Ziebarth has a new briefing paper analyzing the types of caps on charter school growth across the country. He writes that placing caps on the number of charter schools in a given state doesn’t ensure quality (or prevent poor quality charter schools popping up all over the place, as opponents claim they claim.) Ziebarth notes that the caps usually resulted out of political trade-offs when charter laws were originally passed. Writes Ziebarth:

If state leaders are sincerely concerned about charter quality, they should look for “direct impact” and address problems that clearly affect quality. Rather than imposing artificial limits on growth, for example, state leaders will get more bang for their quality buck by working with authorizers to establish rigorous application processes, firm but supportive oversight mechanisms, and reliable, transparent processes for funding and renewal.

The report can be found here. A press release here.

Meanwhile, lots of commentary all over the papers on Gov. Pataki's budget. The New York Sun offers a sound reason for supporting the lifting of the cap on new charter schools: it will ensure that innovative school leaders won’t be pulled elsewhere, where there are more outlets for them to help children. Wrote the editors: “Now is precisely the time to lift it, before continued unavailability of charter slots encourages educational entrepreneurs to look elsewhere for more amenable locales in which to open charter schools. The governor has recognized this, and if New Yorkers are lucky the Legislature will, too.”

The New York Times worries that lifting the cap would lead to the creation of too many charter schools too soon, which the Old Gray Lady believes could be bad for quality. They also suggest that the proposed $500 tuition tax credit “has a micro chance of passing.” Meanwhile, in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Jeffrey Crane, superintendent of the West Irondequoit district, says he not only isn’t getting the warm fuzzie’s over Pataki’s charter school proposal, he thinks it is a bad idea to let parents have an education tax credit when that money could be spent better by bureaucrats. “I think it would better serve the children (and) the families if that money went directly to the school district to be used as determined by the local district,” he told the newspaper.

Local control... but not too local...

Over at Edwize, one of the sharpest critics anywhere of the goofy stuff that goes on within public education, the UFT's Leo Casey calls "preposterous" the notion advanced here yesterday that the union would give a prestigious award to 20/20 television journalist John Stossel. Indeed, many UFT members, unionists, and progressive educators elsewhere found it equally preposterous when the union awarded its coveted John Dewey award to Diane Ravitch last year. Ravitch, who has inspired a generation of activists and reformers with her writing, has done more to question the aftermath of Dewey's work and ideas than just about anyone.

Stossel, if you remember, caused an uproar last Friday night on 20/20 (ABC) when he gave tests to rich suburban New Jersey kids and found they got their clocks cleaned by their counterparts overseas. To the chagrin of many dues-paying teachers nationwide, Stossel suggested in his report that the teachers unions and the public education monopoly were a huge part of the problem.

How do these Internet rumors get started? One reader notes it appears they started with Stossel himself, in this email to viewers. Stossel writes:

My intheclassroom.org videos are so popular in schools that last summer the
New York City teachers union said it wanted to give me its "highest award." Past
honorees include Mario Cuomo, Shirley Chisolm, Charles Schumer … The union also
asked me to speak at its February conference. I wonder what the union will think
about that after it sees what Friday's special says about its union rules. I
assume it wouldn't be so small-minded as to withdraw its invitation to me.

Casey is known for writing excruciatingly long (but often passionate and well-informed) diatribes on the union's blog, so it isn't clear why he didn't choose to label as "preposterous" the notion that the UFT wanted to have Stossel come and fire up its rank-and-file at a conference next month. It is certainly possible that Stossel is lying about his past conversations with UFT officials, but it could also be a case where some UFT honcho had a bit too much pinot grigio at some Manhattan function or other and started gushing to Stossel about how sexy his 1977 mustache is, and how it would be great if they could do more "collaborating" together for the good of Gotham's children.

The Chalkboard (who if asked by his children whether hallucinogens were a part of his past will deny, deny, deny) agrees with Casey on many of the points he makes in the Edwize post, particularly what happens when you park a camera outside a city high school and invite kids to cut loose. It doesn't make what the kids are saying wrong, but it certainly creates a circus-like atmosphere that doesn't always help the parents understand what is going on. The Chalkboard already noted some of the shortcomings in the 20/20 style of reporting here.

Read Casey's post here, along with the comments from union members attached to it, some of which are quite interesting, as is usually the case.

UPDATE: The Chalkboard happens to be a huge fan of Ravitch and never found her award to be as preposterous as some who actually prime the UFT's pump with their dues. (See this 2000 review I wrote of her book, Left Back.) And for those who wish to find out more information about how the UFT selects its John Dewey Award than even Mrs. Dewey would care to know, check back to the update on EdWize.

UPDATEII: Thanks to the folks at EdWize for noticing that Stossel has since taken his email referenced above down from the site. They suggest, and The Chalkboard agrees, that it is worth checking a Google cache (I'm currently pretending I even know what that means, just click on the colored part folks!) to see his actual UFT email.

City Journal’s Sol Stern takes another skeptical look at test scores in the New York City public schools. Worth a read, particularly his points about the role of “spin” in reporting student achievement to the public (something all of us, regardless of your position on the education political spectrum, need to be cognizant of.) Writes Stern: “Eventually the public will wake up and realize that it’s been getting Soviet-style statistics about a brighter future when the factories still can’t produce shoes.”

Gov. Pataki unveiled his final budget this morning in Albany. Lots of stuff for wonks on all sides of every issue to pore over in the next few days. Worth noting for charter schools, Pataki's proposed budget:

• Cap Increase: Raises the cap in state law from 100 to 250 charter schools (allowing 100 more to be approved by the SUNY Trustees and 50 more approved by school districts and the Board of Regents).
• NYC Chancellor Schools: Provides for an unlimited number of charter schools authorized by the Chancellor of the New York City School District (i.e., removes Chancellor-approved charter schools from the cap).
• Building Aid: Charter schools will have access to state building aid in the same manner as ‘Special Act’ schools for building projects to be reimbursed by the state based on a regional formula. Charter schools will also be able to access financing and construction management services from the Dormitory Authority.
• Additional Authorizers: Nonprofit corporations will be authorized to approve charter schools, in addition to school districts.

Stay tuned. Now the real game begins.

Tongues are wagging all over the place at Sen. Hillary Clinton's (D-NY) bold and striking comments yesterday at a Harlem church ceremony honoring Dr. Martin Luther King. Clinton compared the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to a "plantation... and you know what I'm talking about." See NY Times story here.

Whether Clinton is right or wrong about her colleagues on the other side of The Statue of Freedom, she succeeded in creating a buzz and people today are debating the merits of her remarks. Too bad Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) didn't create a fraction of this current ruckus last fall when he compared kids in crappy Harlem public schools to the people who were left behind to die in New Orleans. Both are vivid and emotional images, and both deserve to be hashed out in the public square.

Rumors abound that the United Federation of Teachers not only expressed an interest in having 20/20 (ABC News) correspondent John Stossel as a guest speaker at one of its conferences this winter but also once considered honoring him with its coveted John Dewey Award. Both of those may be off the table now, in the wake of his blistering report last Friday night on the state of public education in America. See the report, "Stupid In America: How We Cheat Our Kids" here. UFT President Randi Weingarten doesn't come off particularly well in the piece, especially when she suggested at one point that anyone who offers criticism of the school system doesn't care about kids. (In Weingarten's defense, the format of 20/20 interviews usually means that the absolute goofiest thing a person says makes it to the air, while scores of other more down-to-earth comments end up on the cutting room floor.)

Not a lot new in the report for those who are seasoned veterans in education reform battles (or who read my new book with a similar title.) But Stossel has created quite a firestorm. The National Education Association, using "research" culled by the New Jersey Education Association, is emailing supporters to trash Stossel for speaking before groups that get money from the conservative Bradley Foundation, of Milwaukee. Thousands of people have even posted their responses to the report on Stossel's message board. Those responses are must-reads for anyone who wonders how polarized the education debate has become, as well as how frustratingly devoid of any serious substance commentators on both sides of the issue can be.

Worth noting: The New York City Department of Education appears to be so distraught about what happens inside its public school buildings that it refused to let Stossel and his crew inside any of its public classrooms. (In the city's defense, Washington DC allowed cameras into one of its best public high schools and found a history teacher using the game Monopoly to show that some nations are wealthier than others. Those DC kids understood what a complete joke the adults in charge of their education were and this "good" class was out of control.) Instead, we settle in NYC for interviews with city high school students outside their schools, where they describe their teachers as boring and incompetent. One NYC kid reported that his teacher told his students that he was only there for the health benefits. It makes for good stinging commentary, but if the public wants to get to the bottom of this mess it needs to understand just how bad (or good) its classroom instruction is.

Julia Levy, an extremely competent and hard-working reporter at the New York Sun, will be leaving the paper to become a special assistant to New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. Best of luck, Julia. Hat tip to The Politicker, who reported this gossip here.

Albany Prep Charter School Principal Todd McKee marks the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday by offering some blunt assessments about some of the hits he and his school have taken from critics. He describes receiving harassing phone calls and letters, and public rudeness from those who want the Albany school system to continue plodding along the way it always has for kids who deserve better (with as little disruption as possible to the lives of the adults.)

Blogging about this powerful op-ed piece doesn't come close to doing it justice. Read the whole thing. McKee compares the shallowness of charter school critics to problems King himself described in his legendary 1963 "Letter from Birmingham Jail."

King wrote: "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will."

Notes McKee:

Though I understand there are deep-seated feelings that have fueled the debate over charter schools, I cannot accept that some choose to perceive me, or the school I represent, as an enemy of public education.

I have devoted my life to being an educator. Over the course of my career, I have taught in some of the toughest urban public schools in Seattle and California, working side by side with devoted, effective public school teachers and administrators who performed their jobs with commitment and pride. I have taught in Japan and served as principal of an International Baccalaureate school in Africa, working with students from many different countries and walks of life.

My experiences in schools here and abroad have confirmed for me a simple, universal truth.

For children to be able to achieve their greatest potential, they need a safe, orderly place to learn and a curriculum that challenges them to grow. The two elements of this "truth" -- safe learning environments and academic rigor -- are intertwined. One should not exist without the other. In Albany, however, these elements are at the center of an educational crisis that is directly impacting the lives of the city's children.

Again, give it a read. McKee argues that we can do better than the status quo and urges folks to move beyond a "shallow understanding" that stands in the way of creating better public schooling options for kids.

This time of year can be emotional for many people involved in school reform. Politicians love to use the holiday to call for drastic measures for schools (that seldom ever take root.) For most everyone involved in this stuff (across the political spectrum) King's dream of truly equal opportunity for ALL kids, regardless of their skin color and economic status, is a driving force. The issue of better schools and integration is a tricky one, and charter schools obviously play an important part in the discussion. See stories here, and here, and here.

UPDATE: The UFT's blog, EdWize, has an MLK post from a Bronx chapter leader here.

How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat… your vegetables? At Harlem’s Promise Academy Charter School, school leaders are trying to fight the rising tide of childhood obesity by serving food that is nutritious, low fat and, when possible, locally grown. The school not only bans sugary snacks but offers healthy cooking classes for parents and sponsors a monthly farmer's market where a voucher (don’t tell NYSUT and the UFT!!) buys a big bag of Hudson Valley carrots or winter squash. This is a great example of a charter school that is leading the way, doing what other traditional public schools might do if they could only break through the mold to become more innovative. The Associated Press story quotes Ann Cooper, director of food services for the Berkeley (Calif.) public schools (and who assisted the Harlem school with its food program) as saying: '”I think it's what we have to do at every school in America right now.”

Obesity and poor eating habits are a real problem in Harlem. A 2002 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found 78 percent of black women ages 20 to 74 were overweight, with more than 50 percent qualifying as obese. Geoffrey Canada, whose Harlem Children’s Zone runs the school, said students are weighed at the beginning and end of the year. Canada hopes to build a database that will let researchers measure how successful the school has been at keeping its charges fit and trim. He said it's too soon to tell if the school has made any headway.

One of the interesting facets of the Harlem Children’s Zone is that it targets a 60-block area of Manhattan and provides its young people with education options, as well as social and health programs. In fact, the comprehensive program has been so promising that the Rochester school district is interested in creating its own “Rochester Children’s Zone” to provide services to families on the northeast part of the city.

Buffalo Board of Ed Member Catherine Collins, who has never been shy about doing public bidding for the obstructionist Buffalo Teachers Federation, gave the union its money's worth this week by introducing a hastily prepared "report" on charter schools and then calling for a 2-year moratorium on district-licensed charter schools. Without giving fellow board members the courtesy of allowing them to actually read the report, Collins tried to call for an immediate vote on the moratorium, but was stonewalled, even by other charter-loathing board members who nonetheless found her actions inappropriate. For her part, Collins said she had done what she had come to the committee to do. "I'm done," the Buffalo News quoted her as saying. Fellow board member Christopher Jacobs said he was blind-sided by the one-sided report and remarked to Collins: "You should be ashamed and so should staff. You have abused your authority as chair."

Note to the good people of Buffalo: What, exactly, were you thinking when you elected her?

Note to the rest of the Buffalo Board: This would probably be a pretty groovy time to change the official motto of the Buffalo schools to something other than: "Putting children and families first to ensure high academic achievement for all."

Possible new motto???: "Putting Phil Rumore first to ensure that no grownup ever has to pay the price for a generation of Buffalo kids who can't read."

Saving grace in all of this: The school district shouldn't be trusted to handle the task of chartering schools anyway. Putting the press that comes from these attacks on charters aside, charter applicants theoretically could still create dynamic new schooling options for kids by chartering through the state. Now we just have to deal with that unconscionable cap on the number of good public charter schools in the state...

This morning's NY Sun reports that Gov. Pataki is considering including some form of K-12 education tax credits in his upcoming executive budget. The paper reports that it would likely be a dollar-for-dollar credit, capped at $1,500 for parents who send their kids to private schools or who pay for tutoring to teach their public school kids what they should be learning during the school day (but aren't.) There would likely be income limits, so that the state wouldn't end up paying for rich kids whose families could already afford to vote with their feet out of crappy neighborhood schools. Strong support for the plan in the Senate, but less so in the Assembly. The most notable exception on the latter front appears to be Assemblyman Vito Lopez, who was just elected chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party.

Who knows where this will go. Whether it is a real attempt to give parents more educational choices, or merely a bargaining chip in the forthcoming state budget negotiations, it could be good news for charter school supporters. In places like Milwaukee, which had vouchers before a charter school law, charter schools often emerged as a "kinder, gentler" version of competition for the school system - especially since charter schools are still public.

Those are the words of Meryl Tisch, a Regent from New York City, as quoted by NYT's Elissa Gootman in this morning's curtain-raiser for this week's charter authorizing action. Gootman describes not only the drama surrounding the possible granting of the four remaining charter school slots under the outdated 1998 charter school law, but the fight that is heating up on both sides of the issue.

No shortage of advice from education-watchers and wonks for newbie Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in this story. School Board members and union honcho Philip Rumore say they’ll be happy if he brings more money home from Albany for them. Meanwhile, Gary Stillman, CEO of Buffalo’s Enterprise Charter School urges Brown to embrace charter schools and to fight the status quo in the Buffalo Public Schools. Brown caused some concern in school reform circles because of reports during his campaign for office that suggested he hoped to somehow limit the number of public charter schools in the city. Buffalo News’ Peter Simon says Brown “has no intention at this point of seeking to halt the growth of charter schools” (emphasis added by The Chalkboard.) Parents with kids in Buffalo charters: watch your backs!