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meet the parent
November 3, 2009
A charter school parent gains prominence as loyal opposition
Mona Davids and her daughter, a sixth grade student at Equality Charter School in Co-op City. (Photo courtesy of Mona Davids.)
A Bronx parent who went from charter school foe to cheerleader in under a year is now at the middle of a debate over how to organize charter school parents.
Mona Davids has rapidly gone from being an unknown public school parent in Co-op City to being known by key players in the debate over charter schools and among the highest ranks of the Department of Education. She pops up everywhere from charter school board meetings and charter renewal hearings to district Community Education Council gatherings. She was even featured in a television advertisement for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s reelection campaign, in which she blasted rival William Thompson’s education record.
A year ago, Davids was on the other side of the battle. As co-president of the parent association of P.S. 160 in the Bronx, she broke the news that the DOE was considering putting a new charter school, Equality Charter School, in the same building. Davids, whose daughter attended the district school, initially helped lead parent protests against siting the charter school there.
But after learning more about Equality Charter, Davids suddenly reversed course, sent in her daughter’s application to the charter school and began helping the charter recruit other students.
As she began to organize parents for Equality Charter School, Davids said that she recognized a flaw in the way charter schools are set up in New York City. Davids was accustomed to working within the structures set up by the Department of Education to involve parents in traditional public schools, mechanisms like School Leadership Teams, Community Education Councils and District Family Advocates.
“In the charter school system, we don’t have any of that,” Davids said. She began searching for organizations to help support parent involvement in charter schools, finding options in Massachusetts, California and Idaho, but nothing in New York.
“I was really surprised that parents didn’t have a voice,” she said.
Davids founded the New York City Charter Parents Association in May and next week, she will launch the Charter Parent Training Academy.
The training program is designed to replicate her own organizing strategies among other charter school parents. She’s starting small, sitting down with six charter school parents from schools around the city three days a week for three months. She intends to train them how to conduct parent meetings, incorporate their schools’ parent groups as non-profits, fund-raise and request member items for their schools from their legislators.
Charter school parents need to double as lobbyists, Davids said, and she wants to teach them the trade. She wants to train the parents how to advocate for changes to state education law that limit per-pupil funding for charter schools and ban charters from receiving public funding for their own school buildings.
For all her vocal support of charter schools, Davids said that she knows the system isn’t perfect, and she doesn’t intend to be quiet about her criticisms.
“I am a supporter of charter schools, but we have serious issues,” she said. “The grievance process doesn’t work. Something needs to be done, but right now the charter system doesn’t have district family advocates. Every system must have checks and balances.”
Davids, who is on leave from her job as head of the consulting firm Azania Holdings, said she funded her work at the Parent Association by herself until this week, when she received her first outside donation. She refused to identify the donor, saying only that the donation is from a philanthropist acting as a private individual. The donation will be used to provide a stipend for the six parents participating in the training academy, which will be held during daytime hours, Davids said.
With her tall frame and command of a microphone, many have looked at Davids and seen a natural politician. Davids makes advocates on both side of the charter debate a bit nervous. To charter school opponents, Davids may be the harbinger of a grassroots support movement in New York, the lack of which has occasionally been a sore spot in the charter school movement. To charter school advocates, she is not an unconditional friend.
“I’m not a paid flak, I’m a parent,” she said. “We are not puppets of the charter school movement; we are not puppets of the anti-charter school movement. This association was born out of a fight for equal access to a quality education for all students.”
Davids said that because of her interest in educational equity, one of the main goals of her group is to “bridge this huge divisive gap” between charter school parents and parents of traditional public school students.
Her ability to bridge that gap is still unproven. Several P.S. 160 parents I spoke to who fought against the siting of Equality Charter Schools said they still feel betrayed by her for switching sides in that debate. And Davids’ involvement in other charter school siting battles, notably at P.S. 15 and PAVE Academy in Red Hook, has garnered much attention, some of it extremely critical.
Davids said that she would like to find common ground with the charter school opponents who have dubbed her “Moaning Mona.” Her suggested starting place? Charter school facilities funding.
“If they don’t want charter schools in the building, will they please help us get construction funding for new schools?” she said.
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November 3rd, 2009 10:55 pm
So, Space Wars has a new battlefront: Capital Plan Wars.
As I understand, in the rest of the state, charters and traditionals do not have to share buildings. In NYC, they do — but only to the degree the current (and hopefully for not many minutes more) administration keeps INJECTING charters into the Public School buildings.
Given the Bloomberg administration would rather build prisons and a police academy the size of WTC and Pier 40 COMBINED, and the only blurb on Candidate Bloomberg’s site re education is EXCLUSIVELY about charters — it’s a less-than-zero sum game.
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November 3rd, 2009 11:31 pm
This is a great development for both traditional and charter schools. The fact that Mona is going to organize parents as advocates is something that everyone should agree on. Her point at hte end of the article is actually a profound political strategy. For every zoned school that dosen’t want a charter in their building or claims they are overcrowded, there should be an equal cry for public charters to recieve capital funding in equal proportion. That seems like a win-win-win. Kids, traditionals, and charters. Keep it up Mona, without struggle there is no progress.
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November 3rd, 2009 11:36 pm
Good for her! she wants a great school for her daughter and she’s organizing parents to make it happen. isn’t that what democracy is all about! People will critque her organization and method only because they’re charter parents, but when traditional public school parents do the same they’re cheered as champions of children. All data shows that charter parents are actually lower income and more black/latino than traditional schools both in NYC and the country, and yet they’re accused of creaming all the time. Just let the parents choose where their kids go to school and parents will make the right choice every time!
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November 4th, 2009 8:25 am
[...] $600M for schools (Detroit News) N.Y. — No child left behind (Wall Street Journal) N.Y. — A charter school parent gains prominence as loyal opposition (Gotham Schools) N.Y. — NYSUT needs to start supporting charter schools (Buffalo News) N.Y. — [...]
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November 4th, 2009 12:28 pm
Thanks for the link to Ed Notes. In case you didn’t go there, to see Moaning Mona’s divisiveness and self-serving make sure to see the video of her speech attacking the teachers at PS 15 that I linked to at: http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2009/10/ps-15-teacher-calls-on-moaning-mona.html. Also follow the eloquent responses of the teachers to Mona’s moaning.
Of course she won’t reveal the funding source. Or business ties to the Bloomberg administration. Or that the big funders have been behind the creation of charter school parent groups around the nation to become a lobbying force in their privatization movement.
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November 4th, 2009 8:58 pm
It’s time to tell the truth about Mona Davids..Mona asks questions in a system that doesn’t have answers, Mona advocates for parents in a culture of keeping parents out, Mona has the nerve to volunteer more hours per week than salaried people work in a month, Mona really was self serving as she designed and funded an informative website about charter schools, AND she actually had the nerve to travel around the city at her own expense, on her personal time, at great sacrifice to her family…..to stand by parents and educators who wanted to provide access and equity to inner city kids.
Don’t worry about Mona-keep spreading lies about her funding source and relationship to Mayor Bloomberg and eventually you, yourself might believe it.
Don’t you really wish you had her guts, her courage and her dedication??? -
November 4th, 2009 9:41 pm
Mona represents the big “secret” to a good education: the involved parent. “Everyone” knows this, but the politicians can’t say it out loud.
I’ll say it: Mona, I don’t know if you’ll help or hinder the charter movement, but I’m certain of this: Your child will probably get an excellent education and you will be able to take most of the credit.
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November 11th, 2009 8:59 pm
GEM is attempting to undermine the success of charters in our city. They argue about losing space, yet fail to accept that most NYC public schools fail to educate children of color, keep parents out in the life of the school. It is the charter school movement that gives parents a choice. The claim that charters are not held accountable only proves the stupidity of the GEM folk. Charter schools must outperform their host district, must maintain a minimum 90% attendance, must have a thorough annual financial audit and are up for renewal every 5 years. Meanwhile, DoE schools can be identified as SURR, re-organization, etc, etc for years while teachers get raises, receive tenure and have the protection of the UFT.
NYC DoE teachers should spend more time teaching and less time complaining about competition. Mona Davids is the one who stands up against those who would continue to keep our children down. -
February 2nd, 2010 2:44 am
The more I research you Ms Davids the more I understand your motive. Its becoming clear to me . See you wednesday . I will be well prepared with my questions to you !!!
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