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parent power
November 9, 2009
To win over Albany, charter advocates begin organizing parents
Burned by Albany funding cuts, charter school advocates are turning to a political base that they’ve long left untapped: parents.
In mid-October, a dozen charter school administrators gathered in a conference room at the Times Square Marriott for a seminar on the role of parents in charter school advocacy. Kenneth Peterson, a director of strategic partnerships at the New York State Charter School Association told the group that the charter school movement has a secret problem: it has almost no grassroots parent advocacy.
New York State’s political climate had changed, Peterson explained. Last year, legislators froze the amount of money that charter schools receive for each student they teach, effectively cutting their budgets. A fragile majority of charter school supporters in the State Senate made it imperative for charter school advocates to win over individual senators, rather than relying on friendships with a few party leaders.
“Crisis has a way of galvanizing folks around the need to act,” said Jeff Maclin, vice president for school advocacy at the New York City Charter School Center. “I think the ‘freeze’ in education funds to public charter schools this year was a wake up call to schools to make sure something like this does not happen again.”
For years, the Center has piled hundreds of parents onto buses and driven them to Albany for lobby day, but the conversations with lawmakers were brief and easily forgotten.
Now the Center is creating the Charter Parents Advocacy Network, or CPAN, an organization that Maclin said will familiarize parents with the legislative and financial problems their schools face and turn them into political activists. The goal is to have parents know what issues are important to charter schools’ success, have their legislators on speed dial and show up at community education council meetings ready to hold their own against charter school opponents.
Though the Center’s website says CPAN is “by parents, of parents, and for parents,” the group was launched by the Center and Maclin is currently recruiting charter school parents to lead the group.
“I think it’s a very smart move on their part to do it,” said Leonie Haimson, executive director of the non-profit Class Size Matters. “They need to look like they’re grassroots even though no one believes they are.”
The question of whether an “authentic” advocacy movement can grow around charter schools has long been in thorn in advocates’ side. Speaking to charter school administrators, Peterson warned them of the dangers of “astroturfing” — creating the appearance of a grassroots movement, while paid organizers direct the activism.
A number of charter schools do have politically active parent organizations. Democracy Prep Charter School, the Success Charter Network schools, and Renaissance Charter School are all well-known for their ability to mobilize parents to fight for their claims to space and public funding.
“I hate to say it, but I don’t know that many schools that are doing that much with their parents,” said Stacey Gauthier, the principal at Renaissance Charter School in Jackson Heights, Queens.
“Charter school parents need to be out there going, ‘I’m not going to vote for you if you don’t support my school.’ I think district school parents are more organized than charter school parents, for sure,” she said.
Getting charter school parents to be politically active has been difficult in part because up until the last few years, there haven’t been that many of them, Maclin said. There are now almost 100 charter schools in New York City.
Another obstacle has been school administrators, Gauthier said. Principals running one- or two-year-old schools find organizing and educating parents “daunting,” she said, as well as somewhat risky.
“You never quite know — are my parents now going to think they’re educational experts? Can I manage that?” Gauthier said. “People often don’t see the value in really have people being involved and engaged.”
Peter Murphy, policy director for the New York State Charter Schools Association, said the organization is trying to get the message to parents and school leaders that politics matter.
“What we try to get across is that it’s a political process that made this a reality for your child and it’s the political process that can take it away,” he said. “Therefore, it’s incumbent for parents and all stakeholders to be politically active.”
That message has reached at least one parent loud and clear. Mona Davids, whose daughter attends Equality Charter School, founded the New York Charter Parents Association last spring. Davids’ stated political goals for her group include lifting the state’s charter cap and getting equal funding for charter schools, aims she shares with other charter advocates. What sets her apart, she says, is her independence.
“Unlike the school leaders, unlike the DOE, unlike NYCSA, unlike the Center, we are not professionals paid to be doing this by people with other interests,” she said. “We are going to do what is best for our kids.”
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November 9th, 2009 11:01 am
It should really be easy for the charter school folks to organize the parents of students in those schools….just look a the DOE’s messy attempts at involving parents and do the exact opposite.
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November 9th, 2009 11:15 am
One of the biggest issues regarding parent involvement in school advocacy is the complexity of the funding and regulations concerning charter schools. This is not limited to parents; community leaders, teachers, school leaders and even elected officials often don’t have a firm grasp of the policy differences between charters and district schools.
Big barriers include:
+Lack of transparency regarding the formula by which charter schools are funded (the AOE/TAPU- Approved Operating Expenses/Total Aidable Pupil Units)
+A lack of open citywide, borough-wide or local institutions which are open to membership of district parents, but not charter parents (Community Education Councils, as the most notable example)
NYC Charter parents are just like their fellow NYC public school parents; they run the gamut from dedicated, activist parent organizers to folks unengaged or alienated in the political process.
Unfortunately, some of the anti-charter school messaging has muddied the waters for parents. Think about this: If you are constantly told that your son or daughter’s school is not really “public”, wouldn’t you are much less likely to call your local assemblyperson, city councilperson, state senator or the governor regarding your child’s school?
The sad outcome of this messaging is that charter school parents and their fellow NYC public school parents become split on an issue in which they should be united: cuts to the NYC Department of Education budgets, with a two year delay, will lead to cuts in charter school budgets (as we received in 2002). Increases to NYCDOE expenditures lead to increases in charter school budgets, again with the same two year delay.
With the charter school “freeze/cut” in this year’s budget, charter schools schools received a disproportionate and unequal loss of funding. The additional funding increases that NYCDOE schools received two years ago, including Campaign for Fiscal Equity dollars, have been lost, promises from Sen. Smith and Gov. Paterson, notwithstanding.
For parents who simply want a great school for their child, this level of minutia is hard to get a grasp on, much less organize around. While we have worked hard to inform and empower parents at Renaissance, it is not an easy task.
Best,
Nicholas Tishuk
Director of Programs and Accountability
The Renaissance Charter School
Teach11372 @ gmail.com -
November 9th, 2009 12:21 pm
Nicholas,
I can think of a good many reasons why parents feel their voices are not being heard. My list would be different than yours, but that’s not what’s important now.
Over enough time, the message — explicitly so from the Mayor who draws a false distinction between “activists” and “parents”, and whose position about school matters is in conflict with his own DOE’s and SCA’s — is clearly that our voices are not worth raising. In great part, because you-know-who is NOT LISTENING.
I am glad that you and I, and others, are speaking up and speaking out nonetheless.
On this matter, parents have common ground. Charter or non is the least of it.
(That paid charter proponents, insiders, and administrators — and even the Bloomberg machine itself — look at charter parents as a group to be wound up for PR purposes is another story.)
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November 9th, 2009 12:46 pm
Nicholas…while there is no excuse for folks being mean to each other, now you know how parents from the public schools have been feeling for the past 8 years.
Now we all know what Mark Twain meant when he said “Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. “
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November 9th, 2009 12:51 pm
I think we agree can agree: Parent disempowerment leads to fractured school communities, bad faith, no accountability on the school’s part and, in the end, a negative educational experience for students.
Parent empowerment is one of the keys to our school’s success. I don’t presume that our model is perfect, and I have great respect for the diversity of school approaches in NYC public schools, be them district or charter.
At Renaissance, we are constantly looking for ways to encourage parent participation and collaboration via regular meetings between the parent leadership and the school management team, parents organizing after school programs, workshops and cultural events, membership on the Collaborative School Governance Committee and an elected seat on the Board of Trustees.
The frustration and anger of NYC public school parents is real! Educators and those who want to see great public schools should listen to parents and find ways to bring them into the process, whether it is via the processes of a single school like mine, or in a grand system of 1400+ schools. It’d be great to see some practical organizing here on GS on how to enhance parent empowerment and voice here in NYC.
Best,
Nicholas Tishuk
Director of Programs and Accountability
The Renaissance Charter School
Teach11372 @ gmail.com -
November 9th, 2009 3:11 pm
you might look into the ability that the Success Charter Network schools has in mobilizing parents; reportedly they have to sign a check list that includes making a commitment to show up for rallies and other political events when they enroll their children.
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November 9th, 2009 3:54 pm
Nicholas,
If only your call for unity were raised before Mayoral Control got renewed.
Funny, I don’t recall any of the “astroturfed” faux-grass-roots parents on the parent-empowerment side of the fence at this rally, but there were about 20 on the pro-Mayoral Control side.
I don’t know who sent this email; I got it third-hand with no “From” or “To”:
“Subject: For your information- Rally for Mayoral Control
Colleagues and friends,
This Sunday Governor Patterson (sic) joined by Mayor Bloomberg, two Borough Presidents, AFT President Randi Weingarten and EVP of the CSA, Principals and APs union, Peter McNally along with local electeds will hold a press conference/rally at PS 57 in East Harlem (address below) at 11am to encourage the State Senate to vote on mayoral control and not allow the legislation to sunset.
We need any and all there…parents, children, educators, school leaders, community orgs, etc. Please join us and please pass this along to others you think can help mobilize folks for Sunday.
Let me know if you have questions. Thanks in advance!!
When: Sunday, June 28, 2009
11am-12pm
Where: P.S. 57
176 E 115th St
Between Third and Lexington Avenues
MANHATTAN
“ -
November 10th, 2009 8:44 am
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