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guest perspective
March 12, 2010
When it comes to New York City charter schools’ co-location in district buildings, the current debate has generated far more heat than light-and even the heat is exaggerated.
The casual observer could be forgiven for thinking something like this: Charter school co-location involves widespread “space wars” provoked by elitist outsiders who invade neighborhood schools, exacerbate over-crowding, and take more than their share of scarce resources.” Yet every one of these impressions is wrong. In this column, I’ll explain why, and I’ll also offer my suggestion for a way to make the co-location process more fact-based.
1. Charter school students are neighbors, not invaders. They come from the same districts and communities as children in co-located public schools. They are public school students, who would still need to be educated in a neighborhood school building if charter schools disappeared tomorrow.
No, charter students aren’t statistically identical in every respect; at the district level, charter students are more likely to be African American and somewhat less likely to have special needs (the reasons for this are complicated). Opponents who feign outrage at this while ignoring far wider inequalities-even in schools they run-only show that their motivation is ideological.
2. Co-location conflict is the exception, not the rule. With the city’s shift toward small schools, co-location is a fact of life for public schools of all kinds. When charters are involved, the result is usually the same: schools brush shoulders on occasion but generally arrive at arrangements that are workable for everyone.
Despite this, discussion of charter school co-location almost always centers on the same three or four examples-themselves fanned and publicized by outside ideological interests. Can you imagine the outcry if this story about NYC co-location involved a charter school?
3. Charter schools co-locate in underutilized buildings. Co-location stories resonate because New York City has a problem with overcrowding — except that it doesn’t in the neighborhoods where most charter schools co-locate. In Harlem, Central Brooklyn, and the South Bronx, district schools are undersubscribed for largely the same reason that charter schools are oversubscribed: The old system isn’t getting the job done for many children. This is not a zero-sum game, and, in any case, charter schools get fewer square feet of space per student than district schools.
4. Co-location is essential to charter school fairness and survival. The Independent Budget Office recently used citywide averages to calculate that, since charter schools receive no funding for facilities, those without a district space get about $3,000 less in public support per pupil than district schools. (The gap is probably much wider in charter-heavy neighborhoods.) Simply put, public charter schools find it far more difficult to exist without access to public space and no access to facility funding. For charter school opponents who seek a co-location moratorium, that’s clearly the idea. But for those who believe in public school equity (and don’t think charter schools should be abolished), it is clear they must either support giving charter schools public space or put through legislation that gives charter schools equal facility funding.
In a debate that has been long on ideology and short on facts, some truly independent study could go a long way. Charter schools would welcome a review of the impacts of public school co-location, in all of its forms. What are the impacts of co-location in general, including those of gifted and talented programs within zoned elementary schools? What are the educational impacts of co-location? Exactly how many square feet per student do charter and district schools receive, respectively? Are these data different where there are co-located district schools? Do co-located schools, including charter schools, get equal access to common areas such as gyms, cafeterias and auditoriums? What building-level supports could the Department of Education provide to make co-location arrangements go more smoothly, and how could co-location decisions be made more transparent?
Such a study would have to meet certain conditions, however:
- It must be conducted by a truly independent and exactingly neutral observer. This will be hard to find; two citywide office holders have already made clear their unequivocal bias against charter schools. The Bridgespan Group, a consulting firm that helps non-profit organizations, might be a good place to start.
- It must review all co-locations and not simply look at the relatively small numbers involving charter schools, and it must take into account educational outcomes (positive and negative) in the system as a whole.
- It cannot be accompanied by a moratorium. Remember when the UFT called for a study and a moratorium on the use of student achievement data in tenure decisions? The blue-ribbon panel that the law called for has never met-not least because it was never created.
Once completed, such a study could then form the factual basis for a policy discussion on whether the current system needs to be modified. With the facts in hand, we could move beyond shouting to a real conversation.
In the meantime, however, let’s remember what we are talking about. For parents who have lived with failing schools, the advent of effective new schools, including charter schools, has been a godsend. Where there is space available, and high-quality charter school teams ready to start excellent schools, we should continue to provide charter schools with public space for the public education they provide. And, yes, where there is a chronically failing school (whether it be district or charter), replacement of the school should be considered, including, if there is a high-quality applicant, by a charter school.
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March 12th, 2010 9:21 pm
New York Charter Parents Association is the only City/State wide INDEPENDENT parent association that has united with district parents and other parent organizations such as CEJ to call for an INDEPENDENT Evaluation for co-location. The flawed DOE formula is ripping apart communities and pitting parents against one another. As Vice President of NYCPA, we seek to build bridges with our district parents to ensure that ALL our children receive a great education not just a selective few. Charter schools need to serve all students regardless of their needs. I am the parent of three children, one of which that has special needs. My child and every special needs/ell student should be served at same enrollment rate as that of our traditional district school. There should be no EXCEPTIONS to this!
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March 15th, 2010 10:15 am
James,
I agree there is a lot of agenda setting behavior on all sides if the debate.
I’d be interested in your thoughts on why the Independent Budget Office in New York is not qualified to take on the task of sorting fact from fiction?
I have, from time to time, spoken with them on education issues and found them pretty even handed. Which is to say that from time to time even Joel Klein has complaints about their findings.
As a taxpayer I like the idea of using the resources I have already paid for, before hiring new ones. Even if Bridgespan is very eminent and qualified.
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March 15th, 2010 11:20 am
thanks for voicing a fresh perspective on this issue. I eagerly await the hoards of negative comments you will receive.
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March 15th, 2010 3:00 pm
Mr. Merriman
You hardly sound credible, as your bias against public education is clouding sound reason. I also hate to burst your bubble, but colocations have nothing to do with fairness and everything to do with the undermining of our public education system. Public education aims to provide every student, whether they are an English language learner, special education student, a student with a behavior problem or a student with a parent who is not involved, with a great education. You minimize the overt effort on the part of charters to keep these students out. You’ll probably mention opportunity charter as an example, but pooling high needs students in one school has been and is a bad idea. Take PS 241for example. PS241 is not only facing a land grab by eva moskowitz, PS 241 is facing the attacks of Joel Klein’s DoE, who’s staff continue to call PS 241 a failure even though they received an A in Bloomberg’s ridiculous farce of a grading system. Now the DoE wants to grade on a curve. Will the manipulation of numbers ever cease? Anyway, PS 241 not only received the A, but is also the 130th ranked school in NYC. PS 241 also made NYC’s top 10 list of schools with the greatest test score gains. Despite these facts the DoE, which include Joel Klein and John white, to name a few, publicly refer, along with moskowitz, to PS 241 as a failure. Joel Klein then attempted last year to push PS 241 families to leave the school so he can give PS 241’s building to moskowitz, a woman Joel Klein has an inappropriate relationship with. This spits in the face of the fairness you are claiming to call for. This smear campaign, which you are complicit in, is not the exception that you claim. When Klein and his thugs, I’ve got no better word for them due to the misinformation they spread, refer to PS 241 as a failure, they are undermining a school filled with children with intense needs. PS 241 has a high needs student population that hovers around 50%, like OCS. The PS 241 community, which includes their students and families, continues to get attacked by the DoE because Klein has a “thing” for Moskowitz. You want to talk about fairness? This Charter School fiasco has nothing to do with fairness and everything to do with privatization and deregulation by the same nut-cases who are raping our country’s economy by way of deregulation. So go on and talk about fairness Mr. Merriman, but we all know that the DoE, Bloomberg, Klein and Obama are hell bent on destroying our public education system and manipulating the public into believing that their education should be won in a lottery. I can barely believe that this is happening in America and I’m witnessing it with my own eyes. Don King had it right when he said, “Only in America”. You charter school, wall street thugs have fooled the public so far, but not for much longer. People are figuring out your game. It will not be long before we send you wolves in sheep’s clothing packing!
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March 17th, 2010 11:40 pm
Look at how Co-Location has the community of Red Hook, Brooklyn splitting sides like a civil war. Just go visit PS 15 & PAVE and you will see that co-location does’ work for either school! Why can’t the DOE and Spencer “The Ripper” Robertson realize that?
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March 17th, 2010 11:56 pm
Pardon the type-o… Co-location DOESN’T work. Students are pitted against each other, as are teachers and parents… all from the same community. And all because the son of a millionaire wants to plant a charter school in a “poor community” as his new pet project.
Spencer and his prejudiced school administration think they are in Red Hook to “save the poor minority children.” Why can’t the parents at PAVE see them for what they are: a bunch of lying undercover racists who talk down to their own student’s parents & shut them out of the parent involvement equation. Name one successful school charter, DOE, catholic or private school without real parent involvement? NONE. Hello PAVE: Without parents you have no students. No students = no school.
How many more students & teachers will leave PAVE after this school year? How many have left since the school opened a year ago?
Everyone in the community is talking about it! The lie to families with children who have special needs and take them in knowing they can’t give them the services they need. The school doesn’t want parents involved. Their teachers are treated like modern day slaves without a voice - forced to work longer hours and made to feel less than professional.
This is why so many charter schools are anti-union and anti-PTA. The parents who have come to their senses and left the school will tell you the truth… just ask them. They have nothing to fear. Their children can’t be mistreated for speaking out!
Co-Location ruins communities. It is tearing Red Hook apart!
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March 18th, 2010 11:43 am
“Opponents who feign outrage at this while ignoring far wider inequalities-even in schools they run-only show that their motivation is ideological.”
Please let me dissuade you from believing that I am feigning outrage…it’s real outrage. No, I am not affiliated with the UFT and have often been on the opposite side of their policies. On this issue, as an independent individual, I am outragds at the overt discrimination against chidlren with special needs, the tendency to cluster students with special needs in special programs and the disingenuous manner in which charter school proponents lump those who disagree into one bunch…the UFT sympathizers. And, before you jump the gun, I am aware of the under-representation of students with special needs at the UFT charter schools.
Despite your opinion, parents can, and do, decide independently about the educational issues facing our schools today.
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March 18th, 2010 11:50 am
Sorry for the spelling mistakes….my fingers get “tongue tied”
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