GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Let me guess, Cuomo’s children attend private schools. 

Why can’t he implement tax hikes for the wealthy?  This is getting ridiculous. 

If Steven Thrasher writes an article, I don’t read it. He has his strong points of view and often makes the cover. I stopped reading him. The editor loves him and gives him lots of space to cover his editorials in the guise of a journalistic piece. 

B,

Re the VV article, “In New York City’s public schools, the most common problem for teachers is that they cannot get their kids to shut up.” (Is the author suggesting that only an Eva Moskowitz charter knows how to get kids to pipe down?)

No, the most common problem for teachers is that Tweed is waging war on them.

Re: “Employing non-union instructors, Bronx Success exists not only to educate kids but to show that it can do so better than traditional public schools, like the one it shares a building with, P.S.30 (Wilton).” So where’s anything in the article showing whether their results warrant the marketing? So where’s anything in the article about the impacts of union v non-union within a Moskowitz school?

Re: “The mother’s story belies a common belief about charters, that they won’t deal with problem children. It seems quite the contrary at Bronx Success, whose staff seemed disappointed to lose the other boy. (Moskowitz says she has never expelled a student from one of her network of schools.)” Did the reporter validate that claim? Does “expel” mean something overly specific to divert attention from “counseling out?”

To answer your question, you can go to the Village Voice article and click on the author’s name. You’ll find out that in Feb 2010, the same author wrote an inflammatory article about PS198 sharing its building with PS77 Lower Lab — a G&T school. (In fairness, the author himself references that in one para.) It was the only other one in the 2009-2011 span available.

I find it puzzling that in the Feb article, the G&T school vs the zoned school is couched as discrimination. But in this article the CHARTER school vs the zoned school is couched as healthy competition — that might kill the zoned school. Argh. (Note that both G&T’s and charters “import” kids from outside the zone. Not in PS198′s case, but in MOST, that co-location war is part of the broad-based objection to charters.)

Click thru to the Feb article, skip the article, read the comments.

Scroll down about 1/4 of the way through the comments for the comprehensive comment by Manhattan BP Stringer’s appointee to the PEP, Patrick Sullivan. His closing para says it best:

“Ultimately school buildings belong to the people. Communities, and the Community Education Councils that represent them, should decide which education models best serve their children. Magnet schools, G&T programs and charter schools can all be options for public school families. Issues of equity and access must be examined with real evidence and focused on achieving real solutions, not with the intention to inflame and divide as the Voice has done.”

http://gothamschools.org/2010/02/24/rise-shine-just-3-teachers-fired-under-citys-recent-campaign/

(Full disclosure: I am a member of CECD2. Both of the schools in the Feb 2010 article are in D2.)

Cuomo’s kids go to public schools in the Byram Hills (Armonk) district, which is largely (maybe almost entirely?) funded by local property taxes.

The case for the millionaires’ tax isn’t as cut and dried as it seems, imo. I read an article discussing a summary of early Census data that showed a significant outflow of personal income from NY State to low-tax/no-tax states. The corporate and hedge fund headquarters in Greenwich and Stamford are pretty much entirely a consequence of CT’s lower tax rates. And most businesses no longer require a physical proximity to Manhattan–it’s really a luxury more than a necessity.

We’d all be better off if Federal taxes were reconfigured to capture more revenue from the ultra wealthy–higher rates, enforcement, etc. I don’t see in the short term why the city/state shouldn’t reinstate the commuter tax, though. 

Thought that village voice article was great

I can’t remember her exact words, but when Carmen Farina took over as Region 8 superintendent in Brooklyn, she told us parents that she did not want to see quiet classrooms in the schools she supervised.

Marv,

Just curious, why did you think the article was great?

Setting aside the very laxidaisical fact-checking in the Village Voice piece, Moskowitz’ attitude toward her neighbor school seems to be that of a roommate who thinks their name is on the deed to the house. I keep waiting for the push to train public schools how to be more like charter schools (if their methods are so successful) but instead both sides have descended into a cold war over resources and methodology.

The Bloom/Kline’s biggest failing was their inability to convince the parents, teachers, and union that charters/publics could and should coexist to their mutual benefit. Instead they created an unhealthy competition through a system that guaranteed animosity and mistrust, practices that serve the interests of business but not the public sector.

But this was their end game all along – eliminate the perceived obstacle (teacher’s union) while elevating the goals and aspirations of like-minded charter reformers who share similar socioeconomic values.

Result: A demonized union full of aging public employees living on the dole vs. an army of bright graduates eager for their chance to supplant the old order and work in a union less world. Never mind that education is, and always has been a benevolent hierarchy of intergenerational tutelage. That the best institutions teach people how to be good humans and how that is vital for a thriving democracy. Public schools represent the best and worst of our society. We want them to be institutions in the best sense of the word – because we want future generations to benefit from their stability and the wisdom of it’s elders.

Charter schools may be successful at educating with their “one size fits all approach,” but fundamentally, who’s interests are being served; the individual’s or the society’s?

If the union is to win this debate over teacher evaluation and last in first out it needs to take the lead on policing it’s weakest members. By conceding that aspect of the debate it lost a crucial battle in this unnecessary reform war.