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The Post article on the 16 new charters fails to note how many are displacing or co-located with traditional public schools, and glosses over that the “IKEA” charter (as I started referring to it in May 2010, but I’m happy to see the nickname catching on) was supposed to have NO CONNECTION to its for-profit parent.

The IKEA Charter School is For-Profitsskolan.

Dear Mr. Walcott,

Action speaks louder than words. As long as you stand behind this mayor, students, parents, and teachers will continue to be screwed over. Different educational figure-head, same destructive policies.

Merely because the Post reported that Innovate is “run by a Swedish company, Kunskapsskolan,” doesn’t make it true. Innovate is a non-profit charter school, as they all are, that has contracted with KUSA for pedagogical services. KUSA is not running the school, no matter how many times blogs, articles, or anyone else says that we are.

IKEA…cute (and you aren’t the first one by any means). It doesn’t say much, though. What about Kunskapsskolan is IKEA-like to you?

It’s two up. And it’s asking way way too much from any of these people. There has never been an instance (that I’ve seen) where they think narrowing the curriculum is part of the big picture… While it shows how narrow they are, I don’t think any off them really care to think how much of a big picture thing something like that is. They don’t care! They care about indicators and public perception. That’s education reform in NYC.
In fact, I think when they hear someone talking about something like that, their brains get all fuzzy and they start thinking about when the meeting is going to end.

I know you’re right.

I was being rhetorical, and, sad to say, absurd.

Hi Michael,

Please see my answers below. Many tell me to just let the “IKEA” kind of stuff go, but I think it’s important to correct misconceptions and prevent Innovate and KUSA from being “swiftboated.” I really believe that we’re all capable of civilized debate.

1. “…contracted for pedagogical services.” I’ve been out-cuted. I’ve never read anything so lawyerly on an IKEA assembly instruction sheet, so perhaps I should drop the quip. So KUSA isn’t running the school… but supplies all the teachers? Yes, no, other?

Answer: No, we don’t supply the teachers. The school hires and fires the teachers. We help the school implement the school model through professional development. We are also supplying the curriculum.

2. To help us lay people who read the Post sort out the spin from the facts, would you mind sharing the dollar value of the contracted “pedagogical” services with what I continue to characterize as a “parent” company? How much contracted with other support service entities, and were those arm’s length?

Answer: The dollar value? The school is not being charged anything from KED for the school model for the five-year term of the charter. That’s included in the term sheet that’s publicly available in the charter application. There’s no “spin” on that: the fees are waived.

3. Were you personally on the payroll of Kunskapsskolan in the past? Any other Innovate employees? How many of the teachers?

Answer: I am not an Innovate employee, and yes, work for Kunskapsskolan. As for teachers, I answered above.

4. Did Innovate exist prior to the no-for-profit law? How much of Innovate’s budget and payroll is contracted out?

Answer: Do you mean the law that prohibited for-profit EMOs from managing charters? Innovate was chartered under the old law. However, KUSA does not manage Innovate. I don’t know how much of their budget and payroll are “contracted out;” all I know is that KUSA is not charging a fee.

5. And, where will your school be in Year 2, Fall 2012, if not Tweed? If you are contemplating co-location in another D2 facility, please disclose.

Answer: I don’t know where Innovate will be in Fall 2012.

Per extensive press coverage, Lower Manhattan has very clear ideas of what it wants and needs. More elementary school space. More middle school space. And use of Tweed as an elementary school incubator, though I appreciate the one-year deal may be a Solomonic solution. I haven’t heard them clamoring for an outside provider, let alone a charter of any stripe.

Answer: Well, the 350 families who applied might disagree with you about the school, and as you note, Innovate is supplying middle school space.

Last, CECD2 is on record opposed to for-profit charters, and co-locations. See CECD2 Resolutions 30 and 31.
http://www.cecd2.net/site_res_...

Answer: It’s good, then, that there’s no such thing as a “for profit charter.”