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Re “auditorium dynamics,” the WSJ also states, “Thursday’s meeting will include votes on phasing out schools and the sharing of space between traditional schools with charter schools, two issues that are particularly contentious.”

They neglect to mention tonight will also be the vote to likely rubber stamp a Capital Plan which slashes an already inadequate current plan.

Of course the administration spin the last few weeks has been a) that they are restoring most of the previously proposed cuts, and b) we should compare to “current” — not just-prior recent proposals. (This after more than cutting the previous-to-that proposed boost.)

When yo-yo’s do planning….

2010-2014 Capital Plan
As launched, June 2009 = $11.3B
Amended, June 2010 = $11.7B (the “current” plan)

Proposed Nov 2010 = $16.2B (up $4.5B – the “tease”)
Proposed Feb/Mar 2011 = $9.3B (whacked $6.8B – the “scare”, down net $2.3B from “current”)
Revised Proposed April 2011 = $11.1B (STILL down $586M from “current”)

… of which OVER HALF, $326M, comes out of Manhattan’s hide, despite Manhattan comprising only 13% of the “current” active plan. In rough terms, $326M could buy 3,260 seats!

AND… in D2 anyway, we’re facing record wait lists (270 per DOE) spread over ALL “subdistricts,” from FiDi to UES and including GV– equivalent to TWO whole schools* (10 sections of 27 ea). And the birth rate (the 5-year canary) is still going UP! But that doesn’t keep the administration from proposing CUTS to the Crapital (sic) Plan and proposing FIRING teachers !!!

Last night, CECD2 was presented with a petition signed by over 740 signatures from Chinatown ALONE protesting the threatened teacher layoffs and budget cuts. (Thank-you PS 1, 2, 124, and 130!) And yet CECD2 still couldn’t find it’s way clear to pass an already-drafted Resolution condemning further budget cuts and refraining from firing teachers. Only five votes “for,” mine amongst them. Shame on the other four.

* DOE points out that there are 160 CTT slots not in the tally, and 225 G&T seats. Time will tell. This of course is ZERO consolation to parents currently ranked #62 on a wait list for PS290 UES, or #82 for PS59 mid-town east, or #67 for PS41 GV (which is co-zoned with PS3… which DOE is somehow promising to LM waitlisters, e.g. #34 and PS234.)

Lower the rhetoric on charters? Pardon me for laughing.

Only a short while ago here on the GS comment board, I was personally accused of “swiftboating” — by the school’s CEO no less — for asking straightforward questions about the relationship between the “non-profit” going into Tweed and its PARENT for-profit firm, with which it “contracts” for “pedagogical services.”

The rhetoric is not the problem. Space wars — and spin — are.

Yeah, it may be editorializing, but in this instance, the shoe fits. The lawsuit is ridiculous, and frivolous, and immature, and probably counterproductive. Save the money and energy to support the campaign efforts of politicians who will fight to end mayoral control, e.g.

Come on GS, stop editorializing. Just because Gotham Schools reporters think the lawsuit is “ridiculous”, don’t lie and say NY Post does too. While we all understand you are charter and Bloomberg shills, insulting parents who are holding Bloomberg accountable for the Black debacle is despicable. How dare you call the parents suit “ridiculous”.

GS- your bias is showing here: linking to the Post story, which you mis characterize, is in poor form
I would like to suggest you run your own ( balanced) story, and link to the court papaers as you usually do on these sorts of stories.
That way readers can decide for themselves what they think of the suit.
And GS can in its own words describe it any way they choose- overtly.
No need to put words in another paper’s mouth.

I’m a big fan of you Michael, M (big fan); but you did make that IKEA remark :/ … (a valid remark, btw as I’ve since read up on).

I have observed, however, that folks who are on the defensive usually tend to call for a lowered rhetoric. So that’s a good sign.

So, you fix the whole system, not destroy it. You don’t disguise corporatization/gentrification with severely limited public service.

I checked the print edition through a Post e-reader, and the story published in print also uses the above sentence, calling the lawsuit “ridiculous” by way of saying that “everyone acknowledge” the suit is “ridiculous.” I am attaching a screen shot of the top of the story with the word in it.

At least IKEA has a return policy.

But test results, charter vs traditional, are comparable.

And another another camaraderie and fun-filled day in the edublogosphere goes into the books. Thanks, everyone!

Five hours since the arrest of the DOE consultant arrested for stealing $3.6 million from the city and the revelation that two major DOE vendors, I.B.M. and Verizon, were implicated in the fraud, and no mention of it on the “independent” education news site Gotham Schools.

Let me guess, it’s not news?

Or just not news you want to cover?

Agreed! It’s so nice to see GS given the benefit of the doubt, especially since the eventual explanation was such an obvious one.

Your statement is patently false.

Where do you get that figure of ten thousand children getting a chance at college, when the numbers show that a large majority of charters do no better or worse than public schools? And even if it were so, should 990,000 public school students have to pay for that with diminished resources for their educations?

Even for those lucky few kids who do get into an exceptional charter school, after the lotteries, the pre-testing and “counseling” out or to a lower grade if their numbers aren’t to the school’s liking, as broad public policy, the use of the term poison is not too strong, considering the diversion and privatizing of resources.

The small number of children who benefit from the small number of exceptional charter schools – and that’s without the inevitable debate about what “exceptional” even means when so many of these schools are test prep mills – does not come close to justifying the underfunding and destabilization of the public school system, at the expense of the overwhelming number of NYC students.