GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Heavy hitting corporate law practices and free space are provided to “privately run education corporations,” otherwise known as charter schools. Ten of the charter schools are part of well funded networks that could raise the money to rent space if the lawsuit were to stop the colocation..

Today a charter teacher, very nicely, provided a public school teacher from my school some supplies. She said to my coworker, ” take as much as you want, we get whatever we want and as much as we want.”. Very nice, but this is a perfect example of separate and unequal. Where one school has access to supplies to meet the needs of their children and a second school, in the same building, does not. The DOE must be stopped from perpetuating civil rights violations upon our public school children.

Good luck today NAACP and UFT! You are on the right side of history!

If no charter schools “could raise the money to rent space”, did Girls Prep rob banks to acquire its rent money this year?  Likewise, do you really think that public procurement policies are determined by “Union negotiations”?  Which unions pray tell.  Finally, if “[f]orcing charters to pay rent would bankrupt them”, what does that say about their business model?  I guess relying on the kindness of hedge fund managers doesn’t cut it, does it.

How on earth do these law firms justify representing the charters pro bono? (I know it’s a rhetorical question.) 

Here we go again blaming the UFT  for something  that the DOE is responsible for implementing.

I concur with Harrington. If charter school entrepreneurs are so “altruistic”, why do they command such excessive salaries? IF claims of academic excellence in charter schools were true, then why would charter schools spend millions of dollars in marketing and advertising? I hope the charter schools do go bankrupt, and that meddling billionaires and greedy education entrepreneurs stop exploiting our truly public, public school communities.

look at the white shoe firms on the original UFT suit.

Teacherman,

You are no teacher. You’re dustorting reality and misleading.

I would like a DOE principal to post here how much they pay in rent, utilities, security, food services, nursing services. What percentage of their budget are those items? How much do they pay to have the janitor paint their rooms (not the ceilings, since that’s another union)?

How much do they pay for the services of the district enrollment offices? How much do they pay to print the enrollment catalogs? What’s the cost of having translators on site at admissions open houses?

How much do the speech therapists, occupational therapists, and physical therapists cost? When they send a student to an IAES, how much do they pay to have that student tutored during the suspension?

How much of their budget goes to TRS? To payroll taxes, life insurance, vision, and dental?

Charters in private space must pay all of this an much, much more and with less money than public schools in public space. For all you whine about private money, there is no way to make ends meet without it–so you are forcing them to take money that you then complain about.

And just for fun, how about if all public schools who have received Annenberg, Gates, or any money from the Fund for Public Schools raise their hands? After all….that’s evil private funds.

bee, what is exactly wrong on what teacherman says here?

“It is not true that charter schools could raise the money to rent
space.”

guest: A few charters might be able to–might be. But then they’d be taking money from the people whom you abhor. Most cannot afford the rents in NYC and pay decent salaries and all of the other costs that I listed.

“Though charter schools are blessed with freedom to purchase
school supplies from low-cost providers (unlike many public schools can
due to Union negotiations), real estate in New York City is too high for
charter schools to sustain paying rent.”

guest: Yes, he’s wrong about the union and purchasing contracts (I assume). However, it is absolutely true that a charter can purchase their supplies from lower-cost providers (with the stipulation that contracts/purchases over particular amounts must have three bids documented). That means that if you find a retailer on the street selling a thousand pencils for five dollars, you can buy them. Better use of $$.

“Forcing charters to pay rent
would bankrupt them, leaving thousands of our inner city children left
without the extremely high quality education they are receiving.”

guest: again, some charters may be able to pay. The majority could not pay more than 15-20% of their per pupil funding towards facilities–including rent, utilities, security, nursing, etc.–without severely impacting their educational programs. Have you ever run those numbers? Do you actually know what it costs to rent, renovate, and run school space in NYC? These costs are hidden in the public schools, which leads people like you to pontificate that it must be easy to do.

Schools would close. Those students would need to go back to their zoned schools, overloading the classrooms and spaces. They STILL need to be educated. Your $$ would continue to go to schools that do not work, do not educate kids, and that spend $$ all over the place. (Just run the cost of having SCA build or renovate a building against what a private group could do–the numbers are terrifying.)

My analogies were purposeful. You cannot, in good conscience, claim that all charter school and charter school leaders are exactly the same in where their money comes from, what their purpose is, and how they spend unless you are willing to make the same gross generalizations about the public schools.

Dear Drock,

re: “You are no teacher.”

A. I am a teacher (at one of the highest performing public schools in New York State.)

B. You’re dramatic
 From,
Teacherman

charters schools are public school ihave a child with adhd and delayed in alotof areas was placed in a district 75 school came out of there and wentto regular special edin a regular school it was evident he had not learned nothing and was no where grade level struggled but barely passed got to jr high school same thing. they gave him the ses provider same thing i even kept the ses provider for private tutoring. enough is enough. im low income and work and i dont want my child being assiigned t a zone school whichis hard to transfer from and he not learning. the schools that are failing shutthem down let the parents choose what we want for our children. nyc children is behind kids in other states u cant even get the services ur child really needs like spech pt ot  it is crazy. let the charter school expand or pay for my child to be another negative staistic