Facing criticism, Gov. Cuomo added a parent advocate to his education commission. (Schoolbook)
Success Academies’ Eva Moskowitz has written a book on the virtues of school choice. (Schoolbook)
A third grade teacher in Harlem has been charged with sexually assaulting a student. (City Room)
Teachers union members are joining activists in a march to oppose stop-and-frisks. (Edwize)
Students won college scholarships from the American Museum of Natural History. (Schoolbook)
The state is accepting applications for three more Race to the Top grants. (SED)
A Robeson HS teacher laments the suspension of students who walked out on May 1. (NYC PS Parents)
A city teacher says those facing cheating allegations are not necessarily guilty. (Pissed Off Teacher)
A Core Knowledge exec says the Common Core is renewing focus on content. (Common Core Watch)
Christopher Caruso: Schools that increase learning time need deep outside partnerships. (Quick and Ed)
Russo: Few Parents Across America activists are low-income or people of color. (This Week in Ed)
CarolineSF
As a parent volunteer founding member of Parents Across America, I’m puzzled about how Alexander Russo knows anything about my income, and why Gotham Schools thinks his speculation about it worth reporting. I’ve met him once and my picture is posted on the Parents Across America website, so he is presumably aware of my race, but remind me why that’s a story again? He also discussed our apparent ages, also a hot news item. — Caroline Grannan, public school parent, San Francisco
Mr. Flerporillo
Do you have children who are currently attending public school? For the record, I’m in my early 40s, and I have two kids in NYC public school, ages 9 and 5.
CarolineSF
For the record, I was a San Francisco public school mom from fall 1996 until two weeks ago, when my younger child graduated from high school. Both my children attended diverse San Francisco public schools from grades K-12. For the record, do YOU think that my race, age and income bracket are relevant to any discussion of my role as a volunteer advocate for public schools and children, Mr. Fierpollo? For the record, is Alexander Russo a public school stakeholder in any sense of the definition beyond breathing the same air? For the record, how many of the people who are wielding their unimaginable wealth and power influencing education policy are or have ever been public school stakeholders in any sense of the word?
Mr. Flerporillo
Thanks for the response. You probably should dump the “public school parent” tagline from here on out, though, since you’re no longer one.
As far as what’s relevant to an assessment of advocacy, some of that springs from what’s put at issue by the advocates. If an advocate bills herself as a “public school parent,” then it matters, for her credibility, whether she actually has kids in public school. (I’m not saying this is a big issue for you right now, since you’re only a couple weeks out, but it could become one.) If an advocacy group says it’s “independent,” then it matters which other groups or individuals are funding that group. Age is less obviously relevant, but it may be true that the elderly care less about public education (and thus may be less inclined to increase public spending on education) than people with young children or people contemplating having children.
Income bracket is meaningless to almost every discussion except a discussion of income tax. Wealth is defined by wealth, not income. (This is a key distinction in a city like NYC, where so many people are subsidized by other people and unearned wealth (through trust funds or insane real estate appreciation) abounds. Wealth brings opportunities that people without wealth don’t have. So it’s relevant in the same way that Bloomberg’s wealth appears relevant to some of his critics. E.g., “Bloomberg doesn’t care about public schools, he sent his kids to private schools.” Similarly, if someone owns property in Tribeca or a decent zone on the UWS (or have a rent-regulated apartment, an extremely valuable asset), one might say, “She doesn’t care about charter schools, she can afford to live in Tribeca and send her kids to PS 234.” Or one might say, “Of course she’s against a charter co-location in PS 234, she doesn’t want kids from all over the city being bused to her nice neighborhood school.” I’m not saying these arguments apply to you, because I don’t know you, but surely you must understand how wealth can be relevant to this discussion.
CarolineSF
Sorry for misspelling your name.
I guess so — I haven’t gotten used to not being a public school parent. Also, I’m serving on my kids’ urban public high school’s PTSA board as an alumni parent for another year, for the record. So how do I fit THAT on a business card? Also, my husband is an urban public-school teacher — does that count?
And the “accuser” has no real-life contact with public schools at all — no skin in the game, as another “accused” Parents Across America co-founder pointed out. Nor do the vast majority of the so-called “reformers.” How about the staff of Gotham Schools, since they think it’s relevant enough to repost? Race, gender, age, income?
Ken Hirsh
I just read his post. I recommend others do as well. Just as anti-reformers fairly ask who is backing, supporting, and participating in the reform movement, it would be interesting to know who is backing, supporting, and participating in “Parents Across America”. If the parents are mostly parents that sent their kids to schools much different than the ones reformers are focused on, the group’s name could be misleading. (On the other hand, I do understand that many of the “reforms” are affecting ALL public schools. I think that is a failing of many of the reform policies — I don’t believe that one size fits all.)
Meanwhile you write “Do you think that my race, age and income backet are relevant to any discussion of my role as a volunteer advocate for public schools and children… ?” If I typed that question every time someone brought up that issue for me on GS, I’d have serious carpal tunnel syndrome.
Ken Hirsh
We all have skin in the game.
Ken Hirsh
Also, I’d add, I think many other organization names on all sides of the education reform issue, are potentially misleading.
CarolineSF
Well, in the greater sense that’s true. That’s why we all should support public education.
I was referring to people who have no actual real-life contact with public schools.
Clay
Indeed. Your corporate reform buddies are looking to make money and bust organized labor. Others are concerned with what public schools were really meant for.
Quite the difference.
CarolineSF
This entire line of discussion, as launched by Alexander Russo and picked up by Mr. Flerporillo and Ken Hirsch, is based on trying to create a new standard that it’s
wrong to advocate on behalf of those less fortunate than yourself, or those who are
outside your exact demographic profile.
I don’t think that jibes with any theology or moral code in human history. I guess it
could be a new one — which of you would like to have your name on it?
By that _____ian (fill in name) standard, I’d be proclaiming, “I want adequate funding, small class
sizes, arts and other enrichments, experienced and respected teachers, and no
’teaching to the test’ at MY kids’ schools, but if anyone else wants those things,
you’re on your own. Every man is an island. I’m looking out for No. 1.”
Ken Hirsh
So if we all have skin the game, what is relevance of the “accuser” having no “real-life contact with public schools at all”? And what passes for “real-life contact with public schools”?
Ken Hirsh
You really think I want a “new standard that it’s wrong to advocate on behalf of those less fortunate than yourself, or those who are outside your exact demographic profile”? That’s one of the funnier accusations I’ve read.
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