Screenshot of the campaign page against the UFT/NAACP lawsuit (click to enlarge)

Michelle Rhee’s new advocacy organization is jumping into the fight between the NAACP and charter school families with a new email campaign that has been flooding elected officials’ inboxes since Friday.

The campaign targets elected officials who co-signed a lawsuit, along with the teachers union and the NAACP, demanding that the Bloomberg administration halt its plans to close struggling district schools and replace them with charters.

Students First, which Rhee founded last year, sponsored the campaign, titled “Tell NYC Officials: Don’t Decrease Charter School Space.”

“Remove Your Name from the Charter School Lawsuit,” reads the subject line in the identical emails, which has been sent to the dozen officials listed as plaintiffs in the suit. In four days, more than 550 emails have been sent from people from all over New York State.

“New York needs more quality public school options,” the email reads.

“That is why I ask that you remove your name from the lawsuit that threatens to close several existing charter s ychools [sic] and to prevent others from enrolling new children. This action is tantamount to condemning thousands of kids to failing schools who otherwise would have an opportunity at a great education.”

The campaign is one of the first steps Rhee’s new organization is taking in New York. (She also organized her supporters to send a letter urging Governor Cuomo to oppose seniority-based layoffs.) In New York, Rhee enters an education advocacy landscape that has so far been dominated by the teachers union and its allies on one side and the lobbying group Democrats for Education Reform, along with Mayor Bloomberg, on the other.

The emails targeting the school closure lawsuit appear to be sent to elected officials without much consideration of their constituencies. City Council Member Letitia James of Brooklyn said that few if any emails she received were from the central Brooklyn neighborhoods she represents. They’ve come from Wappingers Falls, Kingston (upstate New York), West Islip, Merrick (Long Island), and the other city boroughs, she said.

“I applaud their activism,” James said. But she said that the petition will not change her opinion on the city’s handling of closures and co-locations, which she called “poor public policy.”

The plaintiffs were initially alerted that the emails came from a Students First initiative in an email sent by UFT officials.

It’s not clear whether the campaign has had an effect on other elected officials listed in the suit; many did not respond to requests for comment.

In addition to James, the other elected officials listed as plaintiffs are Stephen Levin, Erik Martin Dilan, Mark Weprin, Charles Barron, Ruben Wills, and Robert Jackson, of the city council; Eric Adams, Tony Avella, and Bill Perkins, of the state senate; State Assemblyman Alan Maisel and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.

A spokesperson for Students First did not respond to several requests seeking comment.

Comptroller candidate John Liu and mayoral candidate Tony Avella joined an energized and sometimes raucous crowd of around 70 public school parents, teachers and advocates at the launch event for the Coalition for Public Education, held at the lower Manhattan headquarters of the municipal union District Council 37.

The coalition could be one legacy of this spring’s protracted debate over school governance. That debate was finally settled, at least for the next six years, when Gov. Paterson signed into law a new bill that continues a modified version of mayoral control. Vowing to keep the fight against mayoral control going into the new school year, coalition organizers announced rallies in four boroughs for the first day of school next week.

“The struggle continues on this battle,” said Esmeralda Simmons, director of the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College. “Do not be fooled into thinking that because something has happened in Albany, there’s nothing else that can be done.”

Conference organizers were joined by two of the state legislature’s staunchest mayoral control opponents, Senators Bill Perkins and Eric Adams.

Avella and Frances Villar, another mayoral candidate, also called for greater checks on mayoral power and for the phasing out of the city’s charter schools. Liu and public advocate candidate Norman Siegel made pitches for greater transparency and oversight of the Department of Education.

By the end of the afternoon, small groups of parents, teachers, students and activists had developed broad guidelines for the coalition’s continued work. Most recommendations revolved around the need for an independent parent union and more well-developed teacher training.

But, organizers said, if changes to school governance structure don’t happen soon, they will take increasingly vocal action. Organizers are already planning rallies at four schools around the city on the first day of school, though they have yet to decide the exact locations.

City Council member Charles Barron asked the audience to continue lobbying politicians for change in school governance. But if major change doesn’t come, he said, activists should organize massive nonviolent resistance to schools controlled by the mayor.

More audio highlights from the event are below:

The smooth stylings of the “Say No to Mayoral Control” rap greeted parents and teachers as they arrived at the meeting:

Democratic mayoral candidate Tony Avella said that he would choose the next schools chancellor based on his or her experience as an educator in New York City schools:

Avella also argued that charter schools are a diversion from the real task of improving all of the city’s public schools:

Frances Villar, the 26-year-old Party for Socialism and Liberation mayoral candidate, explained why she also opposes charter schools:

Comptroller candidate John Liu praised the new school governance bill for granting the comptroller greater oversight over Department of Education contracts and said that he was eager to exercise that power:

Public advocate candidate Norman Siegel called for greater oversight of the Department of Education.

New York State Senator Eric Adams discussed the role parent involvement should play under the new school governance structure.

The amendments include no surprises, and outline only slightly more detail about the agreement than had previously been disclosed.

Sponsored by Senator Shirley Huntley and several other senators, including Eric Adams, Martin Dilan, and Jose Serrano, the amendments would create a $1.6 million parent training center, an arts council, yearly school safety meetings, and an additional supervision requirement for superintendents. Democratic senators agreed to vote for the Assembly’s bill in return for the passage of these four amendments.

The newest details are in a bill to create a parent training center, which has already garnered some criticism from Assembly members. According to language in the bill, the center will have many arms, each of which are thinly outlined. While offering basic guidance to parents on how to enroll their children in special education or gifted programs, the center will also recruit parents for community education councils and school leadership teams. It also aims to support college counseling initiatives.

Housed at CUNY (though at which college the bill doesn’t say), the center will be nonpartisan. The state will fund the center and the city will match that funding up to, but not above $800,000.

Perhaps the slightest change to mayoral control is in the amendment to the school superintendents’ role, which adds the words “quality of curriculum and instruction” to the list of things a superintendent must consider when assessing principals. Another bill would establish yearly school safety meetings, but doesn’t say what should be done with the concerns raised at those meetings.

The amendment to create a council on the arts, which was heavily pushed for by Sen. Serrano and Sen. Sampson, would establish a council that, while purely advisory, would issue yearly reports on the status of arts education in the city’s public schools. The bill does not say how many members the council will have, or who will appoint them.

Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. delivered a speech in Spanish against no-bid contracts. (GothamSchools)

The circus around the State Senate intensified today as half a dozen senators gathered to complain that Mayor Bloomberg would not meet them at the bargaining table. Immediately afterward, senators confirmed that negotiations are, in fact, ongoing.

“We will not be dictated to, we will be negotiated with,” said Senator Bill Perkins, a persistent critic of mayoral control. Joining Perkins on the steps of City Hall were Sens. Shirley Huntley, Hiram Monserrate, Pedro Espada, Eric Adams, Ruben Diaz Sr., and City Councilman Robert Jackson. All of the senators were among those who supported a failed bill that would have curtailed mayoral control.

After the press conference, Monserrate acknowledged to reporters that negotiations were already in progress. “We’re at the table,” he said. “There are some meetings occurring.”

Those meetings, which began on Monday after mayoral control talks fell apart last week, are being held by Democratic conference leader John Sampson’s staff and deputy schools chancellor Christopher Cerf.

Senators would not discuss the details of the negotiations today, but they reiterated their support for increased parent involvement, funding for art programs, and fixed terms for citywide school board members. A source close to the discussions described the talks as “fragile.”

Adams said Mayor Bloomberg had “misunderstood” his opposition. Saying that the senators would not “knuckle over,” he added, “We’re solid in our communities, you can do what you want.”

Nursing bruises from the city’s editorial boards, the group spent as much time chastising absent editors as it did railing against no-bid contracts, the subject of Diaz’s speech.

“We are going to be the bad guys,” Adams said. “It doesn’t matter what you think of us. It matters what the parents think of us.”

Democratic conference leader John Sampson and senators Shirley Huntley and Martin Dilan met with advocacy groups and City Hall officials last night to restart negotiations, according to Senator Eric Adams (D-Brooklyn). And early this morning, members of Sampson’s staff met with deputy schools chancellor Christopher Cerf, according to a source close to the discussions. Cerf did not return requests for comment late this afternoon.

“There was a meeting held today with the mayor’s office that we believe went extremely well,” the source said.

“There was no agreement, but they’re moving forward. We’re hopeful that we’ll have something in the upcoming days.”

Sources said that Bloomberg did not attend either of the meetings. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office declined to comment on the negotiations.

Adams said he had “no idea,” whether the school governance fight would be resolved before the Fall. “We’re not scheduled to go back up to Albany until it’s time to deal with the deficit,” he said. “So I don’t know if we’re going to make a special trip.”

Talks fell apart at the end of last week after the teachers’ union, City Hall officials, and the largest group criticizing mayoral control, the Campaign for Better Schools, crafted a deal. At first, Democratic senators expressed support for the agreement, but later Sampson told a city source, “This is not one-tenth of what I need.”

Over the weekend, the impasse between the senators and City Hall seemed to push the verbal warfare to a new low. At a rally on Sunday, Sen. Bill Perkins accused the mayor of “treating us like we’re some people on his plantation.” Bloomberg shot back with a historical jab,  implicitly comparing himself to Neville Chamberlain and New York State senators to Nazis.