GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

A handful of parent leaders are exploring their political viability for the upcoming election cycles, hoping to tap into a growing dissatisfaction with the city’s handling of the school system.

Previously, the parents have held seats on their school’s parent-teacher association or served top posts on their district’s Community Education Councils. Some are seasoned organizers and have family histories steeped in New York City politics. Still others are looking beyond the five boroughs as a way to influence education policy.

Two have declared for State Assembly races this fall, but most at the city level have yet to open campaign chests or secure any key endorsements. Few have connections to the political organizations that frequently power candidates into office. But they are testing the waters and, in interviews, they share a common gripe when speaking about their pursuit of a higher office.

“We’ve been completely marginalized by the current administration,” said Noah Gotbaum, who said he is considering a run in the already crowded race for public advocate, a position his stepmother, Betsy Gotbaum, occupied from 2001 to 2009. (His father, Victor Gotbaum, headed DC-37, one of the city’s largest unions, for two decades until 1987.)

“The DOE flat out ignores parents across the board,” said Sam Pirozzolo, a parent council president from Staten Island who is actively campaigning for State Assembly this year.

It’s just one part of a larger, if uncoordinated, organizing effort by groups seeking greater influence over policy decisions once Mayor Bloomberg departs after 12 years in office. Last week, a coalition of unions and advocacy groups announced it would work to galvanize opposition to Bloomberg’s least popular policies, which include closing troubled schools and expanding the number of charter schools, in the mayoral race. (more…)

Tisch spoke on a GothamSchools panel in 2011.

Breaking her silence on the city’s plan to overhaul 33 struggling schools, Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch said late Wednesday that she believes “turnaround” is a political strategy, not an educational one.

“There’s a fight going on here that has nothing to do with what’s going on at the school,” she said. “It’s a labor dispute between labor and management and has nothing to do with the kids.”

Tisch was referring to the stalemate between the Bloomberg administration and the teachers union that gave rise to the city’s turnaround plans. Bloomberg announced the plans in January as a way to get federal funds for the schools even though the city and union had not been able to agree on new teacher evaluations, a requirement of less aggressive strategies already in place. The turnaround strategy, which require the schools to be closed and reopened after changing their names and half of their teachers, has only deepened enmity between the city and UFT.

On Wednesday, Tisch visited one of the schools, William E. Grady Career and Technical Education High School, and said she was impressed by the changes underway, which she attributed to its principal, Geraldine Maione. The school received millions of federal dollars in the last two years while undergoing “transformation,” which funded extra tutoring, additional programs, and new technology.

“This is a school that is moving in a really fine direction,” Tisch said of Grady, which received a B on its most recent city progress report. ”This is the wrong message to this school at this time. Don’t be so dismissive of the efforts going on in that building.”

It was Tisch’s second visit to the school. Last week, she brought fellow Regent Kathleen Cashin for a visit that was scheduled after she met Maione in February at a principals union event featuring Diane Ravitch. On Wednesday, Maione said, Tisch and Cashin brought State Education Commissioner John King along with them. (more…)

All eyes are on Albany today, the deadline Gov. Andrew Cuomo set last month for an agreement on new teacher evaluations.

The deadline is for the state teachers union, NYSUT, to set aside its lawsuit over the evaluations and reach an agreement with the State Education Department over how new evaluations should be structured.

The word on the street — and in the Capitol parking lot, which Cuomo exited early Wednesday — is that SED and NYSUT appear nearly assured of meeting that deadline. But the specifics of an agreement remain opaque. Last spring, NYSUT had sued over Cuomo’s bid to increase the weight test scores play in the evaluations.

Now, attention among the governor’s staff has turned to the city’s own evaluations impasse. Just a month ago, Cuomo gave the city a year to resolve its conflicts, which have focused on the appeals process for teachers who receive low ratings. But he seems eager to be able to announce a statewide sweep of teacher evaluation deals.

Whether a sweep is in Cuomo’s grasp remains unclear. (more…)

Two schools that had faced closure votes this week are being taken off the chopping block.

The Department of Education said today it would no longer seek to close the middle grades of Wadleigh Secondary School of Performing and Visual Arts or the KAPPA VII middle school in Brooklyn. Teachers reported getting the news at the end of the day today, one day before the citywide school board was set to vote on the closure proposals.

Chancellor Dennis Walcott said the department had made the decision after listening to community input at public meetings and behind the scenes.

“While these two schools continue to struggle, what we learned is that they are also poised to quickly improve,” he said in a statement.

But supporters of the schools, particularly Wadleigh, said the city’s statement was a smokescreen and said they would still travel to Thursday’s Panel for Educational Policy meeting in Brooklyn to protest closure votes for 23 other schools.

The real reason for the unusual reversal, they said, was that influential politicians in Harlem had sprung to Wadleigh’s aid — and threatened the Bloomberg administration in the process. (more…)

Students at a charter high school who have been learning about state politics evidently think Gov. Andrew Cuomo asked the right questions during his State of the State address earlier this month.

During the speech, Cuomo argued that students are the only people in schools who don’t have advocates in Albany. Who should represent them? he asked. His answer: “This year, I will take a second job — consider me the lobbyist for the students.”

That answer satisfied students the Renaissance Charter High School for Innovation, who created a short video recapping Cuomo’s comments.

“Who’s OUR lobbyist?” one student asks. Later, she says, “My governor, my lobbyist.”

The video is part of the school’s preparation for Charter Advocacy Day on Feb. 7, according to Principal Nicholas Tishuk. It follows another video, about cyberbullying, produced earlier this month after legislators visited the school. (more…)

City Councilman Robert Jackson, Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and UFT President Michael Mulgrew addressing students at P.S./I.S. 187.

With a new round of budget projections already on the horizon, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn sent a clear message to City Hall today, warning Mayor Bloomberg that teacher layoffs would not be on the table to close gaps at the Department of Education.

“I cant imagine why you would go back to that idea again,” Quinn told reporters outside P.S./I.S. 187 in Washington Heights, where she spent more than an hour greeting students on their first day of school. “It didn’t work.”

It was just a couple of months into the last school year that Bloomberg announced his intention to lay off thousands of teachers in order to balance the city’s budget. But layoffs were ultimately averted after the city struck a deal with the UFT and City Council.

Quinn, who is planning a 2013 mayoral run, said she hasn’t discussed the prospect of teacher layoffs with the mayor yet this year. But she signaled that she would reprise last year’s fight if the mayor again levels a layoff threat.

“I think, and I certainly hope, that they saw how clear and strong we in the council felt about the idea of layoffs last year,” she said.

Quinn was joined by Councilman Robert Jackson, chair of the education committee, and United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew at the school. (more…)

The Facebook campaign to make Weingarten senator.

The Times reports today that, early this morning, there were only two possible contenders to replace Hillary Clinton whom Governor Paterson had not called to say “Sorry, you’re not it”: Kirsten Gillibrand, a congresswoman from upstate New York, and Randi Weingarten, the local and now-national union president. Gillibrand is definitely Paterson’s pick, but just before that became clear, there was a groundswell to push Weingarten for the choice.

It didn’t come from teachers; it came from the gay and lesbian community. Above is the image from the Facebook campaign a BGLT group created on behalf of Weingarten, who publicly came out recently. There’s also this story on the Queerty blog.

Did Weingarten ever really consider taking the seat? At first, I thought she was having her name floated simply as a way to raise her image and political stature, not because she was serious. But lately I’ve been getting the sense from people Weingarten consults that she sincerely considered changing jobs. The fact that this Facebook campaign doesn’t hurt that idea.

United Federation of Teachers officials said Weingarten will have a comment on Gillibrand later today.

Hat tip to Examiner on the Facebook campaign.

Not allowed, says a federal court

I am pleased that the federal court agreed with us that teachers cannot wear political buttons while in our schools. Keeping politics out of the classroom was our primary concern here, and our position has been fully vindicated.

Background on the case, brought by the United Federation of Teachers earlier this month, who wanted teachers to be able to wear buttons, here and here.

UPDATE: I just got the actual decision, by Lewis Kaplan of the southern district court. It’s not as clear-cut a victory for Klein as his statement suggests. Teachers cannot wear political buttons, but they are allowed to do two other things: (1) post materials with “candidate-related political content” on union bulletin boards located close to students and (2) stuff staff mailboxes with “materials containing candidate related political content.”

An ED in 08 sign appeared behind Chris Matthews before the debate last night.

Despite having been written off for dead recently when its funders cut its pursestrings, ED in ’08, the campaign to make education a prominent issue in the election, was clearly alive during last night’s debate.

A campaign sign held up behind NBC commentator Chris Matthews during that network’s pre-debate coverage touted ED in ’08. The organization running the campaign, Strong American Schools, had about 75 employees and volunteers at the debate, according to spokeswoman Shannon Murphy. She said one of them probably held the sign behind Matthews.

Murphy also said ED in ’08 “had an idea” about the debate’s final question:

The U.S. spends more per capita than any other country on education. Yet, by every international measurement, in math and science competence, from kindergarten through the 12th grade, we trail most of the countries of the world. The implications of this are clearly obvious. Some even say it poses a threat to our national security. Do you feel that way and what do you intend to do about it.

For the record, ED in ’08 has said this issue can be solved with more time in school, better teachers, and national standards. Some of those policies appeared in the candidates’ answers.

Even without Ed in ’08‘s urging, education is likely to pop up during tonight’s town hall-style presidential debate, which focuses on domestic policy issues. For a primer on the candidates’ education views, read GothamSchools’ coverage of Barack Obama’s platform and John McCain’s platform.

Dana Goldstein at the American Prospect says she wishes the candidates would address the growing segregation in our country’s schools, which Sen. Ted Kennedy argues in a new article has received far too little attention from the justice department under the Bush administration. I’d like to hear more about which elements of their education plans they realistically think can be implemented in lean financial times. If the worsening economy crowds out these topics tonight, they’ll likely be on the agenda of the education-only debate between the candidates’ leading education advisers, taking place Oct. 21 at Teachers College. That debate will be streamed live online.