Out: Forcing minorities to
endure humiliating, pointless stop-and-frisk treatment from New
York City cops. In: Destroying minorities’ public education
opportunities by killing charter schools.
Have we already hit the “Miss me yet?” reformation stage of
nanny jerk ex-mayor Michael Bloomberg? Perhaps among education
reformists. Bloomberg may have been down on letting New Yorkers
make choices about how much soda to drink, but he was a fan of
school choice and charter schools.
Bill de Blasio is not so big of a fan. Toward the end of last
week, de Blasio announced the city would not allow three new
charter schools to share space with public school buildings. The
agreements were backed by Bloomberg toward the end of his
administration, but de Blasio isn’t having it. From
Fox News:
While dozens of charter schools’ deals with the city remain
unaffected, the four affected schools had already hired principals
and teachers, and were in the process of recruiting pupils. In
addition to the Harlem school, the move leaves in the cold two
affiliated schools run by the nonprofit Success Academy Charter
Schools, headed by de Blasio’s former City Council colleague Eva
Moskowitz.“Explaining to students and families that they won’t have a
school next year is the most heartbreaking thing I’ve done at
Success Academies,” Moskowitz said in a statement. “No parent
should have to go through this.”
Charter schools do get a share of tax money to operate, but they
don’t get public funds to pay for locations or facilities. Thus,
this sharing (or sometimes full school takeovers) is a way for
charter schools to keep costs down, which helps make them more
available and accessible to the poor. And the poor are the
customers for these schools. Moskowitz isn’t running some
fly-by-night charter operation, either. Her Success Academy schools
do well. New York Daily News
notes:
Success Academy 4 children are 97% black and Hispanic. More than
three quarters are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price
lunch. Even so, a stunning 96% of the school’s kids passed the
tough new state math exam. Fifty three percent passed the English
exam — putting them in the top tier of all schools across the
state. …At nearby PS 76, 8% of kids passed their state math tests, and
6% in English. At nearby PS 149, 3% of kids passed in math, and 7%
in English. At nearby Frederick Douglass 2, 3% of kids passed in
math, and 9% in English.
De Blasio’s attitude toward charter schools may make him the
darling of the
United Federation of Teachers, but it’s putting him at odds
with a growing number of Democratic leaders, including President
Barack Obama, who
praised a Harlem charter school in a recent speech promoting
so-called “Promise Zones” for poor communities.
There’s a well-publicized rift in the Republican Party on how
they should approach social issues and pork-filled defense
spending. But there’s a much less publicized rift in the Democratic
Party about charter schools, which despite what detractors
connected to education unions say, are growing more and more
popular among the parts of the Democratic base that don’t work for
the government (and even among some who do). The fight may not have
broken the party open wide like what we’re seeing among Republicans
because the battles are taking place on the state and local levels.
It’s definitely a conflict to watch, though, as charter school
popularity continues to grow.
If you feel like delving deep into school choice issues on this
dismal Monday, watch Reason TV’s recent hour-long panel discussion
from National School Choice Week, featuring National School Choice
Week President Andrew Campanella, Reason Foundation Director of
Education Policy Lisa Snell, former Arizona Superintendent and
education reformer Lisa Keegan, Pacific Research Foundation
Educational Director Lance Izumi, and California Teachers’
Empowerment Network founder Larry Sand:
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