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Alliance for Quality Education: Parade for Public Education & Lobby Day March 5th in Albany
March 5th is a big day for events (see both the entries below this one for other March 5th events).
One of the things that gets me angriest about NYC is the fact that schools keep getting cut. And even the money put in increasingly is going to a form of privatization that leaves more and more kids behind. We are hurting our own future, hurting our children by doing this.
Alliance for Quality Education is fighting back and March 5th is your chance to get involved in Albany:
10:30am – 11:00 : Check-in at The Albany State Armory, 195 Washington Ave in Albany.
11:00 – 11:30 : Welcome & Instructions for parade
11:30pm : Line-up for parade
11:45 – 12:15pm : March from The Armory to the capital building and around the perimeter
(ending at the West Lawn of the capital)
12:15 – 1:15pm : Rally at the West Lawn
1:30pm : Advocates disperse for lobby visits
Twitter #Parade4Ed
More info (all of below are PDFs)
Educate NY Now Funding Project Curriculum
Request Educate NY Now postcards (and bring them signed on March 5th! or if you can't make it, mail to your Assembly member and State Senator)
Ending Mayoral Control
Mayoral control has been little more than a mechanism to allow Mayor Bloomberg to outsource large aspects of public education to private companies, many of which are connected with buddies of his. Some of us remember the huge admissions fiasco caused by a company in Pennsylvania the mayor outsourced Kindergarten admissions to and the bungled it. Admissions, more and more standardized testing, even entire Charter Schools all outsourced...mayoral control has been synonymous with privatization and cronyism. And it has led to LARGER class sizes, horrendous middle school applications processes, and borderline fraudulent claims of test improvements conveniently ignoring major changes in how the tests were done.
I have never supported mayoral control and have always been somewhat surprised at the lapdog nature of politicians in NYC towards Mayor Bloomberg's dictatorial methods, culminating in his legislative dismissal (with the full cooperation of his personal lapdog Christine Quinn) of voter imposed term limits for Bloomberg's personal desire to have a third term.
Currently, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll, only 18% of New Yorkers want mayoral control.
So, all that means I am happy to see an attempt to end mayoral control. From the New York City Parents Union:
Join State Assemblyman David Weprin, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery And New York City Parents Union
At A Press Conference Introducing Legislation To End Mayoral Control of NYC Schools
State Assemblyman David Weprin and State Senator Velmanette Montgomery have introduced legislation (Bill #: S1406) in their respective chambers to correct mayoral control and restore balance, professionalism, and parental input to the governance of the New York City public school system. The New York City Parents Union has been actively lobbying in Albany and working closely with Senator Montgomery for one year on legislation to empower parents and give us an authoritative voice in our public schools. These bills and others will finally put the public back in public education. Additional legislation introduced include abolishing the Chancellor waiver (Bill #: S1408) and requiring the Board of Regents to meet twice a year in New York City (Bill #: S1411).
If you are fed up with having no voice in your schools and communities, please join us and speak out about your experience with the rubber stamp Panel for Educational Policy.
WHO: State Senator Velmanette Montgomery
State Assemblyman David I. Weprin
Representatives from UFT
Representatives from the New York City Parents Union
New York City school students and parents
Other invited elected officialsWHAT: Introduction of Bills to End Mayoral Control
WHERE: City Hall steps, Lower Manhattan
WHEN: Sunday, February 3, 2013, 1PM
Below is a breakdown of the proposed new Board of Education with real stakeholders - we, the parents.
The Board of Education would continue to have 13 members.
· Each Boro President would continue to appoint 1 member.
o Each member would have to have a child in the NYC public school system.· The City Council would appoint 4 members.
o One of these would be a representative of a college or university.
o One would be a member of a parent’s organization.
o One would be a member of a Parent’s Educational Council.
o One member to be appointed at large.· The Mayor would appoint 4 members.
o Each member would have to be a resident of New York City
o At least one appointee would have to have a child in the NYC public school system.
More information at New York City Parents Union
Fighting for our schools: from the Alliance for Quality Education
A new video from the Alliance for Quality Education trying to get solid education back on the agenda in New York:
More here:
http://www.aqeny.org/will-you-fund-our-schools/
Roof Collapse at Brooklyn School Gym
Someone fowarded this email from the Math & Science Exploratory School in Brooklyn:
April 22, 2009
Due to the rain on Monday, we had a partial ceiling collapse in the fourth floor gym area. Our gym is currently off limits. We are waiting word from inspectors as to when it will be fixed and usable. Therefore gym classes will be held outside weather permitting or in classrooms.
The person who forwared it to me sent it with this comment:
yikes! i hope no one was injured! good thing there's plenty of money for ratner, but our schools are LITERALLY collapsing...
Funny how money for Ratner is always thought to be creating jobs, but money to maintain our schools isn't. Why is that?
KGIA Travesty Continues
Well, if this isn’t the ultimate irony, I don’t know what is. The Stop the Madrassa Group (SMG), the organization responsible for the attack on the Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA) before it even opened, is now calling for the closing of the school on the grounds that it has become “chaotic.â€
The group issued a press release yesterday calling for an “immediate investigation into chaotic conditions at Arabic Public School.†The Group is correct in stating that there is chaos at the school. What it fails to explain is that this chaos is a direct result of their spreading vicious lies, resulting in the loss of the school’s founding principal and the continued failure to support the school by the DOE. read more »
