On Eve Of Ed Board Debate, 50 Heavy-Hitters Back Charter Plan

So what have we learned? The parents, teachers and city residents have overwhelmingly rejected the idea of forking over needed resources from New Haven Public Schools to a corporate entity.

But the corporate entity — with the help of a traitor of a superintendent — have gotten a collection of out-of-touch folks to sign their support.

At this point, I hope it passes. I think it will be the best way to get this superintendent run out of town so he can go pick organic berries at his real home in Ridgefield. New Haven is better without him.

Mayor Harp should be very careful in her decision or she may be tending to Garth's gardens in the near future as well.

Also, if this goes through, there should be a teacher walkout. That would send a powerful message to unions everywhere that they shouldn't give an inch to these corporations that are banking on their sellout friends with oversight of real public education. Garth will have earned some national attention.

Privatizing public prisons has failed miserably. Yet this city is now poised to cede one of the most basic public goods, education, to a private corporation.

Shame on those affiliaTed with this coup who t out parental involvement while conspiring under the cover of night to advance economic interests.

I'd love to see a breakdown of the signatories based on who lives in New Haven, who currently has a child in a New Haven Public School, the type of school, and who is either employed by or directly affiliated with Achievement First.

This is very telling. Facing serious concern, pushback, and opposition from parents, teachers, students, and residents, Achievement First, Inc. drafts a letter in support of their Elm City Imagine proposal, then works its connections with local elites to demonstrate support.

Why does anyone really care what Peter Salovey has to say about Elm City Imagine? Because he is the Yale president? Besides looking fancy and carrying power, how is his status relevant to the issue at hand?

I have real concerns about whether or not these "heavy hitters" actually took the time to read the letter, let alone listen to parents' and teachers' concerns about an NHPS-AF partnership. Every single one of these co-signers should be questioned by the communities to which they are accountable. I certainly hope several of them are open to giving the issue deeper, more nuanced consideration, listening to the concerns of parents, teachers, and students, and withdrawing their signature from this AF-drafted letter of support.

from the open letter:

"If approved, additional state dollars would be allocated to fund these new charter school seats, which would allow New Haven Public Schools to strategically and significantly reduce class size at other high-needs schools."

I find this persistent claim to be bizarre. According to the NHPS website, there are currently 21,500 students enrolled in New Haven public schools. If we subtract out the students who are already being served by AF (1,720, according to the numbers on AF's website) and allow for an average class of 25 students (here I'm applying the 2010 U.S. Department of Education estimate), this would suggest there are approximately 791 non-AF public school classrooms in New Haven. At the height of Imagine's enrollment of 550 students, then, the average class size will be reduced by 1.4 students.

So here is my data-driven suggestion for a revision to the above statement:

"If approved, additional state dollars would be allocated to fund these new charter school seats, which would allow New Haven Public Schools to reduce class size at other high-needs schools by an average of 1.4 students per classroom."

These are not Heavy-Hitters.Take a look at who is on this list.Most are part of the Plutocracy,Oligarchy the Black Boule and Gentrification Vampires.To you Black Minsters who are down with this.This is a slap in the face to the late Dr.Edwin Edmonds pastor of the Dixwell Avenue United Church of Christ. For 35 years and a member of the New Haven Board of Education for many years.You need to talk to his daughter State Rep Toni Edmonds Walker.She will tell you he was for the concerns of children, public schools and the arts.It seems you are concern with the dollars.I leave you this.

The contemporary church is often a weak ineffectual voice, with an uncertain sound. It is so often the supporter of the status quo. The power structure is consoled by the church's silence, but the judgment of God is upon the church as never before------DR. KING


Although popular Negro leaders are now emerging, most of them are still selected by white leadership, elevated to positions, supplied with resources and inevitably subjected to white control. The masses of Negros are suspicious toward this manufactured leader. We have to create leaders that have virtues that we can respect, who have moral and ethical principles that we can applaud. We have to refuse crumbs from the big city machine, and demand a fair share of the loaf---DR. KING (from his book called, a Testament of Hope)

"The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations." Noam Chomsky

My bad I forgot.If the mayor runs again which she will.The mayor will approve this. She has no choice.It is election time.

I do like the line "For too long, the city's traditional public and public charter schools have operated separately while trying to do the same important work." Indeed, that is precisely the premise: Privately operated, publicly funded charter schools are a counter to publicly run, publicly funded public schools. The charters, with their mix of public and private money, under private management, and freed from the constraints of the bureaucracy, are to perform better.

The urgency to this deal reminds one of the ill-fated proposal to privatize the city's parking operations to the Gates Company a few years ago. As now, there was little detail,an impending deadline, and a fervor to jump before the opportunity was lost.

It is an impressive list of signatories. Do they have more access to the details of this deal than the rest of us? If so, as proponents, could they share with the rest of us?

Over 65% of those polled by the NHI reject this charter partnership plan. Achievement First has gone to great expense to promote its cause and lobby some of the "leading citizens" of this community, many of great wealth, power and influence, politicians, ministers, even a funeral director! How many New Haven educators signed this letter? How many parents? How many students?
The New Haven public schools should not surrender its sovereignty to a private educational enterprise. For hundreds of years, New Haveners have operated their own schools efficiently and effectively without the need to partner with private educational firms to assist in running our schools. When we have had effective, experienced and wise leadership in our school system, we have managed to do well over the years. There are late 20th and 21st century challenges faced by New Haven and all American public schools, but the present charter school movement is troubling.
Public schools belong to the public, are financed by the public and should be controlled by the public. Most Americans attend public schools. Public schools are a foundation of American democracy; charters threaten to erode that foundation. They take funds and resources, both material and human, from the public schools. Many charters, including Achievement First,have a negative, condescending view of our public schools and promote their schools as superior in every way. We can never afford to abandon our public schools. We must work to improve them.
The last thing New Haven needs is another school. An experimental charter partnership school should not be on the table.
This whole ordeal appears to be the result of having an inexperienced superintendent, and an ineffective, insensitive Board which has managed to insult hundreds of dedicated
This is a hot, controversial, divisive issue which must not be decided by 50 people, most of whom DO NOT HAVE A SINGLE CHILD in a New Haven public school. This is the people's decision to make!

None of the signatories of this letter know anything about public school education, the Greenfield vision and yet, they sign on to support this partnership. This is more about how you join the club, stay in the club and from their perch on high, tell the little people how they'll allocate their tax money to do what the elites want done. Just because you're rich, powerful and part of the in-crowd doesn't make their opinions any more valid than anybody else. None of them are experts in public school education - and in fact, backing yet another unproven experiment on our kids is just the kind knee jerk support that has helped wreck education. This is just the latest fad and this is one taxpayer who looks at it with great skepticism.

At stake in this decision are unions, BOE autonomy over New Haven schools, New Haven control of state funding for NHPS, the inclusion of parents and community stakeholders (and by that, I do not mean Yale). This is a defining moment. Who does the mayor and superintendent care more about? Yalies or the New Haven community?

Is this the result of allowing Alex Johnson on the BOE, of hiring Gath Harries to run the NHPS, of the success of NHPS Reform model? If so, this has been the plan all along. And now presence at the magnet fair and this letter. This is a done deal.

Of course those so called heavy hitters signed it. They are the ones who benefit from charter schools. They get to to use public money to send their children to a private school. A school that like many private schools has the option to "channel out" the academically and socially challenged. Notice no one is talking about those numbers. Meanwhile AF keeps sendings us more kids who are not meeting their standards. Achievement First, it's Private School at a Public Price! They are trying to divide and conquer. When the democrats serve the elites who do the workers of America have to turn to?

BOE Meeting tonight at John Martinez! 5:30! Don't miss if you have any interest in Greenfields idea.

This would make a great documentary!

Start with explaining what a charter is.What the difference between AF and say Common Ground is. While you are at it add: What a magnet school is? What a neighborhood school is? Explain how the money to pay for this stuff works?

And then get to the heart of the matter: get AF with their Amistads and Elm City Preps apparently working miracles with poor urban school kids. And the parents that are desperately trying to get into AF schools because of the perception that they do work miracles – that being providing the kids with academics that are vigorous and an atmosphere of promise and hope to go on to college and get out of the cycle of poverty that they were brought up in. Couple this with apparent failure of our public schools to adequately educate these same kids to success. But it's complicated….you need to get the truth about the kids being flushed urrrr "counseled out" of AF and dumped back into the public school in time not to screw with AF data numbers.
Toss in groups like that teacher /parent group NH Education something or something which we read about the other day fighting to keep public schools public.

Add a little of the backroom dealings of folks like Harries & Co. and AF & Co.

Mix in the complete lack of media oversight – NHI sans Melissa Bailey seems to be a place bent on printing NHPS company press releases about Greenfields and other wonders to behold.

Don't forget the national spotlight… the president said New Haven, the president said New Haven!

And then add in the waking giant – the UNIONS – when they realize that they are on the precipice of a complete change of life happening in slow increments that Harries & Co. AF and others are smartly spoon feeding to a sleeping public not to shock the heck of them.

I have looked up the Achievement First leadership team and it seems to be exceedingly pale.

http://www.achievementfirst.org/about-us/leadership-team/

Quite a commitment to diversity.

It is always so funny to me how some Americans are so easily ready to concede to governing authorities as if their decisions are the final word and their plans are "done deals" not needing public input. This is not American democracy!
There was an earlier generation of Americans who believed in freedom and representative government. They were willing to take on the richest, most powerful king and empire in the world to defend their right to govern themselves.
Some of us today lack the confidence and courage to challenge a mayor, a superintendent, City Hall and the Board of Education when we disagree with the decisions they may make. Reading some of these comments, if this were 1776, there never would have been an American Revolution!
There should never be such a thing as a "done deal" in a democracy. The concept of "done deals" is a democratic oxymoron perpetrated on the people by politicians and lobbyists like Achievement First which consider the people to be morons! If a majority of the people in New Haven oppose this proposed charter school-public school partnership, the deal should not be done. End of story. If this is a done deal, this action should be a deal breaker for those political leaders who support it because they will have failed to represent the will of the majority. How many politicians really have the nerve to support a deal over half of the citizens of New Haven oppose?
Call the mayor, call your alderman, call your pastor, call your undertaker and let them know where stand on this issue.
One last observation. When did the motto of the New Haven Board of Education change from "Kids First" to "Achievement First First"?

part 2...

And wait… a VOICE of a few kids. Something we haven't bothered to do yet.

And a mayor / Alder system that might want to I could go on. What a great documentary this would make! get re-elected.

BOE WILL meet tonight at 5:30 at John Martinez if you have a camera and want to start shooting your documentary tonight!

So, NHI, could you please report whether this meeting is still a go, given that both schools have cancelled school today?

From the NHPS website:

All City of New Haven meetings planned for tonight will take place as scheduled, including the Board of Education meeting scheduled for 5:30pm at Martinez School 100 James Street, New Haven. The agenda can be found here.

Recognizing the weather conditions tonight and the desire for public comment on the NHPS.AF Partnership, the agenda and location for the Board's Governance committee scheduled for Tuesday, February 17th at 5:30pm will be adjusted to ensure additional opportunity for public comment.

It would be nice (read: appropriate) if this writer gave us a definition of "Heavy Hitters".

What makes them "Heavy"? And what are they hitting?

This ascribed appellation sounds more like the status quo (The NHI) conferring power on the staus quo (Its self-selected group of proponents) simply because it can.

Welcome to the power of the press. Clearly, an institution that has turned away from a search for truth through the use of objective information, but one that exist for the sake of its own power and influence, as it too becomes defined by the so-called "power elites" it is supposed to be vigilant about.

The Rev. Mr. Samuel T. Ross-Lee

While the union slept ... the corporate charter movement was busy at work!!! But it's not just the union whose pockets are being picked by this proposal -- it's all the taxpayers of New Haven.

What does Peter Salovey care about whether the New Haven public school system spends $2,000/child to outsource its core educational functions? Apparently, if Garth Harries doesn't have the desire or wherewithal to improve the NHPS's delivery of educational services by the organization he is paid big money to shepherd (and btw he appears to lack any confidence in the ability of his instructional staff to adequately perform their public educational functions), why not send it to AF??!!

But when the true price tag comes due, (loss of educational funding by NHPS for the 500 Imagine students; plus a $2,000/kid bonus to AF) the Board of Aldermen will be presented with a New Haven BoE budget over which they will have to either take it or leave it in total. And when the decks are as stacked in favor of AF as they now appear to be ... get ready to open your wallets w-i-d-e so that the AF truck can back on up and get their due.

posted by: Razzie on February 9, 2015 5:28pm

While the union slept ... the corporate charter movement was busy at work!!! But it's not just the union whose pockets are being picked by this proposal—it's all the taxpayers of New Haven.

They did not slept.Some new york teachers I know just send this to me. This is the real deal.

New Haven Teachers Union Sells Out - Again - With Old Joel Klein Buddy Garth Harries.

Randi's footprints on this one are invisible but there all the same given her role in past New Haven contracts. Note the presence of our old pal Garth Harries, one in the long line of Klein Klones like Marc Sternberg, Shael, John White, etc. Funny but when Harries was being considered for the job guess who one of the recruiters called cause he read about him on ed notes? That was a fun interview.

The end of the article may be the best part as union leader Cicarella used the outrageous demands from the BOE to browbeat the teachers into this.


Christmas Threat Was A Bluff
As a preamble to the proposed contract, Cicarella wrote out a list of the Board of Education's initial offers—offers that would have slashed teachers' contractual rights.
Proposed changes include:
• "Eliminate all class size limits"
• Increase school day to 8 hours
• "Eliminate all holidays presently in contract (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Columbus Day, all Jewish Holidays, etc)"
• No personal days in June
• "Eliminate the ability of a teacher to grieve an established policy or practice."


Harries said Cicarella's list is "an accurate description of a negotiation position." But it was a negotiation tactic, he said: "It was no one's expectation of where we should land."

To all read the rest.

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2013/11/new-haven-teachers-union-sells-out.html

@myself

"there are approximately 791 non-AF public school classrooms in New Haven. At the height of Imagine's enrollment of 550 students, then, the average class size will be reduced by 1.4 students."

...try 0.69%, man. Sheesh.

The school of the future is any school that can help kids overcome disadvantages of birth and American public schools have always done that better than any school system in history. The warriors in this battle have been the dedicated teachers that give time, energy, money, and even lives in places like New Town. It is regrettable that big pocket billionaires have used their money to back self-righteous know it allS who manipulate naive parents and politicians in the name of being saviors for poor children. American public schools have borne an unequal burden for teaching the country about social integration and done a good job of it. Our public schools have produced some of our greatest citizens despite being unfairly criticized in movies and other electronic and print media. The Scene on the Green was just that, a shallow public relations ploy designed to fool or frighten citizens into signing up to be led down a path of bait and switch with Kool Aid the only refreshment. Dacia Toll makes more money than Garth Harries and neither of them are worth their salaries. Steve Perry spends more time on the road than in his school. The New Haven School Board is a joke as well. They sit idly by while the school district is being dismantled by a posse of no nothings who prey on the lack of knowledge of far too many members of our community. Some Black preachers have betrayed the legacy of the men and women who sacrificed to bring education to the masses. Wake up and get on the right side of this struggle before it is too late. This most recent power grab is immoral and plain stupid. CHARTER SCHOOLS ARE NOT THE ANSWER AND WE SHOULD PUT A STOP RIGHT NOW. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, without new blood on the school board, we are headed for oblivion. Mayor Harp, holla if you hear us! Carlos Torre get a grip. Garth Harries, leave now.If you wanted to be a superintendent you should have taught school, led a building, and done something worthy. Entitlement personified.

Heavy hitters? Should we be imtimidated by this list of heavy hitters? God, I miss Melissa Bailey. I would also like to see a breakdown of these signatures- who has a child in a NHPS? We already know at least two BOE members and Mayor are in the back pocket of AF.