Friday, June 23, 2017

THE REPUBLICAN FACE SAVER ON CHARTER SCHOOLS IS HERE

We not so boldly predicted yesterday that there would be a deal on mayoral control of NYC schools soon. The Assembly linking the issue to sales taxes for many counties makes it almost certain that the Legislature will be back in Albany within a short period of time. Mayoral control's renewal may be almost upon us as Republicans have new alternate certification requirements for charter schools they can point to in order to claim victory for the charter schools. They got something.

Mayor Bill de Blasio will gets school control; the counties across New York State get their sales taxes and the Republicans get a victory on charter schools.

The losers will be the students and teachers in NYC schools. So what else is new?

This information comes from Politico NY:

New York City’s charter school sector appears to have secured a significant victory in the 11th hour of the Legislative session Wednesday night, with a set of regulations that will make it much easier for large charter networks to hire more uncertified teachers.

The new rules fulfill a major legislative priority for the city’s most powerful charter leader, Eva Moskowitz, and Success Academy, her 41-school network.

The regulations may also clear a path to a deal on extending mayoral control of New York City’s schools, assuming the Legislature reconvenes later this week or next week, since support for charters proved to be the key sticking point between Senate Republicans and Assembly Democrats as they wrestled with an extension of school control.

Thanks to reading Ed Notes on this topic, there is another fact we should consider: Mayoral control is not popular.

Read the result of these Quinnipiac polls via Ed Notes that asked this question:
"Do you think the mayor should retain complete control of the public schools or share control of the public schools with other elected leaders?" 
Those are pretty strong numbers against mayoral control but the politicians will continue to ignore the public. Again, so what else is new?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What folks don't realize is this is not the mid 2000's era of a financial crisis. Back then tons of people were applying for charter school jobs because they needed a steady paycheck. Word is out now how horrible it is to work in a charter school so even if they loosen up certification requirements, I do not think that people are going to be lining up to take a charter school job. Prospective teachers want job security, pensions, and decent work hours, all of which charters do not provide. 99% of prospective teachers would take a steady public school job over working in a charter. I briefly worked in a charter 9 years ago and not a single teacher is still working there from that time. They either moved on to a public school or left working in education al together.

Anonymous said...

I don't think Eva cares. Nor do the policians or the hedge funders. Better a 100% turnover than having to treat the teachers like people.

Anonymous said...

After awhile parents are going to see the churn. Her schools are unsustainable.

ed notes online said...

Eva is getting her own training and certification program -- they can drag them in off the streets and churn, churn, churn -- they will say their programs are teacher proof -- get monkeys if needed and people will buy it.

John G said...

Eva is a Democrat. Charter advoctes in NY are Democrats. The ones who lead the 09-12 ed wars were all Democrats and that knife in teachers' back is a Democrat.
If you think this false dicotomy is between D and R, then I have a bridge to sell you.

Anonymous said...

Plenty of college graduates have difficulty finding jobs. Soon they will take high school drop outs to run their scripted programs. The less educated the facilitator, the better. No unions, no inflated salaries, no pensions, no nonsense. It is a dream come true for pseudo philanthropists.

Abigail Shure