Education Forum at the Ridgewood Democratic Club on March 25th...

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On Friday March 25th, the Ridgewood Democratic Club held a forum on Education with guest speaker Billy Easton (Executive Director) - Alliance for Quality Education...

A Look At The Issues Facing Public Education Today - Ridgewood Democratic Club Meeting - Friday, March 25, 2011 - 7:30 pm

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AQE Video Contest - Budget Cuts -with Cynthia Nixon - YouTube

Dear Gov. Cuomo: Our Kids Need College and Careers!

Too many schools have lost teaching positions, needed programs and are struggling to get by with bare-bones resources. How much more can we take from our kids?

Governor Cuomo is calling for another devastating education budget cut totaling $1.5 BILLION dollars! We've heard from the Governor, but now it's time that he hears from YOU.

Make a video telling the Governor how budget cuts to education could affect your educational future. Enter the contest and win an iPad or $1,000 for your classroom!

Public Advocate de Blasio and AQE Report: DOE Fails to Evaluate Impact of School Closings and Co-Locations on Children's Education...

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and the Alliance for Quality Education (AQE) today released a report that examines how the Department of Education (DOE) makes decisions regarding major changes in school buildings utilization. The report focuses on the DOE’s practice of having schools share building space, also known as co-locations and school closings procedures. If not well planned and coordinated, co-locations, along with school closings, can disrupt students’ education and decrease their access to school facilities such as classrooms, gymnasiums and cafeterias.

The report comes weeks after an appellate court prevented from closing 19 schools because the DOE failed to follow the law's parental engagement requirements and adequately evaluate the impact these changes have on school services. The report findings suggest that these same problems exist in the DOE's process to co-locate schools.

"We cannot improve our education system if the DOE ends up shortchanging students while it is trying to create better schools," said Public Advocate de Blasio. "This report essentially asks Chancellor Klein not to make the same mistakes he made when he tried to close 19 schools earlier this year. The DOE must conduct a meaningful information process that explains to parents how changes in school buildings will affect their children's education and gives them an opportunity to provide feedback."

“This report demonstrates why educational impacts must be the centerpiece in making decisions about school closings and co-locations. The Chancellor’s ongoing assertion that DOE’s shortcomings in these decisions were strictly ‘procedural’ is not reality based—the DOE simply did not do the required analysis of the educational impacts,” said Billy Easton, Executive Director of the Alliance for Quality Education. “The parent survey offers valuable insights into how to improve the process—answering parents’ questions in public meetings would be a good start.” 

"Under our co-location the therapy rooms were lost, my daughter's physical therapist was shifted from a therapy room to a locker room. Her occupational therapy was shifted to the library where she had to receive occupational therapy next to another student who was also receive occupational therapy while at the same time the library had a class or workshop going on.  She needs therapy on a one-on-one basis.  The result is that the quality of the therapy is not what it needs to be. This is not something the DOE looked at when they decided to co-locate the schools.  One-third of the students in my daughter's school are in special ed.  These students are lost in the shuffle of the co-location process."  Lydia Bellachecne, Parent Association President, PS 15, Brooklyn

 “The DOE did not notify the parents.  If the principal had not mentioned it to us we would not have known they were planning to close the school,” said Evette Chico, Vice President, Parent Association, Maxwell High School, Brooklyn.  “Last year I was the Parent Association President and I found out about the hearings after the fact. In fact I was on the School Leadership Team and nobody from DOE talked to us about co-sponsoring the hearing. There are not a lot of vocational schools in Brooklyn, the kids who graduate from Maxwell are going to have a career. My daughter is studying cosmetology, not too many schools offer that program.”

“Given the overwhelming evidence of parental dissatisfaction & lack of transparency as proven by the surveys of the Public Advocates Office & the Alliance for Quality Education, CEJ stands firmly & urgently calls for a Temporary Moratorium on School Closings and Co-locations until there is an Independent Analysis of Impact,” said Rodrick Daley, Parent Leader at the Center for Educational Justice. The courts and the surveys by the Public Advocates office have agreed that the current Educational Impact Statements upon which decisions have been made are inadequate. Our children deserve accurate and thoughtful consideration of the impact any changes will have on their future.” 

REPORT FINDINGS

The report includes an analysis of 39 Educational Impact Statement (EIS) --the official document that is supposed to provide an assessment of the impact that a proposed change will have on student’s education— including statements for 19 schools that were slated for closure this year, and covering 25 of the 66 schools that the Panel for Educational Policy approved for co-location in the 2010-2011 school year.

The analysis shows that not one EIS articulated a clear plan for the educational improvement for the affected students.  Specifically on EIS for co-locations, 13 out of the 20 EIS analyzed asserts that the proposed change will “provide high quality school options" but they failed to explain how these schools will in fact “provide high quality education” to their districts. 

In addition to relying heavily on boilerplate language, the EIS did not address how the proposed changes would impact other educational variables, such as art and music space, afterschool programming, early education programs, physical education space and other valuable school resources.

Furthermore, the report also finds that parents were not given enough time to ask questions and comment on the EIS, with 11 of the 25 schools examined only having between two and six days to provide and receive feedback.

This report also includes the results of a survey of 874 parents from 34 affected schools.  The analysis and survey find that the DOE has not provided adequate information for members of the school community to understand and comment about how students will be affected by these decisions, and most parents surveyed said that the DOE could improve the process by making the EIS more clear, and providing more opportunities for parents to learn about and understand proposed changes in their children’s schools.

Among the main findings revealed by the survey are:

·         Parents don’t know how the programs in their school will be impacted by a co-location: 42% of parents responded that the DOE did not provide specific information on how existing education programs will be affected by school changes.

·         Parents whose children’s schools will be co-located beginning in September think this change will result in less access to gymnasiums, classrooms, cafeterias, and auditoriums. At least a third of parents surveyed reported that their children’s access to the following areas will suffer after the co-location: cluster rooms (44%), gymnasium (41%), cafeteria (43%), classroom space (41%), and auditorium (35%).

·         Educational Impact Statements, which are supposed to thoroughly evaluate and explain the impact of a co-location or closure, are not widely distributed and are deeply flawed: 62% of parents did not know about the EIS (44%) or knew about the EIS but did not see it (18 %); and 52% of parents said the DOE did not address questions about proposed school changes.

·         Parents overwhelmingly responded that the engagement process can be improved and have valuable suggestions, many of which the Public Advocate and AQE recommend the DOE adopt. 70% of parents said that process can be improved and a significant number offered a variety of suggestions including providing more specific information about changes to school programs, additional opportunities for parental comment on program changes, a more detailed EIS and informational meetings for parents at their schools before the official hearing and comment period begins.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The report offers eight viable recommendations for policy improvements by the DOE and at the State level that aim to make school changes less disruptive, including the following:

1.      Provide meaningful Educational Impact Statements. The EIS must be substantially improved to include a detailed and understandable analysis of potential effects of the co-location and closings, including: safety issues, such as ensuring sufficient access to fire exits; impact on students who are English language learners and students with disabilities; impact on existing educational programs; and specific plans to guarantee the provision of physical education and arts education programs.

2.      Create school building councils. The DOE should require all schools slated to share space to create permanent School Building Councils comprised of school administrators, staff and parents which will evaluate space decisions for co-located schools.

3.      Ensure greater transparency, access to information and opportunities for involvement. The DOE should make the EIS more widely available at schools and the process more transparent, including posting transcripts of all public hearings online, and webcasting school-based public hearings and PEP meetings.

4.      Require school-based informational meetings. Schools should conduct informational meetings with parents prior to the start of the official hearing process to discuss the EIS with members of the school community and provide parents opportunities to review and discuss the proposed changes, as well as have their questions and concerns addressed.

5.      Do not hinder school growth.  The DOE should refrain from implementing co-locations that require schools currently not slated for closure to reduce enrollment or to scale back expansion plans that are already in progress.

6.      Develop uniform standards for co-location and closure decisions.  The DOE should develop, make publicly available and utilize clear and consistent standards for its decisions regarding co-locations and closures

7.   Study the impact of closures and co-locations before proposing additional major school utilization changes.  The DOE should delay proposing new closure and co-locations for a period of up to six months to allow sufficient time for an independent analysis of the impact on students of closures and co-locations is completed.

8.      NYSED and State Legislature should monitor City’s compliance with current law and modify the law if necessary. If changes to improve the process to implement school changes are not implemented, the State Legislature and the State Education Department should act to strengthen the education law’s public engagement requirements to incorporate such changes.

The full report is available at www.advocate.nyc.gov and www.aqeny.org

One New York Press Conference - City Hall Steps - Tuesday December 9th - 1pm - Contact AQE...

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One New York
PRESS CONFERENCE
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
1:00 pm
(Please arrive by 12:45 pm)

City Hall Steps

On December 9th, the City Council will vote on Mayor Bloomberg’s recommendations for mid-year budget cuts to schools, dental clinics, senior services, child care and other services vital to all New Yorkers.

Sponsored by One New York: Fighting for Fairness, a coalition of over 190 community organizations, human service agencies and labor unions.

For more information, or to RSVP, contact the Alliance for Quality Education: 718-222-1089, ext. 276; smarksodinga@aqeny.org

Letter to the Editor - School Cuts Don’t Make The Grade - Queens Ledger

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Dear Editor;

Now that our children have returned to school from Spring Break, it is imperative that we turn our attention to working together diligently to stop the potentially devastating education budget cuts that lame-duck Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed in next years New York City budget.

Mayor Bloomberg has failed our children with his power grab for Mayoral control of the school system.

Parents and education advocates have been successful through lobbying, phone calls, letters and in unity with the "Keep the Promise" coalition to stop the funding cuts to education in the New York State budget and we must do the same in the New York City budget.

I strongly believe that we must keep the pressure on our City elected officials, especially the City Council, who must negotiate for the FULL restoration of education funding with the Mayor before they vote to approve the City budget by the mid-June deadline.

The worst case scenario is that up to 8% of their budgets will be cut, in addition to previously enacted cuts by our "education" Mayor.

Mayor Bloomberg has already cut education funding directly from our schools in the current 2007-08 fiscal year by 1.7% or $180 million and has proposed cutting an additional 8% or over $600 million in fiscal year 2008-09. This is a total cut of over three-quarters of a billion dollars in education funding

I feel that it is essential that we successfully lobby the City Council to reverse the Mayors cuts and restore all education funding for our children to successfully achieve their full career potentials.

Parent groups throughout the City are calling for a "Mobilization Week" (during the week of May 19 to May 23) to lobby elected officials. The Keep the Promise coalition is also planning additional advocacy activities to pressure the Mayor and City Council.

As one part of the “Mobilization Week,” all parent and advocacy groups (Parents Associations, President Councils, Teachers, etc) are asked to engage and lobby the members of the New York City Council who represent their respective school districts.

I would implore that all concerned parties participate in other activities, such as planned rallies and show their support by attending the overnight vigil at City Hall which is being organized to send a clear, strong message to Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council that funding cuts to education are totally unacceptable to the voters of this great City!

One budget cut I would propose is that the DOE reduce their over bloated press/public relations department (over 15 employees making over $150,000) which is used to spin the truth and convince the citizenry of New York City that the Mayor and the Chancellor are doing a great job when the all rational evidence points to a completely contrary view. The DOE public relations spin-meisters are only out numbered in City government by the Mayor’s Office itself.

The time for inaction and civility is over it’s important that all interested parties and individuals are fully engaged and that we make a concerted activity between now and when the City Council votes on the City budget in June so we can win restoration of the education budget for the future of our children and our City.

Sincerely,
David M. Quintana
Ozone Park

Star Of Queens by Steven Ortiz - David M. Quintana - The Queens Courier

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David M. Quintana
Community Activist
Ozone Park

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: David Quintana, 51, has been a resident of Ozone Park for the last 39 years. He is an active member of many community organizations including Community Board 10, the Highland Park/Ridgewood Reservoir Education and Preservation Project, South Queens Democratic Club, Borough President Parent Advisory Council, and Richmond Hill Historical Society. Quintana also maintains a blog, Lost in the Ozone, dedicated to the schools, politics, environment and history of southern Queens.

Quintana is involved in community affairs because it’s important to him that quality of life is maintained and improved. “It’s important that people become civically involved so that we can let elected officials know what’s happening and hopefully they’ll do what they’re elected to do and take care of the people.”

PERSONAL: Quintana is a single parent and lives with his two teenage daughters Kayla, 17 and Madeline, 15. He works from home as a salesman.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE: The biggest challenge Quintana is facing is the Parks Department and its planned renovation of the Ridgewood reservoir. “Parks wants to knock down thousands of trees and put in artificial turf. I would like to see them better the community by using the $50 million they have earmarked for that to basically keep the reservoir in its natural condition and improve the current baseball fields and parks that have been neglected in Cypress Hills for the last 30-35 years. We are literally fighting City Hall on this.”

FAVORITE MEMORY: One memory stands out in Quintana’s mind. “A few years ago my daughter Madeline and I went up to Albany to lobby about the schools. We did a yellow school bus tour sponsored by The Alliance for Quality Education. She was the voice of the students and made some very solid arguments on behalf of the public school students in New York. We stopped at several locations throughout the state and she spoke to the press at each location about the problems in the schools. I was very proud of her.”

INSPIRATION: Quintana gets inspiration from his parents. “My dad was involved in the community and was one of the founding members of the Woodhaven/Richmond Hill Ambulance Corp. He was also a Legion Commander of the American Legion Post on 101st Avenue. My mom has always been an inspiration in my life too.”

PROUDEST MOMENT: “Witnessing the birth of my daughters. It’s an awesome experience.”

— Steven Ortiz

State Passes Budget Boosting Funding for City Schools by Zack Hoopes - Columbia Spectator

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Engineered and promoted by brand-new Governor David Paterson, CC ’77, and passed by the New York State Assembly on Wednesday, the 2008-2009 state budget includes a windfall $1.75 billion increase in state education funding.

New York City schools will now receive $534 million, a fact which has prompted education campaigners to press ahead and call on Mayor Bloomberg and city schools Chancellor Joel Klein—this year’s class day speaker—to change their budget proposal as well.

At the end of 2006, then-Governor Spitzer agreed to a four-year plan which would increase education funding by $5.5 billion, $2.35 billion of which would go to city schools, according to Geri Palast, executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. The CFE. led by then-lead plaintiff, current City Councilman Robert Jackson (D-West Harlem and Washington Heights), was involved in a 14-year legal battle over funds, won by the CFE and which resulted in the Contract for Excellence, an agreement between the city and state.

But Spitzer, citing a downturn in the economy and a need to streamline the state budget, proposed to cut ’08-’09 funding off of the agreed four-year schedule. Jackson said this year is different. “It [the contract] was in jeopardy, but the state [under Paterson] kept its promise,” he said.

Now that the state has held up its end of the bargain, Jackson said the heat is on for Bloomberg to increase education funding. “There’s no reason why Bloomberg, when he comes out with his executive budget about a month from now, cannot keep the promise,” Jackson said.

Billy Easton, executive director of the Alliance for Quality Education, an organization associated with the CFE, noted that “there has been a groundswell of demand across the city for the restoration of funding promised by the state. Now we need to take our momentum and focus our attentions on the mayor to put the money back in.”

One problem has been an ideological difference between the Mayor and Chancellor’s offices and the CFE camp. The former tend to reward high-performing schools with more money, while the latter promote putting money into lower-performing schools in hope of increasing quality. The 2006 contract “required that the majority of the money be spent on high-need kids in low-performing schools, and the city did not do that last year,” Palast said.

Transparency and accountability, particularly with the Chancellor’s office, are other parts of the contract. Jackson in particular has questioned Klein’s methods, saying that they indicate Klein is “just a point person for the mayor” and not committed to the schools. “If you’re not communicating what you’re doing, you’re not standing up for the children of New York City,” Jackson said.

In response to these criticisms, Klein told the New York Times: “I have no apology to make for my leadership. This city has added $4 billion; that is a product of the mayor’s leadership and my leadership.”

At the end of the day, the budget victory for the CFE seemed to be but one battle won in a long and weary war. When asked where she would be going from here, Palast replied, “Right now I’m going home and going to bed.”

zack.hoopes@columbiaspectator.com

State Restores All CFE Funds for NYC Schools! Joint statement by CFE and AQE...

Hallelujah...All my praise and sincere thanks on behalf of parents and students go to Governor Paterson and the NYS Assembly..!

April 9, 2008
For Info: Geri Palast 212-867-8460
For Immediate Release: Billy Easton 518-432-5315

Campaign for Fiscal Equity, Inc
110 William Street – Suite 2602, New York, NY 10038
Tel (212) 867-8455 Fax (212) 867-8460
www.cfequity.org

Alliance for Quality Education
94 Central Avenue, Albany, NY 12206
Tel (518) 432-5315 Fax (518) 432-9498
www.aqeny.org

CFE & AQE REACTION TO RECORD SCHOOL AID INCREASE: EQUITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY MAINTAINED ASSEMBLY AND GOVERNOR PROVIDE THE LEADERSHIP SENATE MAJORITY MAKES TAXPAYERS ADD OVER $100 MILLION IN POLITICALLY-DRIVEN “SHARES” FUNDING

The 2008-2009 education budget enacts a record $1.75 billion increase in funding for public education; the key issue delaying the education budget was not how much money would be spent but how it would be distributed across the state. $1.2 billion of the $1.75 billion is distributed through the foundation formula that was enacted last year to take the politics out of school aid and distribute basic classroom operating aid based upon student need. However, more than $100 million was added to this budget at the insistence of the State Senate Majority in order to accommodate the demands of the Long Island Senate delegation for so-called Long Island “shares”— a politically pre-determined division of aid based upon geography, not student need.

“The $1.75 billion school aid agreement shaped by Speaker Silver and Governor Paterson is historic because it keeps their promise to deliver the second of the four-year commitment to resolve the CFE lawsuit,” said Geri Palast, Executive Director, Campaign for Fiscal Equity. “It will ultimately provide a sound basic education to all public school students by driving the majority of funds through a formula based on need, subject to accountability through the Contract for Excellence with a strong public voice.”

“The record school aid increase is remarkable, but more important is that two thirds of the new funds are distributed fairly and equitably based upon student need thus maintaining the promise that was enacted into law last year,” said Billy Easton, Executive Director, Alliance for Quality Education. “Make no doubt about it, the State Assembly dug in their heels to deliver fairness and equity in education funding throughout the state and Governor Paterson stood with them. Meanwhile the state Senate Majority used all their chits to drive a boatload of money to politically well-healed downstate suburban districts. Sadly many upstate Senators barely lifted a finger to add additional foundation aid for their own districts.”

Today’s education budget represents year two of a four-year commitment to fundamentally transform the quality of education in New York State. Last year, after 14 years of lawsuits and public demand for educational opportunities for every child the state committed to a four year $5.5 billion increase in basic classroom operating aid, also called foundation aid, to be distributed fairly in order to promote educational equity. Only one year later the commitment to educate every child was threatened, first by Governor Spitzer’s budget that proposed to reduce this year’s promised increase by $350 million. Subsequently, the State Senate Majority budget also proposed to under fund the promised foundation aid increases for upstate districts and New York City while adding $140 million in new aid primarily targeted to Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Meanwhile the State Assembly budget proposed to restore $300 million in foundation aid for districts upstate and downstate while rejecting the extra aid to fund Long Island “shares.” The budget enacted today melds much of the approaches of the Assembly and Senate Majorities with the foundation aid promised for New York City being delivered by the Assembly and the Governor and the Senate Majority securing its priority of added aid for downstate suburban districts. However, the Senate Majority did not agree to the foundation aid increases for upstate communities proposed by the Assembly, opting instead to prioritize funding for downstate suburban districts.

The Assembly and the Governor preserved the Contracts for Excellence as the central accountability tool, made the contracts cumulative to retain the full investment within the accountability structure, and modified the contracts to create a multi-tiered approach that permits some flexibility to reflect varying needs of school districts. Programs designed to serve English Language Learners were added to the best practices menu within the Contracts for Excellence which already included: class size reduction, teacher and principal quality initiatives, additional instructional time for students, high school and middle school restructuring, and expansion of half-day kindergarten and pre-kindergarten programs to full-day.

“We will need to examine these changes to the Contract for Excellence; however, we are pleased that the Assembly and the Governor fended off efforts to dismantle the new accountability system. Parents and education advocates have shown that, working with our elected leaders, we can make sustained gains in providing the constitutional right to a sound basic education to every public school child forged through 15 years of litigation and legislative action,” said Geri D. Palast, of CFE.

“The Contract for Excellence was reaffirmed and even improved in some ways,” said Billy Easton, of AQE, “but school districts were lobbying to replace accountability with flexibility, hopefully, this year’s legislation did not go too far in the direction of flexibility. The proof will come when we see if school districts invest the money in best practices and improve student achievement.”

10,000 Flood City Hall to Demand Restoring Ed Budget Cuts by Michael Hirsch - United Federation of Teachers

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More than 10,000 teachers, principals, parents, students and elected officials braved a soaking rain on March 19 to rally outside City Hall to protest $800 million in budget cuts threatening New York City public schools.

Stretching from a stage at the foot of City Hall Park to three blocks north of Chambers Street was a sea of waterproof green painter hats worn by the fired-up protesters. On the hats were the words “Keep the Promises,” the name of the coalition that organized the rally and a reference to the demand that city and state government rescind current budget cuts and restore promised funds for the coming school year.

The rain, sometimes blowing horizontally, only made those in the crowd more angry as they cheered speaker after speaker who charged that the cuts would doom efforts to win smaller class sizes and put the quality of schools at risk.

Teachers Joielynn Rugg and Laura Rainer were among the 44 educators and parents from Staten Island’s PS 36 who attended the rally.

Looking out at the huge turnout from the stage, UFT President Randi Weingarten noted how rain wasn’t the only thing coming down hard on City Hall. “The streets today are flooded with caring people, because everybody who is here in this rain understands what this is all about,” Weingarten said. “As much as was lost with the January cutbacks, the September cuts will be six times worse.”

Weingarten praised a plan by the state Assembly that would restore every dollar ex-governor Eliot Spitzer cut from his proposed budget before his March 17 resignation. It would also impose a 1 percent surcharge on all incomes of state residents and nonresidents working in the state who earn more than $1 million annually, a plan Weingarten said that was both needed and fair. The Assembly bill also mandates that Mayor Michael Bloom­berg restore all his planned cuts, she said, “because kids don’t get do overs.”

State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes agreed that with the economy tanking, “these are tough times, but labor unions are used to tough times, and I promise we will stand with you and help get them to do the things they promised they’d do.”

Ernest Logan, president of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, asked, “Why is it that when things get tough, they cut the schools? We know that schools are the safety net for when we are in trouble.”

City Council Education Committee Chair Robert Jackson (at podium) and the Council members flanking him pledged to “keep the promises” and fight the education cuts.

Added student Giselle Lopez, “We can’t get to tomorrow if we can’t deal with today.”

Brooklyn Councilman Dominic Recchia was just one of a number of speakers who linked the fiscal shortchanging of schools to the protracted Iraq War — which, ironically, had started exactly five years ago to the day.

“President Bush must end the war now,” Recchia said, “and put the money into education.”

Dozens of City Council members approached the microphone one by one to pledge their support to the coalition, while City Councilman Bill de Blasio announced that he had sponsored a resolution demanding that the mayor restore the cuts. The resolution has 42 cosigners.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer criticized Chancellor Joel Klein for defending the mayor’s cuts instead of school needs.

“You should be leading the fight in Albany,” not defending the cuts, Stringer said.

Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum said that the lack of Department of Education transparency — the capacity for elected officials and the public to see how the department spends its funding — was so extreme that even her office couldn’t get information.

Gotbaum said she was told by a DOE official that information she requested on whether there were cuts to the central administration that paralleled cuts to the schools, as the DOE claimed, was “on the Web site.”

“We found they made no cuts at Tweed at all,” Gotbaum said.

William McDonald, chair of the Chancellor’s Parents Advisory Council, asked, “Whose money? Whose schools?” and he warned elected officials: “If you’re not going to keep your promises, you’re not going to keep your jobs.”

Billy Easton of the Alliance for Quality Education closed the rally by urging demonstrators to call legislators before the April 1 state budget deadline and tell them “to fight for the Assembly budget bill.” He also announced that there are daily bus rides to Albany for lobbying through March 31. [Go to www.ourkidscantwait.org for more information.]

Standing soaked in the downpour, Brenda Major, delegate at PS 173 in the Bronx, said the rain couldn’t keep her and her colleagues from demonstrating. “As my father says, we’re all Baptists,” she said.

Equally drenched was parent David Quintana of Ozone Park, a member of the Chancellor’s Parents Advisory Council, who said he was disgusted with the chancellor. “Joel Klein should be leading this, instead of hiding in Tweed,” he said.

The rain-soaked crowd of educators, parents and students stretched along the Broadway side of City Hall Park all the way north past Chambers Street.

Keep the Promises Rally at City Hall to Protest Budget Cuts to New York City Public Schools - March 19, 2008...

Leonie Haimson - Executive Director Class Size Matters and Me before the Rally

Leonie Haimson - Executive Director Class Size Matters and Me before the Rally

The Rally Stage

The Jumbotron TV Next to the Stage

Alliance for Quality Education Director of Advocacy Jaime Estades

A View of the Crowd - Estimated to be Over 10,000

Me Being Interviewed by Elaine Rivera - WNYC-Radio Reporter

Class Size Matters - www.classsizematters.org

New York City Council Members at Rally

UFT President Randi Weingarten

UFT President Randi Weingarten

Chancellors Parents Advisory Council Chairman William McDonald and Me - at left Michael Hirsch Reporter New York Teacher

More crowd shots...

'Chief Mom' Gets Mixed Report Card by Carrie Melago - NY Daily News

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When Martine Guerrier was named "chief mom" by Mayor Bloomberg last year, relations between parents and education officials were at a frosty standstill.

A year into the job, Guerrier believes she has opened avenues of communication and parent participation - but critics maintain friction still runs deep.

"I think she's trying, but she's attached to the word DOE [Department of Education]. She's getting the backlash," said Brooklyn parent and activist Zakiyah Ansari.

Some parents say they believe Guerrier has abandoned her watchdog role and instead walks in lockstep with the administration.

"It's a difficult situation to serve two masters. Part of her wants very much to be an advocate for parents, but at the same time, she is a staffer for the Department of Education," said James Devor, a Brooklyn parent.

Guerrier was a surprising choice for the newly created $150,000-a-year chief family engagement officer slot, having repeatedly butted heads with Chancellor Joel Klein as a member of his Panel for Education Policy.

Her charge was to harness support from public school parents by bringing them under the umbrella of the new Office of Family Engagement and Advocacy, which has a budget of $15.5 million a year.

She quickly became a highly visible official, hosting a series of "Ask Martine" public meetings in every borough and creating an e-mail address of the same name so parents could easily remember it.

But the increased attention brought scrutiny.

Parent guidebooks weren't available for the first few weeks of school. Guerrier was responsible for proposing changes to school leadership teams that critics say stripped power from parents and gave it to principals. And on her watch, a citywide parents group pulled their support from the department's lobby day in Albany, and her office's Web site is still not up and running.

Guerrier told the Daily News that she was prepared for friction. "I didn't walk in believing that it would be a cakewalk, and I certainly didn't believe that it would be a giant lovefest either," she said. "There was a lot of work to be done."

She acknowledges bumps in the road but believes her office has made tangible changes, particularly in providing translation services and holding training sessions for parent leaders.

Vacancies are down from a year ago on the city's 34 Community Education Councils, all of which now have quorums, she said. And, according to the mayor's management report, more than 660,000 parent-teacher conferences were held last October, compared with about 485,000 a year earlier.

"There are days where we are wildly successful helping people with their individual issues, and I look forward to those days," she said. "And there are days when we didn't get people the answers they wanted."

Klein clearly believes that the office has been a success, telling a City Council hearing last week that he wished he had created Guerrier's position sooner. And some parents easily tick off instances where Guerrier intervened on their behalf.

"There is a definite difference because now there's a point person for the parent," said Dmytro Fedkowskyj, a parent from Middle Village and vice president of Community Education Council 24.

Education Workshop - Sponsored by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer - Getting the Most Out of NYC Schools - October 20 - The New School

On Saturday, October 20th, I attended a conference and workshop given by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, “Getting the Most Out of NYC Schools,” at at the Tishman Auditorium of the New School.

NY Times report Anahad O' Connor, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Dominic Carter and Councilman Robert Jackson...

Author Dominic Carter

The keynote speaker was NY1 Senior Political Reporter Dominick Carter, he spoke passionately about his troubled childhood with an absent mother, being raised by his grandmother and aunts and how they instilled in him a desire to achieve and learn.. he recently penned his bio in his book "No Mama's Boy"...


The conference featured workshops on finding the best school for your child, how to get help with choosing and paying for a college, and making sure your child receives the services he or she is entitled to – including services for English language learners and those for students with individual education plans.

Dominic Carter and wife, Marilyn

There were also sessions on lobbying, the budget process, and school fundraising.

April Humphrey, Zakiyah Ansara and Shana Marks-Odinga

I attended a workshop entitled "Getting the Ear of Your Elected Officials" given by April Humphrey and Shana Marks-Odinga of the Alliance for Quality Education and parent Manhattan High School Presidents Council Zakia...


Dominic Carter stayed around after his speech and signed copies of his book ...

Dominic Carter, wife Marilyn and son...

New York City Council Education Committee Chairman Robert Jackson attended the workshop, as did Councilman David Yassky.

Dominic and me

NY1: City Asks Parents What To Do With School Funds by Sandra Endo...

View video report...

The city wants parents to weighs in on how to spend nearly $230 million in new money for schools.

The Department of Education is proposing to use $228 million of state money towards reducing class size, hiring new teachers, and other programs for high-need students.

“Educators in this city, when they have more resources, frequently prioritize class size reduction; we always see that as a good thing,” said Garth Harris of the DOE. “What we have been careful of saying, and what we continue to say, is student achievement gains have to be the preeminent goal.”

The problem is, many parents and families are on vacation and were not notified about the public hearings until after school was out for summer break.

But the city says it wants to know what parents think.

Hearings will be held in each borough next week; the first one is July 9th in the Bronx.

The problem is, many parents and families are on vacation and were not notified about the public hearings until after school was out for summer break.

“They did announce this last Friday, two days after schools were closed,” said April Humphrey of the Alliance for Quality Education. “So it makes it very difficult to get the word out to parents and teachers and students, who are the stakeholders in how this funding is spent.”

“The timing of this is not ideal, from our prospective,” said Harris. “We are constrained by when the legislation was passed and are our ability to get real information from the schools about what their plans are.”

The money is part of a $700 million cash infusion from Albany after a judge ruled that city schools are being shortchanged.

Most of that money is already set to go toward charter schools, pre-kindergarten, and other expenses.

The DOE's final plan must be sent to Albany by July 15th.

Ed In The Apple: Does Klein Sound Like GW43? Is Joel “Spinning” the DOE? Can We Believe DOE Press Releases?...

Original blog entry...

Is Joel Klein sounding increasingly like GW 43?

Even leading Republican senators are beginning to call for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq - everytime Bush praises our troops and points to progress in Iraq, eyes roll …

As Klein spins out press release after press release lauding his own efforts he is beginning to sound more Bush-like.

Claims of increasing ELA and Math scores and higher graduation rates mirror claims of the success of the “surge.”

Bob Gordon and Roland Fryer, Klein latest “generals” seem to be the DOE equivalent of General Petreus.

Fred Smith , a retired Department data analyst, quoting an audit of the ELA test found that scores were inflated. Teachers in small high schools mark papers of their own students. Are the scores inflated? Only an outside audit can allay suspicions …

Diane Ravitch , a leading scholar, calls the Klein/Fryer “pay for performance” plan “unethical and immoral.” Her analysis of the ELA test scores is far less promising than that of the Klein administration.

Sol Stern , a resident scholar at the Manhattan Institute has been a continuing critic of the Department approach to teaching reading.

If we take a closer look at the high school graduation rates -if we look at college readiness we should be quite concerned. The City University of New York (CUNY) has a college readiness rubric - it uses grades on Regents Examinations and the number of Regents passed - it concludes that a diploma with advanced designation is the baseline for college readiness.

What percentage of high school graduates are “college ready”?

The answer of that in most schools less than half of graduates are “college ready” using the CUNY college readiness rubric, and, in some schools fewer than a quarter are “college ready.”

No surprise … the Department is selective in the data it releases. In overwhelming numbers high school graduates are only ready for non-credit remedial classes in college.

The latest Department “innovation” is “unique and different” summer schools. Principals are encouraged to offer summer schools that give “credit recovery” programs - ways to get around the State Ed Department requirement that a credit bearing course requires 54 hours of instruction. The message from Tweed: a wink and a nod …

There is an irony that GW43 is credited with the phrase , “…the soft bigotry of low expectations.”

Hopefully the recent Carnegie Foundation College Readiness Grant will override Klein cynicism.

As the 08 Presidential election approaches GW43 will probably begin to extricate us from Iraq and as mayoral control sunset also approaches one wonders whether the school system will adopt a more student/parent/teacher friendly policy, i.e., Randi Weingarten’s speech at the Edustat Summit?

Time: Stopping the Dropout Exodus...by Claudia Wallis...

Kids who quit school don't just suddenly drop out; it's more of a slow fade. Typically it begins in the ninth grade, if not earlier, often when life hits a particularly nasty patch and racking up credits in class no longer seems especially compelling or plausible. Ernestine Maisonet started fading in eighth grade, when the grandmother who had raised her died. "She was a woman who worked wonders," murmurs Maisonet, who says she doesn't know her mother and isn't close to her dad. After the death, her family of six siblings fell apart. Maisonet has lived sometimes with an aunt, sometimes with a boyfriend, and sometimes she had no place to go. "I was a good student until my grandmother passed away," says the 19-year-old redhead from the Bronx. Though she was enrolled in high school, she earned just three credits in two years: "I completely shut down. I didn't do good at all.

" Tanya Garcia, 19, of Brooklyn also went off track at the end of middle school. A fire destroyed her family's apartment and left them homeless for four months. She landed in a large, impersonal high school, and quickly became disengaged. "I started getting into drugs--weed, drinking, cocaine and heroin." After two years of mostly cutting class, she had accumulated a grand total of one credit. When she tried to transfer to another school, "the dean pretty much laughed in my face," she says. At 16, she stopped going to school. "I didn't see myself having any kind of future. I would get some job I hated and just survive."

Against all odds, Maisonet and Garcia are slated to graduate in New York City's class of 2007. They are among some 13,000 students who dropped out or were on the verge of doing so but have been recovered in the public school system. The city's secret? Finding out who was dropping out and why and offering a variety of paths--complete with intensive social support and personalized instruction--back to school.

Nationally about 1 in 3 high school students quits school. Among black and Hispanic students, the rate is closer to 50%. For decades, school districts obscured the hemorrhaging with sleight of hand--using misleading formulas to calculate graduation rates and not bothering to track the kids who fell through the cracks. Getting a more honest accounting became a top priority for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which was instrumental in persuading the Governors of all 50 states to agree in 2005 to start measuring graduation rates in a fair and consistent way. Ask Melinda Gates to name the foundation's top achievement in education so far, and she doesn't hesitate to answer, "Getting the nation to look at graduation rates in the right way."

Read entire article...

Courier-Life Publications - District 15 Bares its Teeth at Klein... By Michèle De Meglio...

Local parents are taking action to have their voices count in the public school system.

Fueled by recent complaints that the city Department of Education (DOE) is keeping parents out of the loop, District 15’s Community Education Council (CEC) passed a resolution calling for educrats to consult with parents before making major decisions about restructuring local schools.

The CEC decided to pass the resolution after a local elementary school learned that it would have to vacate some classrooms to make room for a small middle school in September.

The news resulted in parents and students holding several protests demanding that DOE reconsider its plan for P.S. 282, located at 180 Sixth Avenue, to share its building with the Khalil Gibran International Academy, which would be the city’s first Arabic-themed school.

If parents had been informed of the possibility that the Khalil Gibran Academy would be housed at P.S. 282 before the decision was made, there may have been less controversy and uproar from parents, said Mary-Powel Thomas, president of District 15’s CEC.

“There should really be a specific process laid out that they follow for community consultation. Then you would avoid all of these problems where people feel like something’s been dropped on them,” she said.

The council’s resolution notes, “New schools are frequently placed in buildings occupied by existing schools with no public hearing or consultation before the decision is essentially made.”

Read entire article...

TimesLedger: Sen. Padavan's Support for Education Questioned...

Dear Editor: As a Queens parent and an active member of the Alliance for Quality Education, I would like to respond to state Sen. Frank Padavan's letter of April 5 defending education spending.

He was critical of your recent coverage of the state education budget. I found the senator's letter to be disingenuous and deliberately misleading in what he omitted.

Padavan asserts that he supported the governor's education spending plan. That is partially accurate, but the senator wanted to fundamentally change the governor's formula in ways that would transfer future aid away from New York City to wealthy suburban districts. The Senate education budget that passed on March 13 with Padavan's support included just such a change to the funding formula.

The Senate did fight for more school aid than the governor proposed, but it was fighting to ensure more money for wealthy Long Island districts. The Senate, with Padavan's support, did win $120 million in added pork barrel school funding, mostly for Long Island, but it did not succeed in destroying the governor's fair funding formula.

Padavan also failed to mention that under Senate President Joseph Bruno (R-Saratoga) leadership, the Senate education budget did not include the foundation formula that will ensure New York City's fair share of education aid for years to come.

Without the foundation formula there would have been no way to ensure that the old inequitable method of doling out school aid - the very same system that has underfunded New York City for decades - did not return next year or in subsequent years.

Read entire letter ...

Times-Ledger: My Response to Senator Frank Padavan's Letter to the Editor concerning the NYS Education Budget...

Let's see if the Times-Ledger will print my response to Senator Padavan's misleading letter...

April 15, 2007

Dear Editor:

As a Queens parent and an active member of the Alliance for Quality Education (AQE), I would like to respond to New York State Senator Frank Padavan's letter ("Padavan defends battle over education funding" - Times Ledger - April 5^th) in which he was critical of your recent coverage (Battle over school funds intensifies – John Tozzi - March 15^th editions) of the state education budget.

I found the Senator's letter to be disingenuous and deliberately misleading in what he omitted on the issue and in what he failed to mention.

Senator Padavan asserts that he supported the governor’s education spending plan. That is partially accurate, but the Senator wanted to fundamentally change the Governor's formula in ways that would transfer future aid away from New York City to wealthy suburban districts. The Senate education budget that passed on March 13^th with Senator Padavan's support included just such a change to the funding formula.

The Senate did fight for more school aid than the Governor proposed, but as has been widely reported in the press, the Senate was fighting to ensure more money for wealthy Long Island districts. The Senate, with Senator Padavan's support, did win $120 million in added pork barrel school funding mostly for Long Island, but they did not succeed in destroying the Governor's fair funding formula.

Senator Padavan also failed to mention that the Bruno-controlled Senate education budget did not include the foundation formula that will ensure New York City’s fair share of education aid for years to come. Without the foundation formula there would have been no way to ensure that the old inequitable method of doling out school aid -- the very same system that has underfunded New York City for decades -- did not return next year or in subsequent years.

Senator Padavan failed to mention that the Senate's education budget conveniently did not include the foundation formula that will ensure New York City's fair share of education aid for years to come.

The Senate budget also completely gutted Governor Spitzer's "Contract for Excellence" – the accountability measures by which parents and the public will be able to have a say in how the Department of Education allocates that funding.

This issue is critical to parents like myself, who feel disenfranchised and marginalized by the Chancellor and utterly shut out of the decision making process at Tweed.

One can only hope that next year Senator Padavan will choose to break ranks with his Long Island Senate colleagues and support the kids in Queens by ensuring that there is no more political pork in school aid. But being a realist, I know he will probably continue to support the status quo - business as usual - in the senate by short-changing New York City public school children.

If Senator Padavan were really serious about standing up for the rights of New York City's public school children and less concerned about not making waves for his Senate cronies, maybe then the AQE would not have to rally parents outside his office.

In closing, I believe Senator Padavan is the one throwing around the meaningless figures and the one making the unfair incorrect accusations - his dissembling of the facts only serves to mislead the voting public.

Sincerely,

David M. Quintana