Despite Protest, the DOE Will Phase Out MS-571 and Let Charter In
Thursday night the DOE voted to phase out the Prospect Heights middle school to make way for Brooklyn East Collegiate, which will move into the PS-9 building this fall. Despite the poor performance of MS-571, parents rallied to keep the charter school out. More details at Prospect Heights Patch…
Thursday night the DOE voted to phase out the Prospect Heights middle school to make way for Brooklyn East Collegiate, which will move into the PS-9 building this fall. Despite the poor performance of MS-571, parents rallied to keep the charter school out. More details at Prospect Heights Patch…
If the charter school developers and advocates ware so sure of their inherent superiority, then why aren’t they asking the city to allow them to TAKE OVER failing schools with their own administrators and staff, but with the EXISTING students? If they did this, then surely everyone could see just how wonderful charters are. Of course, just like public schools, they should have to keep all the existing students at those schools and not “counsel them out.” Wouldn’t that be a fair test?
Well-said, famous.
@ Lolly. yes.
I know that everyone is wild about this idea of “finding the school that fits” their child, but it bothers me that we are creating this system where poor people pick military schools and rich people pick progressive schools. Poor kids get tons of skills drills so they can get the scores on standardized tests that convince everyone that the charters work miracles, while the rich kids get to spend a lot of time outside and do fun projects. Yuck. Every neighborhood needs a decent public school that meets the needs of a variety of families (which means it probably won’t be like a military school or a Waldorf school). Many of our local zoned schools ARE ALREADY good schools, but parents are either buying into the sensationalized nonsense they see on tv about city schools (in which case they should seek better news outlets) or they want something very specific, and further to the left or right, for their child (in which case they should enroll their child in a private school–Catholic, Waldorf, whatever) or they are uncomfortable with folks who don’t look or talk like they do (in which case they should admit it).
For the commenter who said that some are only interested in protecting the status quo… I believe it is the status quo that educators get good results when they recruit ambitious populations without learning or language deficits AND can kick out those who don’t perform. Schools like these have been getting great results forever. Nothing new about that.
hey heather, watch out!! you guys are next. the urban school of PCB studies charter school is coming soon to a classroom near you. better get your K-8 proposal in fast! 😉
Ch renter, you should just rename yourself, “CH person with no school-age children.”
PS 9 underutilized? Do you know how many people I know who didn’t get PreK slots there? Who are worried about kindergarden? Do you realize it’s also a G&T district option, meaning it attracts kids from outside its cachement? And, finally, have you ever toured it?
Hrm, actually, I have never toured it either, but I like my neighborhood school.
Hey! On the bright side, this means they’re not relocating MS 571 into my zoned school. 😛
What is saddest about all of this roulette wheel educational theorizing is, it takes a limited pool of resources and divides them even further — in the process pitting demographic against demographic, neighborhood against neighborhood, and, ultimately, student against student. Education is not that complicated. And it should not be some kind of Darwinian struggle, where only the strongest and best-equipped triumph.
LC Arnett-
I don’t understand your argument. Why is the DOE trying to attract middle-class, predominantly white parents to consider charters? That suggested that these parents do not currently have their children in the school system (which for the most part they are not).
But isn’t the DOE’s first priority to the population of children currently in the system, even if they are mostly minority and poor? In your example of the Bushwick school which is currently 95% Black and Hispanic, but will be moving to Governors island, what happens to the community it is currently serving. Sounds like the neighborhood is just a testing ground and once the process is perfected the school moves on to greener and richer pastures.
just curious, does anyone know the rules for what a charter must do when spaces open after the first enrollment year? i.e., when kids drop out, are they required to take new applications and/or conduct a new lottery?
” with charters that are highly structured educating those kids with the highest needs”
This has yet to happen since charters are not required to enroll a kid regardless of their education needs. They can bypass the neediest children for those who need minimal extra help to perform at or above grade level. The neediest children are still left in the public school system.