Thanks Patrick.

I would love to learn more about this situation. Does the UFT get involved in CEC and/or PTA elections? Also, what is the relationship amongst “Class Size Matters”, “NYC Public School Parents”, and the UFT? Is everyone involved with “NYC Public School Parents” a current NYC public school parent? Do some of them have other roles that are affected by these issues other than being NYC public school parents?

Separately, how do you know that the demand for charter schools would “evaporate” if the Mayor allowed public schools to have the smaller classes that charter schools are permitted? Have you polled charter school parents?

Ken

I don’t think the point is so complicated. The people are lined up behind the Mayor because they do business with the city, would like to, or they are beneficiaries of his personal largess. On our blog, http://www.nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com, we published an email circulated within one of the organizations. Their key concern was what would the damage be from refusing the request to sign. No elected parent groups (PTAs, CECs, District Presidents Councils) joined the Mayor, in fact many have passed resolutions firmly against the restructuring. The fact that the Mayor, through publication of this letter, admits to having no parent support for his reforms is a startling admission of failure.

In response to your complaint about the charter school cap, yes, there may very well be thousands who would like to get into a charter school. But there are hundreds of thousands who want smaller classes. In fact, much of the demand for charter schools would evaporate if the Mayor allowed public schools to have the smaller classes that charter schools are permitted.

Patrick Sullivan

First, I hope everyone that reads this post uses the link you provided to see the actual names. (I always admire that you include these links so people can form their own opinions.) Unlike many advocacy efforts, this is a list of full names along with their affiliations.

I think the list is quite impressive. Leo, are you accusing someone of some sort of corruption? Which people? This is not the first time that you have posted something that might be interpreted as implying corruption.

Are you suggesting that the list is devoid of people with significant experience with education in NYC? That would be a nutty accusation. Pointing out MOMA as representative of the group was pretty ridiculous. There are many organizations and people on the list that are extremely active in education advocacy. I think you know that, but you chose to spin instead.

My best guess is that you are implying that a large number of the signatories have an inappropriate conflict of interest. What are you suggesting exactly? Give an example please. Meanwhile, although I don’t get your point, how can someone that as a huge part of his job represents the salary interests of teachers make this complaint? I am tempted to call that “shameless”, but, meanwhile, thousands or parents couldn’t get into charter schools because of the cap. That’s a much bigger shame than routine hypocrisy.

Ken