The debate over the future of public education will hit fever pitch Wednesday in Downtown Brooklyn’s Cadman Plaza where 15,000 school reform advocates are expected to demand that Mayor Bill de Blasio stop stalling on allowing more charter schools in impoverished neighborhoods where statistics reveal traditional schools are failing to educate many black and Hispanic children.
The pro-charter Families For Excellent Schools (FES) organized the rally and march over the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall following the release of its white paper, “A Tale of Two School Systems,“ which found some 478,000 children – overwhelmingly Black and Hispanic students – attend failing regular public schools, while top-rated schools are reserved almost exclusively for white and Asian students.
Black and Hispanic students in the city’s charter schools, however, performed nearly twice as well on math (42.8% proficient) than in district schools (22% proficient) and nearly 50% better on English Language Arts (28.1% proficient in charter schools; 19.5% proficient in district schools).
FES believes that now is the time to ramp up the pressure on the de Blasio Administration because it has been extremely slow to co-locate charter schools, despite a state mandate to do so and a growing waiting list of parents that want their children in charter schools.
They also feel de Blasio’s recently released initiatives to strengthen the city’s failing schools as a give-in to the powerful United Federation of Teachers (UFT) union, which will take up to ten years, if ever to see results.
Besides the rally and march, FES released a reported multi-million ad campaign and have recruited singer Jennifer Hudson to sing at Wednesday’s rally.
But the UFT is fighting back, charging that charter schools are now setting aside 15 percent of all their seats for children of their schools’ staffs and management organizations while more than 40,000 children are on their waiting list.
Additionally, the UFT-backed Alliance for Quality Education put out a statement with some civil rights leaders demanding, “that the hedge fund-financed Families for Excellent Schools (FES) take down its racially divisive television ad attacking public schools.”
But FES CEO Jeremiah Kittredge defended the ad.
“We agree with our critics–the facts of this ad are indeed appalling: 478,000 children, almost all students of color, are forced into failing schools. For too long, our city has swept this truth under the rug. We’re glad our elected and community leaders are rejoining the conversation. As New Yorkers, we have a choice to make: do we run from education inequality and pretend we have ‘one’ school system, or do we finally confront what divides us?” Kittredge said.
