Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams alongside parents, leaders and supporters of charter schools rallied together today on the Steps of City Hall against a secretly proposed measure put forth by Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Department of Education (DOE) to undercut educational transparency.
The rally came as the de Blasio administration is considering a policy change that would exclude public charter schools from utilizing Vanguard Services- a third-party vendor that handles DOE mass mailings of all kinds, including notifying parents in DOE schools about a variety of issues.
Since students are not zoned for charter schools, and these public schools are alternatives, the DOE has allowed them to utilize Vanguard’s services, for nearly 12 years, to send information to prospective parents in their neighborhood.
Under Vanguard’s services, the charter schools do not know any of the names of the students or their families, but get addresses in requested zip codes to let families know they can choose a charter school instead of a regular low-performing public school in their district.
“We must get out of the way of anything that would prevent us from better educating our children. That is why I join these parents, these children, this institution of saying let’s not get in the way of providing a quality education, quality well thought information to our parents so they can make the right decision for their children,” said Adams.
According to critics of the proposal, the new plan would leave families in the dark about their children’s education options, which would make it harder for children living in impoverished communities to seek out more prestige public schools outside of their neighborhood.
According to Jim Merriman, the CEO of New York City’s Charter School Center, the job of charter school’s is simply to send informational flyers to a third-party mass mailer called, Vanguard, which has a contract with the city, to mail a flyer to parents who have a school age child in a designated zip code. By ending this policy parents will be uninformed about other educational opportunities within their zip code.
Crystal Lee-McJunkin, a district parent whose son attends Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Bayside, Queens, spoke about the latest proposal put forth by the city.
“Even though I send my child to a school in my neighborhood I always want to know my other school options both charter and district. I deserve to know my school options and nobody, no parent, no elected official should take that away from me,” said McJunkin.
McJunkin went on to note the need to keep information on public school options easily accessible so that parents are able to make appropriate educational decisions for their children.
“It’s hard enough to find a school for your kid, why is the city trying to make it even harder. Knowledge is power and all our parents need to know about their options for their children,” added McJunkin.
Adams reiterated that children and their education are his main concerns for fighting the policy change.
As of last week, the Mayor and DOE indicated publicly that they are currently tabling the idea and that no decision have been made.
“This is about our children. I have walked the halls of charter schools, I have walked the halls of district schools and I’ve seen the same level of commitment and dedication of professionals who desire to educate children,” said Adams.
