Fear Not, NYC Education Cartel: The Heat Is Off (For Now)

Blogs, Letters & Testimonials

August 31, 2007

Back in July we blogged about the uppity parents in Brooklyn’s Park Slope who had the chutzpah to insist that their kids deserved better than crappy/mediocre public schools for their kids. While most of the charter schools in New York to-date have been designed for low-income kids (the “have nots”), the community-driven proposal for the Brooklyn Prospect Charter School had a much more middle-class angst feel to it.

If middle class parents (the “have a little, want more’s” in Alinsky-speak) decided to empower themselves through the chartering process, I reckoned, public education could start to see some dramatic changes. Rather than just talking about smaller class sizes, better quality instruction, strengthened curriculum, etc. they could actually just design real live public schools around those core ideals.

But alas, it was all just wishful thinking. The establishment has stopped the school’s application in its tracks, according to the NY Sun.

The cartel survives. It always does.