(From Crain’s NY, March 21, 2010)
By DANIEL MASSEY
Amid a sea of moms and dads wearing T-shirts declaring themselves “Proud charter parents” and kids waving handmade signs that read, “I am College Bound,” Daniel Clark grabbed a microphone at P.S. 92 in Harlem earlier this month and told the more than 150 people gathered for a Department of Education hearing that his son Daniel Jr. and four friends now proudly call themselves the “Geek Five.”
Mr. Clark says his son was a “super slacker” before he arrived at the Democracy Prep charter school two and half years ago. But the eighth grader “now goes around telling everyone he’s going to be mayor–and he believes it.”
The Harlem father wants every neighborhood student to have a chance to attend a rigorous school like Democracy Prep. Seats are limited, however, and charters have become a source of political controversy–especially in central Harlem, where they now account for nearly 20% of all public schools.
Competition for shared school space and public dollars, disagreements as to whether charters are serving enough English-as-a-second-language learners, and concerns that some schools may be too profit-oriented are among issues that have fueled the fire.
$700 million at stake
The heat intensified earlier this year when state legislators failed to bring to a vote a bill that would double the cap on the number of charter schools in New York, raising it to 400. This jeopardized the state’s chances to win as much as $700 million in the federal Race to the Top competition.
Now, with a second shot at Race to the Top money looming, parties on both sides of the debate are stepping up their efforts on the political front. They’ve pumped tens of thousands of dollars into the campaign chests of elected officials in recent months.
Charter proponents have even begun strategizing about how to oust the schools’ opponents from elected office. Mr. Clark started a grassroots group–Parents Organizing to Win Education Reform, or P.O.W.E.R. NOW–with the goal of eventually mobilizing parents to support charter schools at the ballot box.
“As parents and voters, we simply have to demand the best possible schools and not settle for anything less,” he said at the hearing, which the DOE organized to solicit comments on Democracy Prep’s plan to open a new school in the P.S. 92 building.
Charters have been a key component of the DOE’s efforts to improve schools and increase options for parents in Harlem. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has opened eight charters in District 5 in central Harlem alone since 2004. There are now 21 charter schools in the greater Harlem area, and 99 citywide.
Operators attribute their success largely to longer school days and their ability to fire teachers for poor performance–measures that are easy to implement because most charters are nonunion. Math scores in District 5 are up 30% since 2006, and reading scores are up 27%.
But as the charters have proliferated, so have concerns about them. Space issues have topped the list: Two-thirds of charter schools are “co-located” within traditional public schools, which sparks tensions. Others worry that charters skim off the cream of the student crop and that they aren’t accountable to the communities they serve.
“I think it would be better if there was some representation of people who have a long-term interest in Harlem on some of the boards, and not just hedge fund managers or bankers,” says New York University professor Pedro Noguera, a trustee on the State University of New York board that authorizes charters.
It’s those financial services leaders who are funding the charter movement’s political push. In the past year, prominent charter backers from the financial sector have poured money into the campaign coffers of supportive legislators, with state Sens. Eric Adams, José Peralta, Craig Johnson and Daniel Squadron the primary beneficiaries.
Many of the donors sit on the boards of local charter schools or foundations that support charters. They include Joel Greenblatt and John Petry of hedge fund Gotham Capital, who are board members at former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz’s Success Charter Network; and Anthony Davis, of Anchorage Capital Management, who is on the Leadership Council of the Robin Hood Foundation, which supports charters.
Financial execs in the game
In the past year, according to campaign finance records, Mr. Adams has taken in at least $11,500 from charter supporters, $24,000 went to Mr. Peralta (who is also being courted by opponents), Mr. Johnson has been given at least $30,000, and Mr. Squadron has gotten at least $41,500. Many of the same donors have given charter advocacy group Democrats for Education Reform a total of nearly $100,000.
And this week, a group of charter supporters in the financial services world is expected to begin putting together a pot of money to take down anti-charter incumbents. In addition to targeting state Sen. Bill Perkins, the legislator who is most outspoken against charters, they’ll likely set their sights on state Sen. Shirley Huntley. Proponents hope to hire former Bloomberg campaign manager Bradley Tusk to coordinate.
Charter proponents could also mobilize support for state Senate candidate Mark Levine, Assembly hopefuls Nelson Denis and Natasha Holiday, and Assembly incumbents Hakeem Jeffries, Sam Hoyt, Michael Benjamin and Karim Camara.
At the same time, powerful opponents to charter schools are sharpening their attack, with Mr. Perkins leading the way. He’s hosting an April 22 hearing to examine the accountability and financing of charters. “Why do we suspend our oversight, our role to protect the public interest, when it comes to charters? Why can’t charters be scrutinized?”
He’s been joined by teacher unions, which face a threat from charters because the overwhelming majority are nonunion. Indeed, in a little more than a year, New York State United Teachers has pumped $150,500 into the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee and even $16,600 into the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee.
The UFT, which represents city teachers, claims that charters are not educating their fair share of English-language learners and special-education students and worries that charter proponents want to replace, not supplement, traditional schools.
UFT President Michael Mulgrew promises he will “ramp up efforts” to counter the charter movement’s political activity and leadership, which he says is driven by people interested in “making profits off of public education.”
The UFT also aims to add to the nearly one dozen charter schools that it has organized into the union, he says. Just last week, the UFT announced that all the teachers at the Bronx Academy of Promise Charter School have signed union-authorization cards.