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New York Sun, June 26, 2006
One was the insistence of Chancellor Klein on situating a charter school in the building now occupied by a growing and successful public school. Mr. Klein sought to put the Ross Global Academy, a new charter, into the lower east side school building now largely occupied by the New Explorations Into Science, Technology and Math school. NEST+M, a school for academically advanced students, is wildly popular with Manhattan parents, whose children, in my estimation, are the most academically neglected in New York. Half of the students are Caucasian, so the efforts of the parents to protect their turf were quickly termed "elitist." This contributed to the suspicion that a critical group of New Yorkers has about the charter movement. Middle class parents who have historically supported public schools have seen their children's interests take a back seat to the crisis faced by children whose impoverished circumstances put them at risk. By setting up the NEST+M parents against the charter movement, Mr. Klein unnecessarily alienated a constituency that, heretofore, had no reason to oppose charters. It became a visible enemy of the charter movement and won much sympathy. Parents resented the charges of elitism from well-to-do supporters of the charters whose own children more often than not attend the city's most exclusive private schools. Couple this with the fact that the disputed building is in the district of Sheldon Silver, the Assembly Speaker. Mr. Silver has total control of the lower chamber, which has a veto-proof Democratic majority. The dispute between NEST+M and the Ross charter only strengthened Mr. Silver's suspicion of the charter movement. In a last ditch effort to win over Mr. Silver on increasing the charter cap, the mayor and chancellor on Friday dropped the plan to locate the Ross Global charter in the NEST+M building. This was too little too late. Mr. Silver dug in his heels. Charging that the principal of the school, Celenia Chevere, manipulated the school's enrollment in an attempt to weaken the case of those supporting the Ross school sharing the building with NEST+M, Mr. Klein removed her as principal. This is largely symbolic, since Ms. Chevere was retiring as principal anyway, and Wednesday is the last day of this school year. While Ms. Chevere may have overreached by admitting too many students, her real provocation was organizing parents to put their own interests above those of the Department of Education. Parent revolts are spreading like brushfires throughout city schools, and Mr. Klein may have felt that a message needed to be sent to principals, reminding them who is the boss. continued... |
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