The Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública is an independent, non-sectarian, and non-governmental organization with short, middle and long-term educational and social goals.  We believe that education is a human right and we want to ensure that New York City public schools are places of learning in which all stakeholders (parents, students, educators, non-pedagogical staff, administrators and the community) are engaged in a democratic process to provide a free and quality education to all its students, from Pre-school to College.

                  Our coalition is based on antiracist/antisexist democratic grassroots organizing concepts and not based on the idea that any one individual, politician, union leader, or political messiah will save us.

                  Our coalition will participate in election campaigns but will focus on mass action as a primary vehicle for social change.  Therefore, we will organize the distribution of leaflets, mass rallies, forums, civil disobedience, petitions, referendums, web-based actions, economic boycotts, and other grassroots tactics.  We also understand that we are not alone in struggle and that we must unite with other groups and individuals who support democracy, self-determination and the empowerment of our communities.

What We Want:

I.               A Peoples' Board of Education

II.              Local control of our Public Schools not Mayoral Dictatorship!

III.           Better Public Schools not Charter Schools!

IV.            Power to Parents, Students and Educators!

V.               Implementation of a mandatory Antiracist Curriculum!

VI.             Recruiting educators from our neighborhoods to achieve racial parity!

VII.       Money for Education Not War!

VIII.        OUR Schools = Neighborhood School Control!

Educating for Democracy:

A Demonstration Against 

School Closings

Grassroors Education Movement (GEM)-sponsored school closing protest in front of Mayor Bloomberg's posh Eastside mansion-- January 28, 2010

by Joel Shatzky --English Professor

Posted: January 22, 201- www.huffingtonpost.com

On Thursday afternoon- January, 28, 2010, a group of about 300 teachers, students, parents, and supporters demonstrated in front of Mayor Bloomberg's home on 79th Street to protest his decision to close twenty public schools for having "failed" to improve student test scores sufficiently.

In a press release, Julie Cavanagh, a teacher at PS 15 in Brooklyn, who, along with Norman Siegel, a First Amendment lawyer, succeeded in obtaining a permit for the demonstration in front of the Mayor's home, accused Mayor Bloomberg of proposing a "radical and destructive educational agenda that would privatize our public school system." Ms. Cavanagh's school building also houses a charter school, PAVE, which, as mentioned in my previous column ("Senator Eric Adams and the Charter School Dilemma") is run by Spencer Robinson, son of hedge fund billionaire Julian Robinson.

Included in the press release is a statement by Lydia Bellahcene, a parent at PS 15, which is losing space in its building to accommodate the charter school:

The Mayor and Chancellor should not be making policies to divide, dismantle, and undermine our public schools: instead, they should be providing support and resources so that ALL of our children can be successful.

In a democratic society, there should be opportunities for all young people to get as good an education as their initiative and motivation can give them. Those who are less fortunate because of personal circumstances should be afforded the necessary attention to obtain an education that can give them a chance to take their place in our society as productive citizens, able to contribute to it as well as they can. But it seems that the Mayor's approach to public education is to divide groups against each other for needed resources: public versus charter school, an approach that undermines our democratic values.




Seung Ok, a teacher at William H. Maxwell High School, a school scheduled for closing, pointed out in an interview that although the Mayor had considered the school too unsatisfactory to remain open, "ninety per cent of the students graduate although not necessarily in four years. Some go on to Ivy League schools and are quite successful."

Ok pointed out that because of another school closing several years ago in the same area, the student population at Maxwell expanded rapidly from 900 to 2,000. The necessary resources for the influx of these students, many of whom had special needs, were not forthcoming. As a result, despite all the effort the teachers provided to make up for the new challenges, the school was given an "F" in the Mayor's rating system. Soon after, the parents of the "A-list"--high-achieving--students transferred them to other schools and Maxwell High School will now be closed.

Richard McDonald, an 11th grade student at Maxwell, expressed his concern that the vocational courses offered at the school in cosmetology, lens-crafting for eyeglasses, and other specialized skills that would give students opportunities for good-paying jobs will no longer be readily available to public school students since such programs are rare. He felt that the school was being unfairly treated and that now "other kids will have to pay for the education I got for free." Richard, fortunately, will be interning soon at a lens-making establishment which will give him an opportunity to get a decent job.

Attending the demonstration to show his support was State Senator Bill Perkins, whose district extends into Harlem. He noted that the area is now "saturated with charter schools, to the disadvantage of public schools when a charter school is pushed into a public school facility." Perkins sees the Mayor's agenda as not only to "privatize the public schools" but other public areas such as sections of Central Park. He also pointed out that there is no conclusive evidence that charter schools produce better results than public schools although they serve to separate school communities into groups rivaling each other for space and resources.

Senator Bill Perkins and Richard Barr.

"As we remember Martin Luther King, jr., I wonder what he might be thinking as he looks down at what is happening to our schools again: separate and unequal," Senator Parkins observed. Others at the demonstration looked at the impact that these closings are having on teachers.

"The closing of the public schools is an effort to break the union," said Angela de Souza, a public school teacher who came in support of the demonstration. She suggested that the most effective way to improve the public schools is to "get rid of segregated housing, poverty and the hopelessness that it breeds."

foto by John Lawhead
 
Richard Barr, a supporter whose children attended the public schools, and is Vice President for Political Action in School District 3, was asked what he would have done had his children attended a school with serious disciplinary problems. He replied: "I would have had as my first objective to work together with others to make the school better; not flee from it."

Across the street near the Mayor's house, before the demonstration began, middle-school youngsters from a private school were exiting the building at the end of classes. Several were asked: "Do you have to study for a lot of city-wide tests like the public school kids?" They couldn't recall ever having taken one.

Later, on the other side of the street, students, teachers and supporters marched up and down 79th St. chanting against the closings, as dozens of policemen stood watch, guarding the Mayor's home from the peaceful demonstrators.

Ms. De Souza hopes that instead of relying on the hype created by the Mayor and Chancellor about charter schools, members of the press will go into the public schools and investigate them for themselves, seeing the challenges that many hard-working teachers and serious students face every day. Perhaps then they would be better able to understand what is really happening to Mayor Bloomberg's public school system.

foto by John Lawhead

Alfred E Smith Students Use HipHop Video to Help Stop School Closing!

AES Proposed Phase-Out: Shop Classes put to music by Mark Noakes from Save AES CTE HS on Vimeo.

AES Students Know that Art Is a Weapon!

This is just another big piece of evidence revealing the brilliance and determination of our youth to struggle to be educated and productive citizens for their community. It is absolutely clear that the BloomKlein Dept of MisEducation (DOME) is not concerned with our youths' desires to be educated and pro-active citizens. As this powerful video implies: it's all about closing budget gaps and profits.

We need to continue to find ways to support these creative and heroic students of Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education High School (AES) to not only keep their school open, but to force the DOME to provide extra funds (that they squander elsewhere) to assist in improving the educational work developing their by their teachers, staff and administrators. Further, the DOME should find ways to replicate AES's educational successes in other parts of the city.


Close the DOME! Not our Schools!

Human Rights and Public Education: A Local and International Concern!

The Foundation of the Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública is that Education is a Human Right! 

What does "Education is a Human Right" mean?

Local school systems and state and federal governments are responsible for guaranteeing the human right to education for every child. There are many human rights standards and principles that must be guaranteed in order to fulfill the right to education.

1. Equal access to education, Article 13, ICESCR

2. Education must adapt to meet the needs of diverse children, Article 13, ICESCR

3. Good quality curricula and teaching methods, Article 13, ICESCR

4. Relevant and culturally appropriate curricula, Article 13, ICESCR

5. Adequately trained teachers, Article 13, ICESCR

6. Equity in resources, Article 13, ICESCR

7. Education must be aimed at the full development of the child's potential and abilities, Article 29, CRC

8. Education must develop respect for the child's cultural identity, language and values, Article 29, CRC

9. Right to special services for children with disabilities, Article 23, CRC

10. Education must promote self-esteem and self-confidence, Article 29, CRC

11. Right to rest, leisure and play, Article 31, CRC

12. Right to dignity, Preamble, Articles 28 and 29, CRC

13. Freedom from degrading treatment, Article 37, CRC

14. Right to health, Article 24

15. Right to an adequate standard of living, Article 27, CRC

16. Right to family, Article 9, CRC

17. Freedom from violence, abuse and maltreatment, Article 19, CRC

18. Freedom from arbitrary arrest or detention, Article 19, CRC

19. Right to security of person, Article 3, UDHR

20. Right to freedom of opinion and expression, Article 19, UDHR

21. Right to participate in government (including public education), Article 21, UDHR

22. Right to remedy when your rights have been violated, Article 8, UDHR

23. Right to monitoring of the school system, Article 2 and 13, ICESCR

24. Right to information and transparency, Article 2 and 13, ICESCR

Abbreviations: CRC—Convention on the rights of the child; ICESCR-International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; UDHR-Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Charter Schools: Separate and Unequal

A Short and Very Informative GEM 

(Grassroots Education Movement) Video

Some Important City-Wide Events in January: Part 1

Sisters and Brothers,

The following are just some of the city-wide events that are taking place this month. Part 2 will will give us some of the local organizing events that need our support. Please attend the following citywide events:

1. Emergency Citywide Parent Conference on School Closings

Normal Siegel, Civil Rights Attorney, Guest Panelist

Saturday January 16, 2010

9:30am-1:00pm

The School of the Future

127 East 22 Street, 

Manhattan, NY 

Directions: 6 Train to 23 Street

Contact: Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters, 

at (212) 674-7320 or classsizematters@gmail.com

2. General Membership Meeting of 

The Coalition for Public Education/Coalicion por la Educacion Publica

Tuesday January 19, 2010

6:00pm-8:00pm

District Council 37

125 Barclay Street (Murray Street Entrance)

Room 9

Manhattan, NY

Directions: 1,2,3, A, C Trains to Chambers Street

Contact: Mark A. Torres at (646) 696-8485 or harlem120@msn.com

3. Citywide Rally to

Stop School Closings

Thursday January 21, 2010

4:00pm-6:30pm

In Front of Bloomberg's Home

17 East 79 Street

(Between 5th and Madison Avenues)

Manhattan, NY

Directions: 6 Train to 77th Street

Contact: gemnyc@gmail.com or (718) 601-4901

4. Mass Rally and Protest at the Panel for Educational Policy(PEP) Meeting

Stop School Closings

Tuesday January 26, 2010

Start signing in to speak at 5:30pm

29 Ft. Greene Place

Brooklyn, NY  11217

Directions: B,M,Q,R to Dekalb Avenue; C to Lafayette Avenue; 

G to Fulton Street; or 2,3,4,5 to Nevins Street

Contact: Mark A. Torres at (646) 696-8485 or harlem120@msn.com

CPE/CEP Working Document

Towards a Peoples’

Board of Education

Fighting for a

Free Public Education

Powered by the People

Given the fact that the BloomKlein Dept of MisEducation is increasingly alienating and disempowering parents, students and educators from all aspects of the decision-making processes, the CPE/CEP is obligated to devise an alternative to this oppressive set of policies.

A Peoples’ Board of Education (PBE) can be the organizing glue we are seeking to move forward in a united front effort to reverse the BloomKlein mandate to privatize public education and to criminalize our youth and parents.

A PBE would also be structure in a manner that directly empowers the vast majority of parents and students of this city--- countering the racist white-dominated structure that has been re-enforced by Mayor Bloomberg with the silent complicities of the UFT.

The PBE is both an explicit shadow governance structure and a citywide parent-student centered service provider when it comes to day-to-day advocacy work.

The PBE would:

• create a Center for Parent Advocacy that would initially create a contact list of all progressive Parent Advocates in the city

• actually engage in some parent advocacy work

• help jumpstart the Parents’ Union

• advocate for Adult Ed classes to be in neighborhood public schools

• Set up a school database that shows Classroom Profile: the relationship between a school’s individual classroom population and grades. This would mean that each student's report card have the number of students in the class, for each class. This profile would include the original capacity and the current capacity of the school building.

• Advocate for neighborhood schools to utilize BOCES (Board Of Cooperative Educational Services) services-- all the other NY State public school systems do. SEE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Cooperative_Educational_Services

• We (the CPE/CEP Membership) would select 15 to 20 Citywide Peoples’ Board of Education members that would not only reflect our progressive views, but also the demographic reality of today’s NYC. People like Louis Reyes, Luis Acosta, Esmeralda Simmons, Adelaide Sanford, Jose Alfaro, Our Own Muba, Jitu Weusi, Warren Minor, and others would constitute this Board. It would meet on a monthly basis in a public setting. Its initial work would be to critique the BloomKlein policies and offer progressive alternatives.

• Devise a PBE Budget based on the current amount of money allocated to the BloomKlein DOE. This would serve as a dual purpose:

A-- Expose how billions are wasted by the current regime

B-- Present our alternative and more democratic way of financing public education that has parental/student/educator input

• Introduce the notion and campaign for the Neighborhood Teacher Recruitment Program (NTRP).

This campaign would advocate the immediate reallocation of some $60million currently being spent on teacher recruitment primarily from OUTSIDE NYC to recruit Black, Latino and Asian teachers from the neighborhoods of NYC. In addition, there would be at least one teacher-themed high school in each boro that would be part of this campaign.

This NTRP campaign would push for the policy of:

--Free Tuition and CUNY/SUNY institutions for those full-time and in good standing from undergraduate to graduate school (Free Tuition also may be attained at participating private universities)

--50% of rent/mortgage paid for while fulltime and in good standing

--30% of rent/mortgage paid for during the first 3 years of fulltime teaching

• In the interim, the PBE would publicize the fact of disappearing Black/Latino educators and offer policy that would reverse this hemmoraging.

• The PBE would also be the center from which policy suggestions would be written and critiqued. This, in turn, would be publicly presented to the State Legislature representatives and the NY City Council. The PBE would be advocating a Peoples’ Referendum to End Mayoral Control before 2015 as well as having the City Council replace the State Legislative body when it comes to setting education policy (i.e. Education Home Rule).

This means that the PBE would hold public hearings on all the violations and unprofessional operations of the BloomKlein DOE. The PBE would, therefore, work in collaboration with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Medgar Evers College’s Center for Law & Social Justice, NYCLU, DC37, Center for Constitutional Rights, Urban Justice Center, NESRI, etc....

• The PBE would have its own website: Peoplesedboard.org that would be interactive and archival with ongoing video testimony from students, parents and educators. The PBE would also have a facebook/social networking presence as well as a radio presence on a weekly basis to constantly critique/expose and envision.

• The PBE would host a series of “Undoing Racism” workshops for education activists including educators, parents and concerned community folk.

The PBE would have an office with a paid staff fully functional by the end of 2010. It would have at least one boro office in each boro staffed by volunteers and housed in free to almost free space.

IMMEDIATE Stuff the PBE can do:

• Advocacy work

• Tutorial help and referral

• High School Choice help (How to use that Big Hi School Directory and online service)

• College application help

• ESL (for student and family) referral

• Health support Referral. Note: we could line up cooperating doctors and willing community health centers... and maybe even get Doctors Without Borders to pay a three day visit for NYC's school children.