Overwhelming Opposition to DOE Agenda for PEP
This week's agenda has some highly controversial items. Emails sent to me ran overwhelmingly against the co-location of Success Academy in Cobble Hill. There were 540 opposed and 5 emails in favor. I wrote back to four of the supporters. Their primary issue was simply overcrowding and are looking for more good schools. There was no preference for a charter.
For a good preview of the meeting and deep dive into the issues at stake, be sure to check out Liza Featherstone's Brooklyn Rail column Here Comes Success. Here's an excerpt:
For a good preview of the meeting and deep dive into the issues at stake, be sure to check out Liza Featherstone's Brooklyn Rail column Here Comes Success. Here's an excerpt:
At Success Academies, by contrast, the 1% runs the schools for the 99%. But public schools are not supposed to be charities. In fact, in the 19th century, the move away from charity schools, toward a publicly funded, publicly controlled system, was a significant step toward a more democratic society. That’s progress we’re rushing to undo in our own century. A public school is not supposed to use the generously donated largesse of the rich to benefit a handful at the