NYC Educator: More Media Mendacity--Charter Lobbyist Says Public Schools Pick and Choose

NYC Educator: More Media Mendacity--Charter Lobbyist Says Public Schools Pick and Choose:

More Media Mendacity--Charter Lobbyist Says Public Schools Pick and Choose

You have to love the audacity of a charter proponent twisting logic to this point. He opens with a story of Bill de Blasio's son in Stuyvesant. It's true Stuyvesant is selective, but it's also true that Stuyvesant is far from representative of public schools.

Then, of course, there is the preposterous image of people having to cross velvet ropes to get into public schools. According to this lobbyist, we pick and choose, and leave the undesirables at the door.

One way, according to the writer, that we are selective is via zip code. If you live in a neighborhood, you can attend that neighborhood's schools. And if you can afford a great neighborhood, you can attend a great school.

Actually, that's true less and less in NYC as fewer and fewer schools are neighborhood schools, and that's been accomplished by uber-reformy Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

And city schools take everyone. We take the kids I teach--ESL students who've been here a very short time. We take special ed. kids regardless of how many services they require. When charters talk of what percentage of special needs kids they take, they never mention the extent of those needs.

But even if we really used velvet ropes, the writer conveniently forgets that charters can require NYC Educator: More Media Mendacity--Charter Lobbyist Says Public Schools Pick and Choose: