NYSUT calls out Moskowitz charter school network for planned rally (updated X2)
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A group of charter school students rally in support of charter schools outside the Capitol in Albany, N.Y., on Tuesday, March 4, 2014. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pledged his support to the massive pro-charter school rally Tuesday. (AP Photo/Tim Roske)
As with part of the public conversation surrounding public education that has taken place since late last year, the state’s largest teachers union has sent a letter to the governor and state education officials questioning Wednesday’s planned charter school rally.
New York State United Teachers officials are wondering (in seemingly rhetorical fashion) if it’s sound educational practice for Success Academy Charter Schools, a New York City charter network run by Eva Moskowitz, to close its schools on Wednesday to bring students and staff to Albany for a rally, which it did last year as well. The NYSUT officials call out the charter school CEO for forcing parents whose children won’t be coming upstate to find alternate child care or take a day off from work.
“As a matter of policy, should Success Academy Charter Schools, Inc., as taxpayer-funded public schools, be permitted to close their doors and transport students, parents and staff to Albany for a rally?” NYSUT President Karen Magee and Executive Vice President Andrew Pallotta wrote. “Even if they use substantial private funds, is this the “right thing for students?”
Last year’s charter school rally outside at the Capitol was held on the same day as a universal pre-kindergarten rally held at the Washington Avenue Armory. Thousands more supporters showed up for the charter rally, which drew Gov. Andrew Cuomo and then Senate Co-Leader (now the Senate’s only leader) Dean Skelos, than did for the UPK rally.
NYSUT and public education advocates have held their fair share of rallies — large and small, during school days and during days off — over the years as well. But Magee and Pallotta, in another seemingly rhetorical set of questions, asked Cuomo and education officials if they too could get school boards and superintendents to close their schools to bring kids, parents and staff to the Capitol to lobby for state aid.
“If school boards and superintendents in the state’s nearly 700 school districts also wish to close en masse for a day and transport thousands of their students, parents and staff to Albany to lobby for additional state funding, would that be permissible?” they wrote. “Would you consider closing traditional public schools for a rally to be good public policy and the ‘right thing’ for all students?”
Wednesday will bring with it a pro-public education rally. The United Federation of Teachers, New York City’s teachers union, will hold its lobby day at the Capitol as well.
The competing rallies come at a time when public education advocates are up in arms over Cuomo’s proposed education policies. The headliner is his plan to allow outside entities, such as a nonprofit or another school district, to take the reins of schools deemed to be failing for three years. His office released a failing schools report last week to bolster his claims that such a proposal, based on a Massachusetts model, is essential.
You can read the full letter below:
Update: For what it’s worth, NYSUT is holding a rally Monday at the Capitol. The union says more than 1,000 people will be in attendance, but it doesn’t say in its release that students will be partaking. “Parents, educators and public school Capitol Confidential » NYSUT calls out Moskowitz charter school network for planned rally (updated X2):
