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Monday, October 14, 2013

NYC Public School Parents: Commissioner King says Class Size Matters is a "special interest" manipulating parents

NYC Public School Parents: Commissioner King says Class Size Matters is a "special interest" manipulating parents:

Commissioner King says Class Size Matters is a "special interest" manipulating parents


My Hero Leonie Haimson
Like Joan of Arc: Pissed Off a King!
Way to go Leonie!! Parents Can!!


Over the weekend, NY State Education Commissioner John King cancelled all future PTA-sponsored forums about the Common Core, because he claimed that these meetings have been "co-opted by special interests" whose goal is to "dominate" these meetings, and that "parents don't deserve to be manipulated and dominated." His entire statement is quoted here.

Today, a spokesperson from the NY State Education Department identified to reporters these "special interests" as NYSUT (the state's teacher union) and Class Size Matters.  I explained yesterday why it was absurd to say parents are being "manipulated" by  NYSUT, but I was absolutely flabbergasted to hear that King is claiming this about Class Size Matters as well.

I assume that he is referring to our efforts to inform parents around the state that their children's most personal information is being shared with inBloom Inc. and other vendors without their consent, and our advocacy to try to stop this from happening.  One question read from a card at the PTA forum in Poughkeepsie meeting on Thursday referred to these plans (see this video at about 41 minutes in.).

Yet the idea that parents' concerns about this data-sharing plan results from their being "manipulated" is so absurd it is difficult to even comprehend.  So far six out of nine states have pulled out of inBloom or put their plans on hold