Friday, December 7, 2012

NYC DOE: Politics of Harm

Eva Moskowitz

Plan to push school for at-risk kids out, to move well-connected charter in

The city is planning to create more space for the Moskowitz charter school by moving the Innovation Diploma Plus school to a Washington Heights building that lacks science labs and a gym.

Comments (4)
A high school for at-risk kids is facing eviction from its home to make room for a well-connected charter school to expand, critics charge.
School reformer and former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz sparked outrage last year when city officials turned over space in the newly overhauled Brandeis high school campus on the upper West Side to the Moskowitz-run Upper West Success Academy.
 
This year, the city is planning to create more space in the Brandeis building by moving the Innovation Diploma Plus school to a Washington Heights building that lacks science labs and a gym.
 
The Diploma Plus school serves kids who have fallen behind on completing their degrees.
 
The move also means the school’s teen moms will lose access to day care because Brandeis is one of a few dozen locations where day care is provided for students, city officials said.
 
BRANDEIS CAMPUS

MARIELA LOMBARD FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Brandeis High School at W. 84th St. The Innovation Diploma Plus school is slated to be moved out of the building, but as a result, teen moms currently attending that school will lose access to day care for their children.

The decision, which was scheduled for a hearing Tuesday night, has sparked fury in the community.
“I strongly urge you to reconsider,” Public Advocate Bill de Blasio wrote in a letter Tuesday to Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott.
“This latest proposal by the Department of Education will undermine the education of at-risk students.”
Moskowitz, the Upper West Success founder, is a contentious figure because of her willingness to take on the powerful teachers union and because of the perception that she has an inside-track with the Bloomberg administration.
School officials say Innovation will now be closer to the majority of students’ homes.
“We are considering feedback from the community, and the relocated school will meet state requirements for physical education and science,” said spokeswoman Connie Pankratz.

rmonahan@
nydailynews.com

Comments



FRANK OLEO2 days ago
Bloomberg and Moskowitz have turned the charter school movement into a joke. They intend to prove that with more money than public schools and all the advantage given to them by politicians that scharter schools can succeed. End public funding of this fiasco and you will stop pitting parent against parent and community against community.
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SALESGAL318072 days ago
@Napoleon - education is no longer about education. It's now about politics, connections, grooming the next generation and money making. It's horrible and quite sad what's happened to the largest public school system in the country. I say this as someone about to graduate with a degree in education. I don't even want to teach anymore - that's how disguisted I am with the "system"
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NAPOLEON SOLO3 days ago
"School reformer"?????? .... She's a PROFITEERING LEECH, making HUNDREDS OF THOUSAND DOLLARS a YEAR from TAXPAYERS, while engaging in the SHIFTIEST back-room deals with the likes of Klein and other corrupt Bloomberg minions!!!!!! ... Which is WHY the Emperor is wasting OUR money trying to prevent turning over e-mails from Klein and Black!!!!!
 

From Betsy Combier:

The business model of education promotes the discarding of people who may get in the way of highest production, i.e. the kids and teachers at the non-charter schools within Brandeis. Bloomberg's "Go where the money is" throws public schools and everyone connected with them into the garbage.

The silence of the UFT and city politicians - including those running supposedly for Mayor next year - is deafening. 

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