Group Wants Parent, Student Unions To Have Say on Schools

To counter the power of the city teachers union and business leaders in shaping school policy, New York City should use taxpayer dollars to create two new unions complete with their own budgets and lobbyists, one for public school parents and one for public school students, a group is proposing.The Independent Commission on Public Education is releasing its proposal as the deadline in Albany nears on whether to renew mayoral control of the city’s schools.The teachers union, the City Council, and both bodies of the state Legislature are already crafting proposals on the issue.A co-founder of iCOPE, Ellen Raider, said its goal is to widen the number of participants in that conversation — and, as a result, widen what the conversation is about.The group’s recommendations, summarized in a six-page report, argue that while the teachers union, elected officials, and the Bloomberg administration all say they speak on behalf of children’s interests, only parents and students can truly play that role.Students and parents are also better situated to answer a question the report says is crucial but too often ignored: What is the purpose of public education?Creating parent and student unions are two ideas among a slate included in the six-page report, all loosely aimed at giving community members more control over the public schools.Ms. Raider said the unions could have independent staffs of lawyers and lobbyists, much like the teachers union and the business community have.“They can go to Albany and get a law changed, because they have lobbyists and power,” Ms. Raider said. “The power players make things happen. The parents don’t have a chance in hell to make things happen.”A student union funded by taxpayers would likely be unprecedented, but the idea of a parents union is not. The city of Los Angeles has a new parents union, financed through outside donations and run by the charter school chief, Steve Barr.In New York City, activists have tried to organize similar groups in the past. A longtime president of the city’s now-defunct United Parents Association, Ayo Harrington, spent much of her tenure lobbying for a parent organizer’s equivalent of jury duty, under which employers would be required to reimburse parents for time spent organizing.Ms. Harrington said a parent union would be powerful.“Parents have one hat: We want the best education for our children. That doesn’t include, ‘And we want the best paycheck and we want the best heath care and we want a process that allows us to be paid for the rest of our damn lives,'” she said.Parent organizers who work at community education councils and outside groups are also trying to concentrate their voices and make them louder. Friday night, a group of more than 40 parents is scheduled to meet in Manhattan to launch a new Parent Commission on School Governance and Mayoral Control.The membership of iCOPE includes public school parents, teachers, and academics. Advisers to iCOPE include the New York University education professor Pedro Noguera and some former members of the city Board of Education, including Esmeralda Simmons of Medgar Evers and Luis Reyes. The group draws on the views of students, including a core group of seven public school students who spent the last year working with Fordham University’s National Center for Schools and Communities on a project to study student opinions on the public school system.The result is a report by the group, which dubs itself Youth Researchers for a New Education System, out this week. The report includes a survey of 500 students, finding that only 13% believe that Mayor Bloomberg knows what is best for students.The group also asked students whether they agreed with the statement, “I know the changes that need to be made in my school to make it better but the power to make these changes is out of my hands.” More than three-quarters answered yes.

Group Wants Parent, Student Unions To Have Say on Schools

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