Letters to the Editor
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‘Lobbying Against Parents’
Tuesday was indeed an historical event the point of which your editorial obviously missed [“Lobbying Against Parents,” Editorial, March 13, 2006].
It was not the fact that parents rode to Albany on United Federation of Teachers buses, but that finally parents were speaking with their own voice.
On the issues of charter schools, obviously even parents have different opinions, but the fact is the entire state is against increasing the number of charter schools.
We don’t deny that with the right research and implementation they have worked in some instances.
However, the mayor’s program of just creating hundreds of these schools, without any study of their impact on the neighboring public schools and then placing them in school buildings where they reduce the resources available to the public school children is what the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council is against.
But that is only one issue; the major reason that parents voted to decline the trip to Albany with the Department of Education and go instead on their own is that for the last four years, parents, especially parent leaders, have seen the role of parents as real partners in the educational process diminishing.
The Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council is not asking to make decisions for the schools. We are, however, asking for real consultation in decisions that affect parents and children (our children – and they are all our children) throughout the system.
Parents want the opportunity to express their ideas and concerns about curriculums, programs, etc. before they are implemented.
We are not looking for a gripe session but rather a genuine upfront exchange of ideas. We want to consult before a new plan is put into effect rather than have it presented as a done deal that we then have to react to.
This is the relationship that was the norm with prior chancellors. Vouchers and charter schools only cloud the issues. What we want, what we volunteer our time to work for, is the quality education every child is entitled to.
DOROTHY GIGLIO
President, Region 6 High Schools
President Council and member Of Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council
Brooklyn
‘Lobbying Against Parents’
You ask why parents should ever feel it necessary to “board a bus toward Albany to lobby.” You should be celebrating this effort, not disparaging it [“Lobbying Against Parents,” Editorial, March 13, 2006].
Parents have a democratic right and responsibility to let their legislators know how they feel about issues that will affect their children’s schools.
Parents in the rest of the state do this every day, and this is one reason other communities enjoy far better schools than we do in New York City.
Moreover, Class Size Matters and other parent groups lobbied separately from the Department of Education this year, because we wanted to make it clear that we do not support the educational policies of this administration.
In a recent poll by Fordham University, only 4% of parents supported the mayor’s priorities for our schools. The overwhelming majority said that he should instead be doing more to reduce class size.
Indeed, the mayor has done nothing to provide smaller classes for our children, and as a result, our public schools continue to have the largest class sizes in the state and some of the largest in the nation.
We also went to Albany to ask the Legislature to provide our schools with their fair share of education aid, and to ensure more transparency and accountability in the spending of these funds.
We believe that a significant percentage of these funds should be invested in programs that have been proven to work to improve student achievement, like class size reduction.
In contrast, the mayor plans to spend only 2% of these funds for smaller classes, while spending 10 times that amount for more bureaucracy.
LEONIE HAIMSON
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
www.classsizematters.org
Manhattan
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