Get sick, get well
Hang around a ink well
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin' to sell
-- Bob Dylan

Saturday, July 23, 2011

A court victory for charter operators, a loss for civil rights groups and unions

In a defeat for the NYC teachers, parents and civil rights groups, Supreme Court Justice Paul Feinman denied the UFT and NAACP’s request for a preliminary injunction preventing the D.O.E. from closing 22 schools and co-locating 15 charter schools in regular public school buildings. Feinman.ruled that Mayor Bloombeg, Chancellor Dennis Wolcott were free to move ahead with plans to close more neighborhood schools and move the place 15 privately-run charter schools in the buildings of neighborhood schools this year. 

The N.A.A.C.P. had joined with the union in the suit, which among its other claims, said that the city had discriminated against traditional district schools by giving privately-managed charters a priviledged position inside the "shared" buildings including more time in common spaces like auditoriums and gymnasiums than the traditional schools. In other words, neighborhood kids and teachers were made to feel like second-class citizens in their own schools.
From the Brooklyn Eagle: 

The multiple school closings have been characterized by some parents as an unfair rush to clear out under-resourced standard public schools in order to give their real-estate to charter schools backed by donors with deep pockets.

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