New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s has been marred with self-created controversy since he assumed office. He came under fire for pulling strings to get a friend, who was instrumental in turning out the vote for his mayoral campaign, out of jail. He was caught jaywalking after calling for a crackdown on jaywalking in the city. His chauffeured car had numerous traffic violations and, despite promising a ‘transparent administration’ (where we have heard that one before), he refused to answer any questions about it. There was even anger surrounding the manner in which he dealt with, or rather failed to have an adequate plan for, the blizzard conditions that hit the city; from keeping schools open to playing ‘class warfare’ with roads and sidewalks clearing streets in the outer boroughs but not the Upper Eastside.
Now, de Blasio is under fire for his decision to kicking four charter schools out of their buildings. Three of the schools were scheduled to open in Fall 2014. However, the school that is currently open, Success Academy in Harlem, is one of the top performing schools not just in the city, but also in the entire state. Students at Success Academy scored in the top 1% of all schools in the state in Math.
In a press release, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools President and CEO Nina Rees gave her response to deBlasio’s decision to shut down this high performing school and the 3 additional charter schools set to open later this year.
“Kicking one of the state’s top-performing schools out of its building and leaving three other schools without a building is nothing short of outrageous. At the school already serving children, Success Academy’s Harlem 4, 83 percent of the students passed the state math exam last year, putting it in the top one percent of all schools in the state. Why would anyone want to stop that kind of student achievement?“This is an unjustified attack on the city’s most vulnerable youth—93 percent of students in charter schools in NYC are minorities and 73 percent are low-income. Among the country’s 10 largest cities, all other mayors (8 of whom are Democrats) have embraced charter schools as a solution to urbaneducation challenges. It is incomprehensible that Mayor de Blasio would intentionally force hundreds of children out of their schools. He is threatening to take away the most valuable thing we can give to our kids – a quality education.“These children and parents don’t deserve to have the rug pulled out from under their feet. De Blasio should immediately reconsider this decision and put the interests of the city’s children first.”
The teachers’ union in New York played an instrumental role in getting deBlasio elected. Not surprisingly, FOX News reports that the United Federated of Teachers is praising de Blasio’s decision to close down this high performing charter school and halt the opening of new charter schools in the fall.
“I’m glad the DOE has taken an important firststep in vetoing some particularly troublesome pending co-locations,” United Federation of Teachers president Mike Mulgrew said in a statement. “But the solution to Bloomberg’s destructive policies – including his two-minutes to-midnight attempt to lock in new co-locations on the new administration – is to give local schools and communities a real say on how their buildings are used.”
The National Alliance for Charter Schools is taking to social media to get the word out about de Blasio’s detrimental and nonsensical decision to shut down these charter schools that will leave at least 700 students without a school in the fall. They are using the powerful social media forum of Twitter and encouraging people to let their voice be heard about de Blasio’s decision by tweeting to #WarOnKids and #forNYCkids.
How often have we heard from the progressive left that we must act ‘for the sake of the children’? Having demonstrated blatant hypocrisy on many occasions since assuming office, this move to the detriment of students should not come as a surprise. de Blasio, a vocal opponent of charter schools regardless of their academic success, is giving a nod to his teachers union constituents and supporters in his #WarOnKids.
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