tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-193881452010-02-08T20:32:21.481-05:00Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comBlogger187125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-52948016972411650412010-02-08T19:51:00.012-05:002010-02-08T20:32:21.487-05:00

The Regents committee on Elementary, Middle, Secondary and Continuing Education today approved five more charter schools, each opening by this fall:-- Bushwick Ascend (Brooklyn CSD 23);-- Cultural Arts Academy (Brooklyn CSD 18);-- Challenge Preparatory (Queens CSD 27);-- Democracy Prep - Harlem (Manhattan CSD 5); and-- West Buffalo Charter School.Approval of these schools leaves just one charter

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-73717572989201100932010-02-08T08:14:00.010-05:002010-02-08T09:57:47.625-05:00

Hanging out in the "Rubber Room"at full pay, doing nothing.The New York City "rubber room" for teachers who were removed from the classroom amid allegations of misconduct, but whose union contract protects against being fired, continues to get the attention of the New York Post, including from columnist Andrea Peyser (here).The Post uncovered another sensational case of a teacher seven years in

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-72267060579154490852010-02-08T07:25:00.008-05:002010-02-08T10:08:14.599-05:00

Rumors are surrounding Governor David Paterson's status, not just his prospects for re-election, but whether he'll remain as Governor.Last night's Associated Press story by Capitol reporter, Michael Gormley captured the moment by reporting private meetings over the weekend between the Governor and Democratic officials, purportedly discussing his election campaign, but also involving

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-57907677919466582192010-02-05T09:42:00.007-05:002010-02-05T10:06:14.902-05:00

Governor Paterson's proposed Executive Budget for 2010-11 not only continues the charter school funding freeze at 2008-09 formula levels, but continues untouched the formula for "transition aid" to school districts outside of New York City for their charter school payments.It's bad enough that charter schools get their funding frozen. But school districts meanwhile will next year receive nearly

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-32769321449058391872010-02-05T08:04:00.020-05:002010-02-05T19:56:47.146-05:00

Albany's Charters Stepped UpBig-time in this BuildingThe Albany Common Council, made up of 16 members, met last Monday evening to consider a resolution introduced by Councilwoman Cathy Fahey to call on the state legislature to impose a local limit on charter school enrollment in the city.This resolution, filled with misinformation and bogus data provided directly by the Albany City School

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-56609882532655851302010-02-04T19:28:00.007-05:002010-02-04T20:25:53.466-05:00

If New York State fails to win a federal Race to the Top grant in the first round, to be decided by April, it will not be enough for round two to simply raise the statutory cap on charter schools. Charter funding also matters; specifically, "how [funding] compares with traditional public per student funding applications," according to the Race to the Top application.In New York's case, charter

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-18315011813639708962010-02-03T19:45:00.029-05:002010-02-04T07:58:15.649-05:00

NYSUT rallying for 55-25 retirement,channels 1844 campaign slogan.Americans are living longer, but you would think the opposite listening to the teacher unions demand early retirement with fewer years of service to earn near full pension benefits.The teacher unions are fresh from getting a Christmas gift from the state legislature in December, when it granted teachers an earlier retirement age

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-8531392445812992832010-02-03T07:35:00.010-05:002010-02-03T08:10:36.768-05:00

More than 3,000 charter school parents, staff and trustees did indeed show up in Albany yesterday in by far the largest gathering for Advocacy Day since the law was enacted more than 11 years ago. Today's Albany Times Union covered the event (here).(The only other comparable pro-charter school gathering of this magnitude occurred in Albany's Washington Park in September 2005 when thousands of

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-32164118629647899252010-02-02T07:47:00.011-05:002010-02-02T09:08:34.225-05:00

Today is the annual Charter School Advocacy Day where charter school parents, staff, trustees and students from across New York State gather in Albany to lobby their state legislators.More than 3,000 attendees are expected in Albany. This is by far the largest Charter Advocacy Day turnout, shattering last year's record turnout of "only" 750.The message for legislators is "restore our funding." As

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-64511847116087998762010-02-02T00:34:00.012-05:002010-02-02T09:04:23.823-05:00

Public charter schools are publicly funded as though their students are second-class citizens.That's right. It's that ugly.Funding for charter schools for ten years was tied to the operations spending of the school district(s) in which a charter school students reside. They do not get facilities funding. When school district operating expenditures increase--which has been the norm--the charter

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-85939200737613394202010-02-01T08:51:00.012-05:002010-02-01T15:35:55.613-05:00

The New York City United Federation of Teachers, with its opposition to a strong Race to the Top application and more charter schools has gotten national attention, to the embarrassment of New York State. First by Time magazine (here), and now in today's Washington Post editorial.The Washington Post noted that failure to raise the charter cap in New York and to remove the ban on student test data

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-42212265338943944012010-02-01T07:29:00.016-05:002010-02-01T16:08:29.405-05:00

The state and New York City teacher unions, NYSUT and UFT, have been bellowing quite a bit in the last month about charter schools needing more accountability and transparency. NYSUT boss Richard Iannuzzi himself, the New York Times reported on Saturday, "was able to persuade the Assembly to add requirements to its bill" for that (and much more in an attempt to derail charter schools altogether).

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-46511618351950983042010-01-31T11:58:00.020-05:002010-02-01T15:48:15.205-05:00

Charter schools have hit a brick wall in the state legislature, so much so that legislators will risk forgoing up to $700 million in new federal money until something is done about the issue of charter and New York City district schools sharing space.Yesterday's New York Times (here) mentioned this issue by quoting Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver who made clear it that charter placement in

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-69009175595269225362010-01-30T13:53:00.042-05:002010-02-01T15:56:05.318-05:00

Charters ain't the CIASaturday's New York Post provides an op-ed by state Education Commissioner, David Steiner, which discusses the state's application for federal Race to the Top funding. Steiner describes the application's plan to improve teacher training, strengthen curriculum standards and assessments, data collection and other important initiatives designed to improve student outcomes. He

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-24176841279773526162010-01-29T17:25:00.044-05:002010-01-30T20:42:52.187-05:00

Genesis 37 was a long time ago; it will take aslong to reach that conversion charter "cap"The New York State Education Department released its federal Race to the Top application today. In the charter school discussion, this factoid read surreal to me:"[t]he total number of charter schools that currently may form in New York are 4,540 conversion schools plus 200 non-conversion charter schools, or

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-39842468924709758362010-01-29T08:03:00.006-05:002010-01-29T21:53:47.002-05:00

Time magazine columnist Joe Klein writes in the current issue (here) of New York State's failure to reform its education laws to compete for federal Race to the Top funding, and puts the blame for this squarely on the teacher unions, specifically, the United Federation of Teachers in New York City. Klein correctly extols the Obama administration's Race to the Top program for igniting education

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-57854895372105821032010-01-28T06:59:00.016-05:002010-01-30T11:42:13.052-05:00

New York City is closing 20 public schools, 19 of them operated by the district, and the other a charter school, East New York Preparatory, which is facing imminent revocation of its charter.This is never easy, and it's gut-wrenching on the parents whose children attend those schools, along with the staff who work there.At the all-nighter meeting of the City's Panel on Education Policy this week,

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-7402630579017705362010-01-26T20:18:00.007-05:002010-01-28T15:43:02.170-05:00

The city of Rochester's school district has the mayoral control bug, and this (good) virus is catching on.New York City, of course, has had mayoral control since 2002, and it was renewed by the state legislature last summer amid much debate. Now, Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy wants similar powers to control his city's school district by removing the board of education and appointing the

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-30565985986102288962010-01-25T05:29:00.014-05:002010-01-26T21:24:50.115-05:00

State Senator Craig Johnson of Long Island writes on op-ed in today's New York Post (here) which discusses his reasons for opposing the state legislature's Race to the Top bill last week, while outlining his own strong bill to raise the charter cap and compete for this new federal education funding.Sen. Johnson, along with his fellow Democratic Senate colleague, Ruben Diaz, Sr. of the Bronx,

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-65252731743620315032010-01-22T12:01:00.019-05:002010-01-22T16:39:27.950-05:00

"Let [charter kids] eat cake!"The New York Foundation for Education Reform and Accountability today released a survey of all 212 state legislators showing that most Senate Democrats and nearly half of Assembly Democrats "benefited from school choice options" (here). In this case, private school options.The Democratic majorities in the state legislature (with a couple of heroic exceptions) this

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-14393900108527181662010-01-21T07:38:00.009-05:002010-01-21T09:25:41.927-05:00

President Obama called on states to "lift charter caps" which he set forth as one of several criteria in his Race to the Top program. With New York bumping up against its charter cap in 2010, it's common sense for New York to oblige the President, and get additional funding for doing so. Many other states saw it the same way.It was not to be in New York.At a Sunday afternoon press conference,

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-32157998620410067072010-01-20T08:24:00.047-05:002010-01-20T19:44:26.541-05:00

Charter schools in New York did not dodge a bullet yesterday. They dodged an MX missile disguised as a charter cap lift being pushed in the state legislature yesterday.The legislation (S.6468/A.9558) backed by the unions for New York's federal Race to the Top application was on track to be passed by both houses of the legislature. Instead, it was blocked in the Senate by two Democratic senators:

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-52316274883123519662010-01-18T17:07:00.007-05:002010-01-18T20:41:57.283-05:00

United Federation of Teachers (UFT) President, Michael Mulgrew has been fond of invoking an ugly historical term "separate but equal" (here) by twisting it to apply to charter schools. His union issued a report at the beginning of this month which demanded a laundry list of anti-charter school provisions and entitled the report "Separate and Unequal." It's not enough for teacher unions to

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-42623350213236695512010-01-17T18:47:00.017-05:002010-01-17T22:07:05.308-05:00

The teacher unions in New York obviously do not want any real education reforms implemented to compete for Race to the Top funding, considering their behavior for the last two weeks (and documented on The Chalkboard). The potential for an extra $700 million isn't worth it to them.Today, the legislative leadership of the Assembly and Senate majorities revealed they agree, judging by the contents

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19388145.post-59511684912610020802010-01-16T21:56:00.019-05:002010-01-17T06:04:58.918-05:00

Today's New York Times reports on the latest developments on the negotiations on the state's Race to the Top application, as do most other news outlets on Saturday.Governor David Paterson is holding firm to only approve legislation that would strengthen the state's competitiveness for the Race to the Top application - and every point matters is the message we continue to hear from spokespersons

Peter Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872337645544887582noreply@blogger.com