Charter School Fears Dominate Harlem Education Town Hall

HARLEM, NY — A town hall meeting between New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza and a council of Harlem public school parents started off with a heated exchange and was dominated by parents' fears of charter schools expanding in the neighborhood.

Carranza answered screened questions on Monday night from parents of public school children in district five — which spans most of Central Harlem and portions of West and East Harlem — but before he could get to any answers he had some explaining to do.

Community Education Council 5 President Dr. Sanayi Beckles-Canton accused Carranza and the DOE of disrespecting district parents by not inviting the CEC to a meeting earlier in the day with elected officials.

"It is disrespectful to come into our community, meet with elected officials about issues about our kids and not include us." Beckles-Canton said at the onset of the town hall meeting. "This entire CEC panel is elected officials too, and if we're not good enough to be invited or be told what this meeting is about it continues to breed distrust and suspicion and it makes it really hard for us to be able to trust you and take you at your word."

The DOE Chancellor apologized for the "lack of oversight" and said that he will instruct his office to set up a meeting with CEC members in the future.

After the exchange, Carranza spent about an hour answering questions about bullying, school climate, special education and creating an equitable school system in New York City. In response to a question about funding in Harlem schools, Carranza described the city's current system as "haves and the have nots."

"If you want any evidence of the haves and have nots, I want you to look where resources have been invested in the past," Carranza said. "I want you to look where there are new buildings, I want you to look where there is programming, I want you to look at where the attention has been paid by prior administrations."

"I will tell you that Harlem, and the Bronx and Central Brooklyn, the Rockaways — I can give you examples where these communities have been under-served for years... Equity is very simply the notion that every community gets, and every person in that community gets what they need to meet the goals that we have set."

Carranza added that he will "never" support a school system that spends all year preparing students for standardized test success.

The majority of the questions asked Monday night were about stemming the rise of charter schools in Harlem, and how the city plans to convince parents to choose public schools in order to solve the issue of school under-enrollment.

Carranza detailed a plan that will combine better marketing public schools to neighborhood parents and increasing funding at district schools to boost performance. The DOE head said it's hard to tell exactly why parents send their kids to charter schools instead of public schools, but much of it has to do with word of mouth.

The Department of Education plans to consult district parents about what they want to see in Harlem schools, and combat negative perception of neighborhood schools with concrete examples of success, Carranza said. Carranza described the emphasis on marketing as "taking a page" out of the charters' book.

The second piece of the puzzle is to invest more resources in Harlem schools to support desirable schools and programs, Carranza said.

"There are no schools, no schools, that you can point to in the city of New York that are historically well funded where you see a promulgation of charter schools," Carranza said. "Where do you see a promulgation of charter schools? It started in under-funded communities."

While Carranza painted a picture of a bright future, he did admit that charters may continue expanding in the neighborhood in the short term. The city schools chancellor described the issue of school space as a "vicious cycle" noting that the city is legally obligated to give any under-utilized space to charter schools if they request it.

Photo by Brendan Krisel/Patch