SCHOOL-CHOICE FOES’ FOOLISH CHOICES
ON June 10, I went to the Panel for Educational Policy hearing near City Hall to speak in favor of the proposed colocation of a Success Academy charter school with a junior high in Midwood, Brooklyn.
It wasn’t, however, for my own kid. I live in Canarsie, and getting to lower Manhattan was inconvenient. But it was important for me to advocate for parent choice and for giving all children the best education options possible.
After all, my daughter currently benefits from such an arrangement — she attends a Success Academy school colocated with a public intermediate school — so I know precisely how the proposed Midwood colocation would improve the lives of so many kids.
Unfortunately, PEP voted against it, which is frustrating to parents but also a fiscal blunder for the city.
The vote against the colocation was devastating because families like mine need better opportunities for their kids.
In our city and state, parents who aren’t lucky enough to have a good local school to send their kids to, or who don’t have the financial status to determine the quality of their children’s education, are not getting the support they should get from our leaders.
The decision just didn’t make any sense to me.
The other school’s enrollment was dropping and had 650 empty seats. A new Success Academy would enroll fewer than 500 kids.
As someone said at the hearing, this is New York: We squeeze in — especially if it can help children.
It was also upsetting to hear other parents repeat things about Success Academy that I know to be untrue.
Even though there were parents from four Success Academy schools sharing their stories about how colocation works, their testimony wasn’t enough to convince the panel.
My daughter Ameerah is in first grade at Success Academy Bergen Beach. Her school is colocated with an intermediate school, IS 78, just as Success Academy Midwood would have been if the PEP hadn’t voted it down.
When I started looking at schools for Ameerah, that colocation made me nervous.
In fact, I was on the fence about Success Academy until the very last minute because I’d heard lots of conflicting things about it.
But I couldn’t send my daughter to our neighborhood schools in Canarsie, because you could see the minute you walked in the door it just wasn’t the right environment for us.
The kids were unruly, and the school’s staff members looked unhappy.
And private school was completely unaffordable for us.
It would cost more for my daughter to attend private kindergarten than it cost for my entire bachelor’s degree.
Success Academy turned out to be a wonderful choice for my daughter. Her reading and math skills have drastically improved, and she loves school so much that she doesn’t want to take summer vacation.
I have the principal’s cellphone number, so I can call anytime something comes up.
And the colocation isn’t an issue. We’re an elementary school coexisting with an intermediate school with no problem.
My daughter is set for the next three years.
But I went to that PEP hearing because I felt compelled to advocate for parents who don’t have a choice for their children, or who don’t have the time or the understanding to advocate for their kids.
Parents who have educational choices, like my family, must work to make sure other families can have them, too.
I wonder: Where do the PEP members who voted against the Midwood proposal send their children to school? Is it difficult for them to understand what parents like me face?
As I told the PEP members at their first hearing on the Midwood colocation in May, today’s children are tomorrow’s leaders.
The children whose fates the Panel for Educational Policy decided that Wednesday night may someday be making decisions for other people’s children.
That’s why we need to set our personal differences aside and make the right choices for our kids, so all children can have the best education possible.
I felt compelled to advocate for parents who don’t have a choice for their children.