Campaign for Better Schools holds rally before
Parents, youth and community groups speak out for
Meaningful reforms to the “rubber stamp” PEP
Manhattan, NY – More than 200 parents, youth and community groups carrying rubber stamps and a coalition member dressed in a giant rubber stamp costume rallied today at Stuyvesant high school - the location for the May meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) meeting - to highlight how the PEP has become a meaningless “rubber stamp” for the mayor’s educational policies. The Campaign for Better Schools, a coalition of over two dozen major parent, youth and community organizations, called on the state legislature to renew mayoral control of the city’s schools with some key changes aimed at improving transparency, increasing public participation and creating meaningful checks and balances.
“The Panel for Educational Policy was supposed to provide a place where there would be real discussion of important policy issues, where there would be meaningful debate and votes that actually mean something,” commented Zakiyah Ansari, a resident of Brooklyn and a parent leader representing the Campaign for Better Schools. “But in the seven years since the panel was created they have never once voted against any of the mayors ideas. It is clear the panel is simply a ‘rubber stamp’ to the system of one-man rule of New York City schools.”
Last week a Marist College poll showed that six in ten New Yorkers believe the mayor should no longer run the city’s school system. Instead, they think the responsibility should be given to an appointed citywide panel. The same poll found that among voters, only 32 percent supported the current system of mayoral control, while 60 percent favored putting control in an appointed citywide panel, and among parents only 27 percent favored the current system while 67 percent favored the Panel on Education Policy
“I have always told my children that no one is perfect and we all make mistakes,” explained Ocynthia Williams, a parent leader with the Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ). “But in New York City we have a system which assumes the mayor is never wrong and never makes a mistake. The PEP has never questioned the mayor’s ideas and serves only as a ‘rubber stamp’ for his policies and not as a venue for meaningful community, youth or parental input. This is just wrong and something the legislature must change.”
Presently the mayor appoints the majority of the panel and each member serves at the pleasure of whoever appointed them. During a contentious discussion in 2004 over the mayor’s plan to hold back third graders who scored poorly on standardized tests rather than working to convince dissenting members, the mayor chose to dismiss two members in what is known in New York City education lore as the Monday Night Massacre.
“We don’t think that it is asking too much of the mayor to have him convince one person he didn’t appoint to join him on important policy issues,” argued Zakiyah Ansari. “But our present system doesn’t even require the mayor to convince someone he did appoint to agree with him, because he can – and has – fired members of the PEP for disagreeing with him.”
”Only 26% of English Language Learners graduate within four years and more than half drop out over the course of seven years. I saw this at my high school,” commented Iris Martinez, a recent graduate of a New York City High School in Brooklyn and member of the Urban Youth Collaborative. “Students who were learning English felt like they basically just have to figure stuff out for themselves.”
“The Panel for Educational Policy has failed to ensure meaningful discussions on critical issues facing our education system,” said Deycy Avitia, coordinator of education advocacy at the New York Immigration Coalition. “The PEP’s role as a symbolic entity and a ‘rubber stamp’ to the Chancellor’s decisions has obstructed serious, legitimate conversations on pressing issues, such as why the graduation rate of English language learners has taken a turn for the worse, or why the achievement gap between African-American and Latino students and their white counterparts remains as wide as ever after seven years of mayoral control.”