The Limits of the Charter School Solution

The Friday night Department of Education on the co-location of Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School at was a discouraging example of the dysfunction of democratic government in New York City. The P.S. 9 parents and the BECCS parents that ostensibly came to “debate” the co-location are not natural adversaries, and have no particular philosophical differences: they both just want their children to have space in which to learn. But by pitting these groups of parents against each other, the DOE stage managed the appearance of a legitimate public process where none in fact exists. A DOE decision to approve the co-location is a foregone conclusion given the Bloomberg administration’s policy of increasing the number of smaller, specialized schools—especially charter schools. The DOE does not appear to have the capacity or interest to recognize the potential for an expanded P.S. 9 to build upon the success the school has realized over the last several years by engaging local parents and elected officials.

The story of parent advocacy and charter school options in Prospect Heights isn’t a new one. In 1997, a group of parents in Prospect Heights, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill began meeting to discuss options for our young children entering kindergarten and first grade in the coming years. P.S. 9 was struggling at the time, and many of these families were not willing to enroll their children. The group became aware of pending legislation that would authorize charter schools to be formed in New York State. Parents met with the then-superintendent of District 13 to ask for help locating space for an alternative school chartered under the new law. Although understanding, the superintendent made it clear that no space in DOE buildings in District 13 would be made available. Eventually, in 2000, the Community Partnership Charter School opened in leased space in Fort Greene.

Although the opening of the school was a great triumph for the parents who helped to organize it, the CPCS experience was ultimately bittersweet for many of us. The years the founding families spent finding sponsorship, space, and faculty, and developing a vision for the new school, did not translate into an advantage in its placement lottery. Many of children of these families did not win seats. Unable to find other options for their children, some of the families left Brooklyn. In our case, the amount of time required to launch the school meant that our son was too old to apply for a seat by the time of the first lottery.

The Bloomberg DOE’s support for charter schools perhaps represents a major change of policy from the late 1990s. However, what remains consistent is the DOE’s strong preference for bureaucratic doctrine over engagement with local families. Today’s DOE has an internal organization to manage relationships with charter school chains like BECCS’ Uncommon Schools. It still has little or nothing, however, to extend to parents of school age children willing to commit time and effort to improve the institutions of public education in their communities.

It is probably true that parent involvement can’t be templated and reproduced across multiple school districts in New York City the way a charter school chain can open new franchises. However, the experience at P.S. 9 illustrates what an effective school administration can accomplish with the help of an engaged group of parents. In the years since our children were heading into lower school, P.S. 9 has become a beacon in our community. Few Prospect Heights parents today would choose a lottery over a seat for their child in a neighborhood school. What’s more, a zoned public school is a stabilizing force in a community in a way that a charter school can never be.

It’s therefore critical that the DOE temper its advocacy for charter schools with an ability to leverage the contributions of engaged parents and local communities. Doing so will require the DOE first acknowledge that solutions to the challenges of public education in New York City need not always come from the bureaucracy. And its next step should be to drop the plan to co-locate BECCS, and approve P.S. 9’s request to expand through grade 8.