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Debate of NYC School Space Continues

by NYC Private Schools on December 22, 2009

The debate over using public school space for charter and private schools in NYC has been steadily building, quite literally. The NYC Public School Parents Blog carried a recent article with some very stinging arguments and points about wealthy patrons funding and creating specialty charter schools in NYC.

It appears from an article in the Brooklyn Paper that the PAVE charter school board has been put on the defensive by DOE’s proposal to give them a five year extension on staying at PS 15 — and allowing them to take more space from the school each year as they expand, instead of the two year extension they originally requested.

A member of the board revealed that they have already been provided $26 million of city taxpayer funds from the NYC Department of Education for their own facility, and have raised $6.2 million more. Apparently they lack only $6 million to make this new building a reality.

The blog makes some extremely specific connections between major players in the Charter School initiatives in New York City and provides predictions on how the current wave of charter school funding popularity can go very badly for the children that need it the most.

Spencer Robertson’s wife Sarah is Director of Talent Recruitment at PAVE , and head of the board of Girls Prep Charter School, which has caused considerable controversy of its own by seeking to expand within a District 1 public school building. See the photo below, courtesy of the NY Times, of a recent District 1 meeting about the expansion of this school.

Another member of the Girls Prep board is Eric Grannis, husband of Eva Moskowitz, who makes more than $300,000 a year, operating another string of charter schools and who herself has been eager to expand her schools even further into the buildings of existing public schools in Harlem

The post continues to quote an Education Week article to articulate the points of educational charity.

Today, with the proliferation of charter schools, we may be seeing a resurgence of the historic pattern as public schools are privatized and taken over by very rich men (and women) who see themselves as saviors of the children of the poor. Naturally, you find this a repellent portrait because it undermines the democratic foundations of public education. It means that our society will increasingly rely on the good will of wealthy patrons to educate children

The points made on the New York Parents blog are going to be a touchpoint in many NYC education discussions regarding space and charter schools.


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NYC Private School Environment and Health

by NYC Private Schools on December 19, 2009

A controversy over health and homework is being given new life, sparked by a recent article in the NY Post. The discussions about how much homework is healthy for children has been in debate for generations, occasionally with the balance swinging wildly one way or another, but a newer debate is directly attaching health concerns to the issue. Is the rigorous amount of work assigned by your child’s Private School causing your child’s eye problems? One Doctor thinks so.

Too much homework may be causing young students to develop nearsightedness, requiring them to wear reading glasses prematurely, a prominent Upper East Side pediatric eye doctor claims.
Students in first to sixth grades who attend rigorous private elementary schools are more vulnerable than their public-school counterparts because they are saddled with heavy reading.
Even kids who don’t have a family history of poor vision are developing myopia, or near-sightedness, says pediatric ophthalmologist Mark Steele. When nearsighted kids shows up in his Upper West Side office, Steele said, he often diagnoses them as “private school” or “selective magnet school.”

Placing on the blame, even jokingly, on an entire educational environment seems a bit excessive, especially when high levels of reading and achievement are not indicative of just Private Schools, but all dedicated students in schools nationwide.

It is interesting to point out that there are many other ways in which even those not genetically predisposed to myopia can increase their chances of developing it, and it is a something that other professionals and experts are pointing out in response these claims.

“The incidence of myopia has been increasing . . . and the demands of reading may play a role,” said Dr. Kathy Lee, a spokeswoman for the American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus. “But to say that reading load is the direct cause of increased myopia is a very large stretch.”
Victoria Goldman, author of “The Manhattan Guide to Private Schools,” holds the screen time, not the homework, responsible for blinding kids.
“These kids have BlackBerries and [iPods] and computer games and video games,” said Goldman. “The eye strain is from all of those things. It isn’t just the homework.”


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Private and Public Schools Come Together to ‘Green’ West 61st Street

November 23, 2009

NYC private and public schools located on West 61st street, between Amsterdam and West End Avenues, have come together to ‘green’ their block and change the face of the community.

On October 24th, more than 200 children, parents and teachers planted in 16 tree beds along 61st street, marched in a community parade, and made environmental [...]

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