soc sci complete-2

Gittens Writing for The Social Sciences Charter School Ethics 1
Since the vacating of a record 12 year long incumbency of the New York City
Mayor’s office by Michael R. Bloomberg this past January to incumbent Wilhelm De
Blasio the policies & respective ideologies applied to the New York City Department
of Education; especially in the arena of charter schools has seismically shifted to put
mildly. The story and those affected by it: be they political titans and juggernauts,
career educators, lifetime bureaucrats, media savvy parents and children or media
vultures circling school grounds for effective sound bites have seemingly festered
and swelled in contempt and quantity overnight ever since media outlets have
began coverage as early as mid to late January. Make no mistake blood is being
drawn and we, as New Yorkers are only 3 months into a four-year term. Unity is
dead – across the board when it comes to how policy should go about empowering
academic excellence in primary education. At the heart of this debate lies the
question, should privately run schools be allowed to exist in taxpayer supported
institutions and spaces and utilize taxpayer funding all while operating under a
different set of rules than traditional public educational structures? While charters
are clearly doing something correctly as they achieve academic excellence, are we
sending a divisive message to the children of our beloved city? By raising one group
of children as the “golden calfs” and implicitly expressing indifference and apathy to
the original public schools, are we widening an already existing achievement
disparity? Are we creating dissension not only amongst the children but also
amongst the teachers and administration of the respective schools occupying the
same locations? In a public school system meant to make academic achievement
equally accessible and possible for all students as opposed to a cherry picked few,

arbitrarily decided as “desirable” are we facilitating “who should have” and “who
will have not” by bureaucratic means? Is the privatization of the public school
system the correct solution to apply in closing the achievement gap?
The New York City Public School System has been all over the place to say the
very least. Since 2002 alone, it has seen four power redistributing reforms, 3
chancellors (one of which only served a mere three months) as well as an ironclad in
strength teacher’s union, which while important many argue serve as a shield to
ineffective teachers compromising the efficacy of education to New York City Public
School students. (Borzak, 2012) Since 1997 no less than a quarter of all public
school graduating classes have either dropped out or been held over to repeat a
grade indicating a serious “black hole” in achieving academic excellence within the
original city school system model. Under the current model, where the Chancellor
of the New York City Public School system (a position currently held by Carmen
Farina) serves as “the chief executive officer of the school system” by “submitting
the executive budget which must be approved by the board of education and then
sub- mitted to the mayor.” Under this model the mayor has final say and power over
all changes, implementations and alterations to policy, a red flag to many educators
who are quick to point out politicians are a far cry from career educators.
To further educate myself regarding the charter school debacle I viewed the
2010 documentary, The Lottery directed by Madeleine Sackler. The documentary
follows several primary school aged children and their families who are seeking
admission into the Harlem Success Academy, one of the more controversial of

charter schools who are facing disbanding in 2014. It can be found on You Tube in
eight parts and in a word is heart wrenching. The obstacles these children face in
their home lives makes a quality education imperative to pulling themselves from
circumstances that are ultimately beyond their control. What’s worse is not all of
them gain entry into these high achieving, resource bountiful facilities that often
occupy the same space as the schools that are polar opposites in quality. An
estimated 5000 parents attended the lottery drawing process occurring in April of
2009 at the Washington Heights Armory hoping for a chance at an educational
foundation of meaning for their children ("The Lottery", 2010). Eva Moskowitz, the
founder of the Harlem Success Academy said it best “the notion that one has to get
lucky to get a first-rate free public education, it shouldn’t be that way” ("The
Lottery", 2010). I could not agree more, but sadly that is the way it is. While I
commend her efforts, initiative and vision saving a select few and leaving others to
essentially “drown” is a grave mistake in my estimations. What message are you
sending to the ones looked over already by society to then further divide them into
worthy and unworthy, on top of that to do so within their immediate school
community? It is demeaning, divisive and hurtful. Of 5000 parents, assuming each
parent has one child (unlikely) 475 were chosen for Harlem Success Academy,
reminiscent of the Titanic – too many lives aboard and not enough lifeboats to save
them. ("The Lottery", 2010)
As most situations which involve communities that are lacking resources,
race is central to the comprehension of this travesties magnitudes. The NYC Public
School system produces results where the average black 12th grader performs on

par with the average white 8th grader; a four-year learning gap. ("The Lottery",
2010) This obviously makes preparation for higher education a distant reality and
continues the cycle of poverty, underemployment, illiteracy and sustainment of an
underclass again and again. Early childhood statistics offer little hope either, as 58%
of Black 4th graders are functionally illiterate. ("The Lottery", 2010) Some may say
“So What?” “What has that to do with me?” “Why should I care?” To quote our
current President, Barrack O’Bama a fierce proponent for charters, “African –
American, Latino Students are lagging behind white classmates in one subject after
another. An achievement gap that by one estimate costs us hundreds of billions of
dollars in wages that will not be earned, jobs that will not be done, and purchases
that will not be made.” ("The Lottery", 2010) Education – a sufficient one goes hand
in hand with a booming economy. In an emerging global economy, the absence of a
standard of uniform educational excellence will hurt America more than we know.
Looking at Harlem specifically, there are 23 zoned public schools, 19 of which
produce scholars performing at reading level below 50% of their enrollment
rosters. ("The Lottery", 2010)
I had the privilege of sitting down with three career educators, which I define
to mean persons who have spent at a minimum of 10 years in the classroom
(effectively) and another 10 or in the process of completing a decade as either an
assistant principal or a principal of a NYC Public School.
The third administrator asked, Mrs. Marianne DiGangi (former Principal of
P.S. 272 The Curtis Estabrook School in Canarsie Brooklyn) opted out of the

questionnaire I formulated for administrators on the grounds of what she felt would
be insufficient applied knowledge on her part to my line of questioning due to a) too
much time between her retiring in the mid 2000’s and the current debate on
charters and b) a general sense of unfamiliarity with the debate as her life has been
focused on rebuilding her life and home since Hurricane Sandy, I ask your prayers
and considerations be with her as you read on.
The remaining two administrators consulted were Mr. Larry Lord, Principal
of P.S. 235 also in Brooklyn, NY and my mother, Karla Solomon Gittens, former
Assistant Principal of P.S. 272. Between the two of them well over a half century of
experience, knowledge and dedication was applied to the answering of my
questions; what I discovered was as follows: Charters create a class system already
prevalent outside the walls of the school building they inhabit. To quote Mr. Lord
“Charter schools actually continue to create another tier in the education system.
If you get hold of the parent-student-school contracts you will find that children can
be removed for many reasons: attendance, poor behavior, low performance, not
wearing a uniform. Where do these children go? Back to their zoned schools. So
they keep the best of the best and in time remove those who are not fitting into their
mold. But then to add insult to injury they are compared to Public Schools where
we do not have the option of removing children for those reasons.” He raises an
excellent point, deemed “problem children” are not found in charter schools, once
behavioral distractions are physically removed from a classroom effective
instruction becomes probable by at least tenfold. When a teacher is allowed to focus
their talents and energy on instruction and curriculum as opposed to management

and disciplining it logically follows that the former environment is conducive to
learning. Charter schools are not fixing the problem of educational failure so much
as they are redistributing and reallocating deemed “undesirables” to zoned schools.
Mrs. Gittens expresses similar sentiments, “Public education should not be elitist.
There should be enriched opportunities in the same setting for all children
regardless, of ability, aptitude or institutionalized favoritism. I want a fair mixture of
all types of students. Give me the resources and I will deliver”. (Gittens, 2014)
On the message being sent to children who are not admitted into charter
schools I posed the question, “What are the consequences you perceive or have
experienced in sharing a location with a charter school?” to which Mr. Lord painted
a accurate and fair assessment. “I have not had the opportunity to have a shared
charter school but I have been is some schools which have. Imagine walking into a
building and literally seeing the first floors with old desks and chairs, old computers
and shades, worn out bulletin boards and limited technology. Now go upstairs and
see everything brand new - paint, light, desks, technology, books, and a longer day
so built in babysitting.” (Lord, 2014) Children are more intelligent and perceptive
than people give them credit for – I’m certain that in seeing this disparity day in and
day out the message being received is “I’m not capable and my city believes me less
so than the children on the floor above me”. (Lord, 2014) Even if not as nuanced an
understanding I’ve just stated there is a clear indication of “us“ and “them” and the
former being the inferior. I can’t help but reinforce my position with the separate
but equal legal discourse I had thought Americans had already decided upon in the
landmark case of Brown vs. Board of Education (United States. National Park

Service, 2014) which overturned Plessy v. Ferguson ("Plessy v. Ferguson", 1896).
Though, the determinant of these injustices were initially hinging on race, its clear
to me that charters have only transferred the same bias, prejudice and segregated
practice on ability and arbitrary favor. Surely, this is no help in fostering an
environment conducive to learning either. “Favoritism, jealousy, unequal funding,
parental friction, elitism” (Gittens, 2014) are all reasons cited by Mrs. Gittens as
consequences of charters co habituating with the original schools.
Mr. Lord previously mentioned and referred to the length of school days in
charter schools, another integral angle from which to examine educational policy.
Like any thing that is insufficient in quality, money is usually the remedy in this
world. The funding, that is allocated in the aforementioned executive budget when
already split amongst a system spanning five boroughs catering to over 1 million
young souls is already meager, especially in these times of increasing austerity (Lee,
2014). To further fraction that by creating more charter schools, which privately
fundraise and receives support through private sector donation that traditional
public schools cannot accept without passing and satisfying a long list of
bureaucratic safeguards is highly unfair especially if they don’t even pay rent to the
city for inhabiting school buildings they are essentially “squatting” in. If rent was
collected, perhaps traditional public schools could extend school days or provide
teachers with valuable PREP periods in which they receive time where students are
in music, art or other elective like classrooms allowing them time to make lesson
plans and enrich their applied curriculum, charter schools teachers usually receive
three a day. In a school system where arts funding has systematical and consistently

been slashed away until mere tatters effective prep time is near nonexistent, and the
children suffer.
Some approach the issues plaguing children of lower SES’s as the culprit for
the achievement gap. While poverty without a doubt is a contributing factor to
educational failure it is by no means nor has it ever been the nail in the coffin, if you
will. Candice Fryer, a teacher at the Harlem Success Academy poignantly expressed
her feelings regarding poverty and educational success, “Every child can learn. We,
as the educators are there to give them the resources. If they don’t make it to college
then the system has failed them. Not the other way around.” ("The Lottery", 2010) I
could not agree more. Meredith Gotlin, Principal of P.S. 29 in the Bronx reinforces
the discrediting of the “poverty culprit mythology”, “In any school that you walk into
theres always going to be a unique set of challenges. Whether its that kids are too
poor, whether its that parents are too rich, whether its that parents are too involved,
not involved enough you’ll always have a challenge. The job of a school is to say
regardless of all those challenges, what can we do to address it?” ("The Lottery",
2010)
“…Excellent public education threatens the not so good or even quite terrible
public education that is being offered up. If we in the charter school movement can
provide phenomenal education at equal or less than the per pupil funding why can’t
these other schools do it? And the reason they can’t do it is because they’re saddled
with the bureaucracy of management and the bureaucracy of the district and the
union contracts and so forth and so we’re a huge threat to this institution that has
been around for a long time.” ("The Lottery", 2010) The quote provided by Ms.

Moskowitz while valid on numerous points is not uniformly true. Special education
is a huge part in understanding the secret to charters seemingly unbridled success.
Charter school law with regards to special education provision and what they are
obligated to provide exist in a very vague and confusing limbo like state. “Three
factors contribute to defining roles and responsibilities for those involved with
charter schools and special education: (a) a charter school's legal identity, (b) how
closely the charter school is linked to an existing LEA, and (c) the infrastructure
needed to ensure students with disabilities are served. Each of these areas must be
understood within the context of a state's charter school law and with attention to
the charter school contract and its role in defining roles and responsibilities.”
(Morando Rhim Ph. D., 2008, p. 14) Depending on this triad of factors charters can
have a finite binding obligation to special education children or none at all, making it
all but to simple to deny effective instruction suited to disabled children or not even
entertain the thought of all. Especially, if you know the right people in high places as
most charter school power structures do to even be in business in the first place.
Traditional public schools do not have this luxury. As you can hence imagine,
disabled children require more time, more resources, more money, more man
power so it is no surprise that with this added weight traditional public schools are
set out to fail from the start whether practices within the classroom are effective or
not.
The quoted educators are the people you want your children to be in the
hands of. Dedicated professionals, who know their business, know their clientele
and will meet them where they are, bringing me to my final point of examination the

mighty teachers union and the role it plays in promoting ineffective methodology
and protecting ineffective teachers. I believe in unions, they are necessary but they
also facilitate a marriage between underperformance and job security, which while I
believe nobody intended has occurred non-the less. Once again, Principal Meredith
Gotlin “ I have not had union issues at my school so I would not say its impeding me
of working effectively with my school community. There are definitely pieces of it
that affect my decisions on a daily basis. You know, if you were not a successful
employee in business I don’t need to write you up and really go through the entire
process; which I have to here. If I see a teacher that is underperforming and not
using best practices in their classroom and not providing a rigorous education it is a
challenge and not one that I think benefits our kids”. ("The Lottery", 2010) The
frustration on her face is visible as she says it and even towards the end of the quote
you see she is carefully selecting her words. I asked my two interviewees what their
assessment of ineffective teachers and the role they play on lack luster education
looks like in their buildings. I was told as follows: by Mr. Lord, “People in general
think that Principals have all this power. We don’t. Of my whole staff of 75 teachers
there is only one I have a problem with. One.” (Lord, 2014) The amount of time and
years it would take to deal with it with everything that is expected at this time is not
possible. Mrs. Gittens response mirrored Mr. Lord’s: at the time of her retirement in
2010 she believed 15 – 20 percent of her staff to be ineffective, 5% of which she was
able to get rid of. (Gittens, 2014) As a former UFT chair, which ultimately serves as a
teachers legal liaison within the grievance project she stressed the imperativeness
of administrators having command over the teachers contract and being able to

apply it in grievance/ removal proceedings. Without this honed abilities ineffective
teachers remain and children suffer. Charter schools don’t adhere to contracts and
therefore do not have this impediment, making their removal process simpler but
also allowing politics and personal vendettas as causes of termination.
As a product of the New York City Public School System I know firsthand and
was lucky to evade educational pitfalls, my parents privately bussed me out of my
district in southeastern Jamaica to District 26 in Bayside through elementary and
middle school. The process to do so was similar to that of the charter school
admissions process, I required a waiver, multiple interviews, psychological
assessment etc. The school had to permit my admission otherwise I’d be at my
zoned school which was vastly inferior in resources and educational caliber. In high
school I attended a Performing Arts H.S. started by singer Tony Bennett in the honor
of his friend Frank Sinatra, so needless to say the private funding that school
commanded was unparalleled like that of a charter school, until the space they
reside in now in Astoria had finished construction we resided in the DeVry building
in Long Island City, like a charter school, another high school also occupied that
building. Though we were kept relatively separate we were definitely looked upon
as the “gifted and favored artsy children” and while I can’t remember anything
significant occurring as a result of that the roles were very much an unspoken
understanding. We were the lucky ones who were visited by celebrities, multiple
production companies mentored us, pizza parties on a whim, spotless bathrooms
etc. and while I benefited from it all and am thankful I didn’t deserve it any more
than any other NYC Public School student especially not subsidized by public tax

dollars especially when we didn’t need it. If we funded schools (monitored and held
accountable for fund allocation), paid a respectable salary of teachers skilled,
passionate and talented in areas of study and specialties pertaining to the children
within their specific classrooms (what talented, phenomenal professional of any
trade is going to gravitate towards being disvalued in compensation?), stopped
solely binding the passing of and teaching to a state test that is irrelevant as soon as
its passed (leaving them no more prepared for college level work, admission or
employment), and allowed teachers to have flexibility, choices and options in the
curriculums they apply like at my school. The connection of The School System to
the Mayor’s office is a humongous mistake as with every 4 or 8 years (12 for
Bloomberg) the direction, mission and course of the educational policy shifts and
with it the children under the respective administration in powers auspices.
In closing, Mrs. Gittens words indicating of where schools need to focus their
attentions in reform and consistency “ curriculum, educator development, funding,
parental partnership, reasonable time frames and flexibility to make changes”.
(Gittens, 2014)

REFERENCES
Gittens, Karla. Personal interview. 15 Mar. 2014.  
Lord, Laurence. Email interview. 15 Mar. 2014.  
Graduation Results. (n.d.). New York City Traditional Graduation Rate
Archive. Retrieved March 22, 2014, from
http://schools.nyc.gov/Accountability/data/GraduationDropoutReports/NYCTr
aditionalCalc.htm
Lee, T. (2014, March 15). Will the charter school fight cripple the progressive
movement?. msnbc.com. Retrieved March 25, 2014, from
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/nyc-charter-fight-challenges-progressives  
Rhim Ph. D., L. M., Lange Ph.D., C. M., & Ahearn Ph.D., E. M. (2008). Special
Education in Charter Schools. Journal of Special Education Leadership, 21,
14.  
Plessy v. Ferguson. (1896, May 18). LII / Legal Information Institute.
Retrieved March 23, 2014, from
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/163/537  
The New York City Department of Education: A Brief History. (n.d.). My
Learning Springboard. Retrieved March 22, 2014, from
http://mylearningspringboard.com/the-new-york-city-department-of-
education-a-brief-history/  
Sackler, M. (Director). (2010). The lottery [Documentary]. USA: Great Curve
Films.
     
States. National Park Service. (2014, February 27). Brown v. Board of
Education National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service). National
Parks Service. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from
http://www.nps.gov/brvb/index.htm

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