Sparks Fly at City Hall Over Charter Schools

By MELISSA WALKER

The New York City Council Education Committee met Tuesday to exhort colleagues to try to exert some of the council’s limited power over local charter schools after recently enacted state laws requiring the city to provide or pay for space for the semi-private and controversial institutions.

Frustration permeated the hearing in City Hall’s council chambers led by Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Queens) who demanded to know where outspoken advocate of charters and leader of the Success Academy Eva Maskowitz was.

“Where is Eva? Where is Eva?” asked Dromm launching a heated session as councilmembers demanded a say in overseeing and disciplining charters. Dromm at one point donned an orange shirt in protest of the alleged practices of a Coney Island charter that, he said, isolates students with behavioral problems by having them wear orange shirts and banning them from interaction with other students.

A supporter of Dromm who asked not to be identified and who said she had children in a Brooklyn charter school expressed her concern with these practices: “I want my kids in a charter, free run 6 v2 femmes they have a better chance there.But hey need to practice the same standards of discipline as public schools.”

Charter critics put such alleged double standards are at the center of the debate as council members demanded answers about such policies as co-schooling, admission, and teacher retention and pay.

A senior member of the Department of Education, Laura Feijoo had a tough time at the hearing. With only a few principals from charter schools in attendance, she had to assure the committee that she was not able to speak for them.

Councilman Andy King also introduced legislation at the hearing to require reporting academic and demographic data of all schools located in public schools.This bill would require yearly reports to ensure that the charter schools, which are privately ran with public funding, were serving “special needs” and ESL students.