NYC: Protest Joel Klein's ouster of autistic kids to make more space for charter school: Mon

[Hannah Bell]

when: monday, aug 9, 1:00 pm

where: One Center Street, across form the DOE headquarters at Tweed Courthouse, press conference by manhattan borough president scott stringer

Please join those of us who support Boro President Stringer and his efforts to bring attention to a blatant misuse of power.

It is importatnt to have as many members of the education community as possible at One Center Street, at 1 PM on Monday, August 9, to demonstrate their disagreement with, and dismay at, the Chancellor's actions.

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/


Joel Klein is moving autistic kids out of their public school classrooms to make more space for Girls' Prep charter school students to "share" the building.

This school is the only dedicated space for autistic kids in the NYC public school system.

Klein is invoking emergency powers to justify the ouster, in violation of a decision by the state education commissioner.

emergency powers supposed to be used when it is “immediately necessary for the preservation of student health, safety or general welfare.”

"Klein has yet to say how throwing special needs kids into the streets meets those conditions."

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/08/05/2010-08-05_forget_ruling_i_can_move_school_joel.html


Girls' Prep is a charter run by Joel's Ed Deform buddies:

The chair of Girls Prep is Sarah Robertson, wife if Spencer of PAVE fame in Redhook's PS 15 and Eric Grannis, husband of Eva Moskowitz, is also on the board.

Also on board: R Boykin Curry, the 4th, ---profiled in the NYT hedge fund piece.
Bryan Lawrence is another. Check Daniel Squadron campaign contributions to see how they buy their own personal politicians.

http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/2010/06/interlocking-directorate-girls-prep.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. There in spirit!!

:thumbsup:

[Hannah Bell]

2. know any bodies who could be there in the flesh? please pass it on.

if ed deform gets significant challenge in chicago, nyc & dc, it will shape how things go down in the rest of the country.

[KamaAina]

4. I do indeed

I was once a member of the NYC autism community. I already sent people the link to madfloridian's article from earlier.

[Hannah Bell]

6. thanks! you might send the info on the monday protest if it wasn't in mf's link.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. I will send out to my group

There are several NYC teachers in it.

Thanks Hannah!

[Hannah Bell]

7. thanks p2blk!

this is, i think, something that could spark more concern about what's really going down, as it's a fairly blatant & unprincipled (invoking emergency powers v. doe ruling for no reason except favoritism) against an underdog group.

[KamaAina]

3. What about the autism community?

It's painfully obvious to me (a former Noo Yawker) exactly how much the Tiny Fascist and his henchman Joel value people like me. Boy, oh boy, if I weren't on the Left Coast... good to know Scott Stringer is on the case. He stands up for LGBT equality, too!

[madfloridian]

8. Kick and rec

[Hannah Bell]

9. Klein as Moriarity:

I have, in the past, compared Joel Klein to Professor Moriarty, both in terms of physical appearance and blackness of heart. While you can judge the physical resemblance yourselves, there can no longer be any doubt as to whose heart is blacker. While Moriarty was rightly described by Sherlock Holmes as the "Napoleon of Crime" for his nefarious activities, we can at least say this much for him: He never threw disabled children out of their schools.

Sadly, we can not say the same for Joel Klein, the "Napoleon of Ed Deform". While the chancellor has done many despicable things in the past, such as (insert your own example here as they are too numerous to mention), he has absolutely out-Moriartied himself this time. In case you haven't read about it, Klein has decided to go ahead with his plans to expand a charter school run by wealthy investors, despite a decision by the state that he was not allowed to do so. The kicker, of course, is that in order to give these wealthy bastards what they want, Klein has agreed to throw a bunch of autistic children out of that school.

To do this, Klein invoked his magical "emergency powers" which are supposed to be used when it is “immediately necessary for the preservation of student health, safety or general welfare.” Klein has yet to say how essentially throwing special needs kids into the streets meets those conditions...

http://www.accountabletalk.com/2010/08/napoleon-of-ed-deform.html


budgeted bonuses for administrators of girls' prep:

Bonuses for administrators

$223,654 2010=11
$230,364 2012-13
$237, 275 2013-14

http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/2010/06/interlocking-directorate-girls-prep.html

[Odin2005]

10. Right, because Klein knows that us autistics are un-people.

:puke:

[Hannah Bell]

11. know anyone in nyc who could show up?

[Odin2005]

12. Sadly, no.

:(

[Smarmie Doofus]

13. The timing of the demo is not the best.

District 75 ( the district that includes the autistic program that's being...... ummmm... relocated) teachers and paras do a 12 mos. year. In other words, they're working Monday... til at least 2:50.

>>>>is importatnt to have as many members of the education community as possible at One Center Street, at 1 PM on Monday, August 9, to demonstrate their disagreement with, and dismay at, the Chancellor's actions.>>>>>

That's a a sizeable natural constituency that essentially can't show up.

K and R nonetheless.

[Jefferson23]

14. Thank you for posting, I wish there were a bit more time to get the word out. But looking

at Klein's agenda, his tactics should not surprise anyone. What a freaking disgrace!

I found some interesting links at Rebecca Shore's advocacy law group.

And look what Klein says here, "So much of special ed has been about dotting I's and crossing T's and I think the state wants to move this to a system where we focus heavily on outcomes," says Klein."

This is similar to Bush's world, where up is down. How he can make these statements and get away with it is scary.


Special Ed Programs May Face City, State Budget Cuts


About 177,000 students are in the city's special education classes, in programs that were protected from possible budget cuts, but now city and state are looking to make cuts where they never did before. NY1's Education reporter Lindsey Christ filed the following report.

The number of special education students in the city is skyrocketing -- up by 18,000 this year alone -- and the costs of educating them are also rising. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein says next year, to meet state requirements, the city's special education costs will go up by $140 million.

Klein says it's time for some of those mandates to go.

"Give us the flexibility and hold us accountable, because mandates are a way to micro-manage a system into compliance, but not manage a system into effective outcomes," says Klein.

Later this month, the State Board of Regents will consider ending some of those mandates.

The teachers' union and special education advocates are concerned, as one of the mandates that might be lifted is the requirement that all teachers get copies of their students' Individualized Education Plans (IEP).

"The IEPs are really the roadmaps for the child's education. So you are basically asking the teacher to lead the child's education without having the roadmap, which is a very bad idea and could actually hurt students quite considerably," says Kim Sweet of Advocates for Children.

There are questions about how much money some of these proposals will save.

"If a teacher doesn't have an IEP, all you're saving is potentially photocopying costs," says Sweet. "I don't know how much that will be, but then you'll have to weigh against that the loss in effective service for kids with disabilities.

Another proposal affects the thousands of Collaborative Team Teaching classes in the city. CTT classes have two teachers, general education students and up to 12 special education students. The Regents may let schools increase the number of special education students.

Klein says he would welcome the flexibility, and for him the changes are not even about the budget.

"So much of special ed has been about dotting I's and crossing T's and I think the state wants to move this to a system where we focus heavily on outcomes," says Klein.

Advocates say that's precisely why those requirements exist, and that without them schools might be tempted to not give special education students the special services they need.

http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beats/education/120280/special-ed-programs-may-face-city--state-budget-cuts/

[Hannah Bell]

15. klein & his minions don't give a damn about anyone's kids but their own little snowflakes.

obvious fact.

they'd trample schoolchildren underfoot if there were some money at the end of the path.

[Jefferson23]

17. Agreed, but he is attempting imo to dismantle IDEA and there hopefully

will be a strong legal win for the children eventually. What scares me about this is how he can claim "emergency" without identifying it and
exactly where are these children with autism going to be educated now?


Beyond disgusting conduct.

[Starry Messenger]

16. Grr. k & r

[maryf]

18. sharing this with some new yorkers...

thanks! K&R

[femmocrat]

19. K&R