We welcome you to come, share and learn with us!
Our Coalition hosts an on-going series of discussions around the Struggle for a Quality Education, Human Rights in Education, Democracy in Education and the REAL truth about Community Control.
For dates and topics, please go to the FORUMS! page to see upcoming and archived
Listening-2-Learn Forums in our Sankofa Series of Conversations
Some Interesting Facts:
Dating back to the late 1800’s, Black mothers in America have a historic legacy in parent organizing.
A Black women’s organization founded the first Kindergartens in NYC. (See documentation from the Library of Congress below.)
The National Congress of Colored Parents & Teachers (NCCPT - 1920) was a primer to the National Parent-Teacher Association (NPTA)— due in large part to the dedicated efforts of Selena Sloan Butler.
The NPTA is a nationwide coalition of organized parent groups in local communities that have developed formal arrangements with individual schools. For nearly a century, the PTA has provided information on current issues of concern to member chapters and has been a supplier of extensive resources and support.
As the most respected and influential organization for parents in America, the PTA logo has earned wide recognition but NYC’s DOE can’t promote its use.
School PTAs in NYC have absolutely NO affiliation with either the National or New York State PTA.
Although our school PTAs are “mandated” to exist in every public school— under mayoral control, they are not permitted to be members of the national or state entities. This is explained below by the executive director of the New York State PTA, Mr. Kyle Belokopitsky:
“Right now NYC’s Chancellor Regs prohibit us from chartering units in your school district. But know we have renewed conversations in this topic in recent years and hopefully will find a solution.”
- Kyle Belokopitsky, ED, NYS PTA - January 21, 2021
The above quote came as a reply from an email inquiry made to the National PTA headquarters, and to the NY State PTA from Benita Rivera, Co-founder, The Mothers’ Agenda NY & the NYC Coalition to Finally End Mayoral Control 2022.
Note: This is the exact same reply Benita got 16 years ago when she emailed the NYS PTA seeking help with her son’s high school PTA.
More:
In 2002, the billionaire businessman turned politician, Michael Bloomberg, promoted himself around the world as NYC’s “Education Mayor.” He used his financial influence upon friends, and financial intimidation upon foes on both sides of the political aisle in order to exercise extreme, authoritarian power and control.
While many would rightly deem this mayor merely a racist, he was also an equal opportunity oppressor. Parents of all backgrounds, both privileged and not, were all treated with grave disrespect and lack of regard.
But there was also special brutality to the types of control that Mayor Bloomberg and his hench-people exacted on millions of students of color during his reign of power— from metal detectors and emboldening police in schools, to criminalizing students and increasing the school to prison pipeline, to closing hundreds of schools in Black and Brown communities and on and on.
Obviously, Mr. Bloomberg never bothered to learn the history of parent organizing within communities of color. Bored by parent gripes and grievances, he often told parents to simply butt out of schools. He believed schools were his domain and that anything having to do with them should be left up to professional educators, young and newly empowered school CEOs (principals) and the myriad of expensive consultants brought in from abroad. He said in no uncertain terms that the job of parents was to ensure that homework got done and children came to school.
This politician famously insulted parents from backgrounds unlike his own on a WOR radio interview by saying:
"Unfortunately, there are some parents who...never had a formal education, and they don't understand the value of an education. Many of our kids come from [such] families….the old Norman Rockwell family is gone."
(- Michael Bloomberg as reported by the New York Times, May 21, 2011).
It is regrettable, but not surprising that Mayor de Blasio has also been a disastrous leader for NYC’s schools. With regard to parents, Bill de Blasio never truly confronted the underlying problem of parent dis-engagement and had no solutions to make meaningful change to the terrible policies inherited when one-politician is in control of this enormously bureaucratic education system.
For those whose visions were obscured about Mr. de Blasio’s control over our education system early on in his first term in office, how he handed the education crisis from the start, and throughout the pandemic, has certainly opened the public’s eyes to his ineptitude.
Furthermore, the systemic failure of our schools and damage done to our children’s learning for decades… but especially now squarely rests with policymakers and state legislators for allowing one person to be in complete and absolute control.
Let us be ever mindful of those seeking to become our next mayor… and how impossible it is to hold them accountable to education promises once in office when he (or she) has taken control over our public schools and thus, children’s futures.
