You, Me and The Powers That Be: An Open Letter to Charter Parents

Hello. I have waited a long time before deciding to write to you, perhaps too long. But Tuesday’s election is too important to Newark to continue to remain mute.

First off: traditional school advocates are not mad at you. Parents have a right to place their children where they feel they will have the best education and where they believe their children will be safest. If you feel that place is within a charter, by all means, that is exactly where they should be.

Second: Charters should mirror the traditional school sense of participatory democracy. Parents should continue to be active in their children’s schools, support their curriculum, go to the charter board meetings and even run for positions on those boards. That is, if the charter is set up for a person to run for the board of a charter.

Third: feel free to come to Newark Board of Education meetings as well and voice your concerns. Your taxes pay for both charter and traditional schools and you should have your say.

But four, painful as it is to discuss, has to come forth: When it comes to a charter advocate sitting on the board of a traditional public school system, it is a clear conflict of interest. if you are running for the board and supported by the charter school Powers That Be, then, frankly, you are being used by a power alien to our interests.

Here is why I’m saying that:

Multi-million-dollar charter school PACs are spending more than 10-to-1 on candidates that will support the expansion of charter schools once on the board. That means if a decision comes to board members to either expand charters or add additional resource teachers in the public-school classroom, it is probable that those behind the tens of thousands of dollars that supported them to get into that position will demand expansion. The Charter Advocacy Team is being used, whether they understand that or not, well-meaning or not.

It’s not complicated. Charter schools are pushing for charter representatives to be on traditional school boards because they want something out of it. If your child is already in a charter school, you will not have to worry about your child’s school losing resources or not having enough teachers. But the children in most of the schools in Newark will lose if charter representatives put charters first.

This coming dynamic will increasingly create a separate-but-unequal school system in Newark. In a time when the White House has become an open, unapologetic haven for white nationalists and white racists, we cannot allow an intra-racial Jim Crow system to survive in a city filled with Black, brown and poor people.

If that reality means openly opposing the decision of local leaders we respect and love, like our mayor, Ras Baraka, then so be it. He always says we need to struggle with our allies, so consider this my struggle: he will still be my friend and mayor on Wednesday. He is not my enemy, and, by the way, neither are you.

We have been divided about this issue for too long. But we must deal with some realities.

Here’s what charter parents should be concerned about:

· Most charter schools are not set up to take in children with special needs. Newark public traditional schools have a mandate to service them. Some charter parents have other children in traditional schools for that very reason.

· Charter schools have expanded from 17% to 33% in the past 10 years. It’s Big Business for people who do not look like us, live near us or share our collective interests. The more they expand, the more money they make. Currently, charters make up a third of Newark Public School’s budget.

· Most charters are not unionized. States that have the strongest unions have also had the highest test scores. This includes New Jersey. Just something to think about.

The charter school Powers That Be—those who are making decisions to expand charter schools—are not concerned about:

· The inconveniences of a parent/child’s trek across the expanse of the city in the wee hours of the morning to get to school.

· The resources that are being zapped from traditional public schools and the chasm of inequity that is growing.

· Students with special needs.

I believe that most charter school parents do not want to see traditional schools fail, but I believe The Powers That Be have a clear agenda to destroy public education. (If you don’t believe me, just Google Betsy DeVos, Trump’s Secretary of Education, a leader of The Powers That Be.) Fact: traditional public-school teachers and administrators are not against the existence of charters, only their expansion. Why? Because, at the end of the day, there is only one school budget. Charters that are open in Newark will NOT lose money if they don’t expand: your schools will continue to be funded as state statute dictates.

Think about this. Why do charter school advocates need to be on traditional school boards? Why do they really want to be? Too often school boards are used as stepping stones to higher and paying positions. Advocates for charter schools should consider other ways of getting into political office. Running for district leader and actually being accountable to the majority of parents and citizens in the city could be a great way to start.

This issue is important for parents of traditional schools because advocates for traditional public schools will NOT be found on any charter board of trustees. Decisions that are made at charter board meetings will be, understandably, to grow and develop competitive charter schools.

So we don’t need two boards in the city to both rubber-stamp charter school expansion, because it would already strain a belt-tightening budget. We need ONLY traditional school advocates on our traditional school board to make decisions that benefit the majority of our city’s students. It’s common sense.

What is not common sense, unfortunately, is the lack of democracy in charter schools. Charter parents should have more of a voice in their child’s school, and should fight for that voice. Why?

· Because that’s how the Amistad Law, the law mandating Black history be taught in public schools throughout the state, will be finally implemented.

· Because you should have elections, too, so you can be accountable to each other. That way, you can demand transparency on the school budgets, know who’s really making decisions, and why. (If your board is appointed, who is doing the appointing?)

· Because you must be sure your children are being challenged to think, create and analyze instead of simply complying? Think: who is training them to comply, and to whom?

Why are The Powers That Be pushing to interfere with public-school democracy, but not providing any for you? (Compliance?) It’s a question to ask them.

Tuesday’s action by The People will determine the make up of Newark’s local Board of Education. Voting to let the majority rule and use tax money for most of our students will NOT hurt you, your child, or your school. It will only hurt outsiders who have an economic agenda to destroy the gains Black, brown and poor people have made in public education during the last half-century. Good. And, again, notice how that agenda demands you be silent and grateful while education is being gentrified across the nation.

As you know, Newarkers are not silent. So Leah Owens-A5, Saafir Jenkins-A6 and Denise Cole-A7 are standing for traditional public schools. That does not mean they are your enemies. Don’t believe me: watch the debates on Facebook before you vote.

What I most want you to understand is that, contrary to popular belief, we believe in school choice, too. We believe that we have no choice but to choose to create the best education system we can for all of our children because all have the odds stacked against them. You believe the same thing. But people who represent forces directly aligned with our enemies will not give us democracy; they are mandated, by their historical agenda, to take it away. No real Newarker would allow that to happen, ever. So we all have real choices to make on Tuesday.

One City, One People, One Love,

Annette M. Alston

The writer, a retired Newark Public School teacher, is an author and activist.