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New York City
May 2003

Are Parents Informed About School Choice?

The City Council Education Committee, chaired by Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz, recently held a well-attended emergency public meeting on the subject of school choice. Committee member Robert Jackson and Deputy Majority Leader Bill Perkins were also in attendance.

Why the need for an emergency meeting? Under the federal law “No Child Left Behind” Act, 226,000 public school students are eligible to transfer out of one of the City’s 331 Need of Improvement (NOI) schools. But, according to the Council, the Department of Education (DOE) is not in favor of this law and is “doing it’s level best to thwart it,” according to Moskowitz. “The Department promised a major outreach to parents,” said Moskowitz. “And that simply has not happened. So far they sent out one letter, full of misinformation or conflicting information.” One of the major points of confusion was the deadline parents had to apply for a transfer. None of the deadlines “give parents sufficient time,” said Moskowitz. “We are going to ask the Department to extend it.”

Still, and in spite of the signal lack of enthusiasm displayed by the DOE, 16,000 students ended up applying for transfers for the coming school year so far, a far larger number than did so last year (3,670, of which 1,507 were granted)—and a far larger number than was anticipated. An additional 33,000 students requested free tutoring services under the Act. Still, even these numbers remained open for interpretation: “The facts speak for themselves,” DOE spokesman David Chai said. “This is better than last year but still not enough,” replied Moskowitz. “A 20 per cent response is not success.”

Not surprisingly, DOE officials disagree. They now say a deadline extension—in face of such larger-than-expected response—has become unnecessary. Not so, claims Bruce Ellis, director of the Community Advocates for Educational Excellence. “Every school in Harlem’s District 5 is on the NOI list,” he said. “The city would have gotten a better response from parents if educators conducted a more effective outreach.” Ellis then urged parents to join Harlem Attorney (and former Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor) Charlie King’s class action lawsuit, as “another way to apply pressure on the DOE and Chancellor Joel Klein to fully comply with the Federal Law.”

The suit, filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, alleges that the city has: unreasonably refused transfer requests and has a faulty process for accommodating transfers. “This should be a wake-up call to the Chancellor of the desperation thousands of parents are feeling regarding their children’s education,” Ellis said about the larger-than-expected number of requests to transfer. Meanwhile, each family that has already applied in a timely fashion for a transfer will be offered at least three choices under a new Citywide transfer system. The Chancellor himself has taken over the transfer decisions from the superintendents in order to meet the new requirements.#

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