NEW YORK—As the NBC News crew packed away the remaining equipment from their Education Nation Summit in Rockefeller Plaza Tuesday evening, a group of about 20 teachers and parents gathered in a light drizzle to say that their views were not represented in the summit.
The group claimed that the summit gave undue prominence to privatization of the public school system, being heavily influenced by corporate cosponsors.
“NBC has disinvited prominent experts from its panels, including Diane Ravitch and Yong Zhao of Michigan State, and has given up any pretense of providing a fair presentation of views. The vast majority of panelists have been recipients of funding from Education Nation’s cosponsors, the Gates and Broad Foundations,” claimed Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters, the organization that hosted the gathering.
At press time NBC had not yet responded to a request for comment.
Mayor Bloomberg stated at the opening of the summit that he intended to partner with the private sector as part of his plan to reform New York City’s schools.
An example of such a partnership is a school being developed by IBM, City University of New York, and the Department of Education.
The mayor has also been a proponent of charter schools as a means of innovation and reform in the school system. The group of teachers and parents claim the summit strongly advocated charter schools without enough discussion about their shortcomings.
“Charter schools offer an important opportunity to promote educational innovation and excellence. Charter schools also bring new leaders, resources, and ideas into public education,” read a statement about charter schools from the NYC Department of Education.
Mona Davids, founder of the Charter School Parent’s Association, says only 1 out of 5 charter schools rate successfully in standardized testing in comparison with public schools.
“We became charter parents because we were told that district schools are failing. If (charter schools) are doing worse than district schools, except for those 1 out of 5, what does that say?” asked Davids.
The group claimed that the summit gave undue prominence to privatization of the public school system, being heavily influenced by corporate cosponsors.
“NBC has disinvited prominent experts from its panels, including Diane Ravitch and Yong Zhao of Michigan State, and has given up any pretense of providing a fair presentation of views. The vast majority of panelists have been recipients of funding from Education Nation’s cosponsors, the Gates and Broad Foundations,” claimed Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters, the organization that hosted the gathering.
At press time NBC had not yet responded to a request for comment.
Mayor Bloomberg stated at the opening of the summit that he intended to partner with the private sector as part of his plan to reform New York City’s schools.
An example of such a partnership is a school being developed by IBM, City University of New York, and the Department of Education.
The mayor has also been a proponent of charter schools as a means of innovation and reform in the school system. The group of teachers and parents claim the summit strongly advocated charter schools without enough discussion about their shortcomings.
“Charter schools offer an important opportunity to promote educational innovation and excellence. Charter schools also bring new leaders, resources, and ideas into public education,” read a statement about charter schools from the NYC Department of Education.
Mona Davids, founder of the Charter School Parent’s Association, says only 1 out of 5 charter schools rate successfully in standardized testing in comparison with public schools.
“We became charter parents because we were told that district schools are failing. If (charter schools) are doing worse than district schools, except for those 1 out of 5, what does that say?” asked Davids.
Friends Read Free