Bronx Parents Bristle At Approach Of Charter School Network
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A high-profile charter school network is moving from Harlem to the Bronx, but the local Bronx community remained unconvinced at a hearing this week that their children will benefit. NY1's Education reporter Lindsey Christ filed the following report. When the Department of Education tells a public school to share its building with a charter school, parents, teachers and students almost always say they do not have the space. So it was no surprise that the community at P.S. 146 in Morrisania, Bronx was unhappy this week to hear about plans to move a new charter school into the building.
"Our school is crowded and we need more space in our school. We don't need another charter school in our school," said P.S. 146 student Ambrielle Hall.
The two planned charters schools in question are the next reincarnation of the Harlem Success Charter schools. The schools' founder and leader, former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz, right, is not shy about her plans to eventually open 40 schools. She has rallied thousands of supporters, plastered promotional material all over upper Manhattan and has fliers slipped under every apartment door within miles.
In January, the names of two schools Moskowitz was approved to open next fall quietly changed from Harlem Success 6 and 7 to Bronx Success 1 and 2. DOE officials told Moskowitz there was no space for her newest schools in Harlem, and so on Wednesday, parents from Harlem Success tried to win over parents in the Bronx.
"We just wanted to come up here to let the Bronx community know how wonderfully pleased we are with the program, how much it has been doing for our children and our community and how we would like to spread that through other communities," said Genevieve Foster, the parent of a Harlem Success student.
Harlem Success boast intense academics and statistics showing how much students learn. But there's been an outcry over Success schools' expansion into Harlem and the perception that Success-supporters believe their schools are better than traditional public schools.
Some parents in the Bronx are worried not only about losing classroom space, but also for their children's chances of getting into the charter schools that they're being told are so great.
"You taking our kids space and it goes by lottery. So if it goes by lottery, how do you know 100 percent of our children will end up in a charter school that they're saying is good," said Christina Miller, a parent of a P.S. 146 student.
In Harlem, complaints over the charter schools sharing public school space grew louder over the years. Only time will tell if the Bronx Success Schools will face the same battles as their Harlem counterparts.