As the City Council holds a hearing this afternoon on three resolutions aimed to cap and slow the co-location of public schools, district and charter school leaders who share facilities are speaking up about their experience
co-locating with other public schools; collaboration, community building and putting kids first are recurring themes among all of them, demonstrating that educators know to check politics at the door.
Q&A topics include: why the mayor and Governor Cuomo appear friendly and cooperative on pre-K when together but express different views when apart, will the city fund a single year of full day pre-K if the state does not, how many of the prospective new pre-K seats are in traditional
public schools v. charter
schools, what is the greatest challenge in converting existing 1/2 day pre-K sites into full day sites, how can the mayor assure that proceeds of his proposed income tax surcharge would remain dedicated solely to the pre - K / middle
school program, regulatory issues around pre-K operators, how there can be space available in neighborhoods where
schools are overcrowded, how many of the prospective new sites are in
schools v.
other locations, why the mayor is so opposed to co-locations of charter
schools while seeking to
co-locate new pre-K programs, the newly - announced ad campaign by charter
school supporters, his views on academically screened high
schools, his view on the
school bus contracts, why he refused off - topic questions Friday evening despite saying on Friday morning that he would take such questions, the status of 28 charter
schools expecting to open in fall 2014 in locations approved by the Bloomberg administration, his upcoming appearance on the TV series The Good Wife and his view on city employees marching in the Manhattan St. Patrick's Day Parade in uniform /
with banners.