Charter-school opponents bludgeoned the schools’ leaders during an eight-hour City Council Education Committee hearing Tuesday — in sharp contrast to Mayor de Blasio’s recent bid to mend ties with charter operators.
Committee Chairman Daniel Dromm wore an orange United Federation of Teachers shirt inside-out to protest one charter school’s disciplinary policy.
“Excuse me a moment, I have to put on my uniform,” Dromm said, before lashing into a Coney Island Prep charter-school policy of requiring students to wear colored shirts if they misbehave. “To me, this amounts to corporal punishment, and should be forbidden in any school,” said Dromm, a former teacher who has received $7,500 in contributions from the United Federation of Teachers.
He also blasted wealthy charter benefactors.
Public Advocate Letitia James, also no fan of charters, complained that the schools contributed to “state-sponsored segregation.”
Three hours into the hearing, charter schools got a chance to defend themselves.
“If we do not accept any new, high-quality schools unless every school is of high quality, then we will never see any progress,” New York City Charter Center’s Erik Joerss told the committee. “We owe it to parents to offer as many good choices we can make available today, not in a few years, not in another generation,” he said.
Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz skipped the hearing.
“Today’s theatrics won’t help the city’s 300,000 kids reading below grade level or 50,000 parents stuck on charter school wait lists,” Moskowitz said later.