Opinion

The war on charters: bash the bad schools

EDITOR’S NOTE: As he attacks alleged charter-school hor rors, The Post thought Sen. Bill Perkins should hear from a parent about the perils of the regular, “zoned” public schools.

Dear Sen. Perkins,

I’m very disturbed that you are violating my right as a parent to choose where my children should attend school.

My life isn’t easy. I live in New York City public housing — “the projects.” I make less than $35,000 per year and am raising three children. I’ve had to fight more than any mother should ever have to fight in order to get my children out of their failing zoned schools. You seem to think that I shouldn’t have a choice — that my children should stay trapped and their future should be defined by their ZIP code.

I hope my story will change your mind about parent choice.

My 15-year-old attended public school in Harlem. He was physically abused by his classmates. He would come home with boot marks on his clothes and body. He had an IEP [Individualized Education Program] — but for an entire year, he didn’t receive any special-education services despite my constant advocating.

And he was promoted all the way to the sixth grade, even though he could not read.

I had an outside doctor evaluate him, because I knew the problem wasn’t that he didn’t want to learn (as his teachers told me). The doctor determined that he had a serious learning disability. His teachers had let him just sit there for years, not learning anything, not getting the services he desperately needed. I sued the Department of Education, and finally got him into a private school, where he is now thriving.

I will never forgive his zoned public school for the years they robbed from him.

My 14-year-old is very bright but wasn’t growing at all in his zoned school. I had had such a bad experience with my older boy that I couldn’t bear to keep the younger one in his zoned school. But I couldn’t afford private school — and all my advocating couldn’t get him into a public school outside my neighborhood.

When he reached the fifth grade, the situation was so bad that I knew I had to get him out. I heard about a new charter school, Harlem Village Academies — and we were lucky enough to get him in. It completely changed his life chances. He’s now in 9th grade and excelling. He knows he’s going to college, and will have the skills necessary to succeed in college and in life.

After the experiences with my sons, there was no way that I was going to put my young daughter (now 6) into my zoned school. So I applied for every single charter school in Manhattan and The Bronx. You heard me right: I was so afraid that she’d be stuck in her zoned school that I applied to every single charter school in Manhattan and The Bronx.

Good thing I did: After the lottery, she was on waitlists for all the schools she wanted. There were so many parents like me who wanted a choice for their children. I waited through the summer, hoping and praying that she’d get into the best charter school possible. Finally, the call came in August: She got in!

My daughter is now in kindergarten, reading 22 books a month with me at home, and 48 books a month in her classroom. She was reading at age 5, much younger than her brothers, who didn’t start reading until they got out of their zoned schools.

Sen. Perkins, public-school teachers and principals are not accountable for their failures in the zoned schools. Every single family member and friend I have has a similar story about the horrors and lack of accountability of their zoned school. Maybe you don’t know, because you didn’t attend one of these schools yourself.

But charter schools are accountable: They’re accountable to me as a parent — if I don’t like it, I’m free to leave. And they’re accountable to government. At the school my daughter attends, the State University of New York would shut them down if each year they didn’t have 75 percent or more of students passing.

I am shocked that you have never held a single hearing on lack of accountability in zoned public schools. If you did, you’d hear thousands of stories like mine. Instead, you are on a witch hunt for political purposes because you and the teachers union are threatened by charter schools.

And yes, Sen. Perkins, I know you may not listen to me in this letter — but you will hear from me at the ballot box.

Respectfully Yours,

Christina Arroyo