Geoffrey Canada Supports Mayoral Control...And Is Supported By It

Geoffrey Canada is a well known name by now in the New York City school system. His Harlem Children's Zone does a whole lot more than the typical K-12, basically by trying to fill in parts of the students' lives that their parents do not. While Canada's project has received mostly positive reviews, his wading in on the issue of mayoral control is not what you would call a third party review.

The NY Times took down what he said at the latest pro-mayoral control press conference:

Mr. Canada said that while charter schools in the city were posting higher performance levels than the rest of the city schools, the whole system should be celebrating.

“I thought, ‘Isn’t that great — our children are doing really good!’ ” he said during a press conference on the charter school results at the Manhattan Charter School on the Lower East Side. “Suddenly I found out that some people weren’t happy, and some people started writing that we shouldn’t be happy that the scores are going up. They say maybe there is something fishy going on and our students aren’t reading so much better.”

Then he motioned to a group of reporters sitting in the front row and said with a flourish: “All the children in New York City did not have a clue what was going to be on that test. They didn’t know one question. They had to study a whole group of things to prepare for that test. And you know what, they had to be able to read and write. And that’s what they did.”

As the Times' article notes, Canada leads a lobbying group to preserve mayoral control. However, all Canada talks about is how the scores are going up, but not so much about how they're going up. To get the other side of things, all we have to do is reach down into the comments of this article.

One commenter mentioned Canada's conflict of interest since it is the Mayor that allows him to have the majority of the funding for his HCZ program and of course the ability to operate in the five boroughs. Then there are the teachers who claim that the test is getting easier, and that all teacher are supposed to do is train kids for the test...and nothing else. As another commenter said, Canada can talk all he wants about the improved scores, but the increased numbers aren't the issue. If a test gets easier, then it isn't hard to make a connection as to why the scores went up. The Times should really check out Gotham Gazette's excellent article on the issue and of course, ask some of the parents what they think as well.

Bush In Harlem Today

Want your chance to protest the President? Well get your you know what up to Lenox and 145th St. in Harlem to let him know how you feel. Bush is in town to talk about his failed "No Child Left Behind" program at a charter school in the neighborhood. The Harlem Village Academy is being spotlighted by the President as an example his education programs are doing their job. Unfortunately when you look at the evidence nation-wide, his mandated tests are limiting students' potential and focus on other subjects besides math and science.

From ABC7:

Mr. Bush will tour the school today, along with Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.

Local Congressman Charlie Rangel will be right alongside them. The democratic head of the powerful House of Ways and Means Committee has been highly critical of the president's program.

Rangel says it unfairly burdens school districts with obligations, without supplying the federal money needed to deliver on all those promises.

He also says the democratic congress wants to see that financial imbalance corrected.

Charlie better not give Bush a free pass up in his neighborhood. Harlem hates Bush just as much if not more so than the rest of New York. So be sure to get up there and tell (yell at) him what you think of his education policy, his Iraq policy, his economic policy, you get the picture here. It will be your only chance while he is here, because when he is dining on Park Avenue tonight, the insulation surrounding bubble boy will be super tight.