Monday, November 12, 2012

Some Additional Thoughts on Buffalo's Privatization Movement



If our good friends the Chameleons wanted to  look any more like the out of touch rich douchebags with the angry Spanish guy in tow than they did I can't say exactly how they might have done it. On the other hand though if they actually had any credible buy in from the community they could have presented Mr and Mrs. X, parents of Jerome X East High student and Mrs. and Mrs. Y parents of Janelle Y. Waterfront student. They could have introduced the parents and kids and allowed them to explain how they've spent time with Steve and Amy and Emilio and Hannya and listened to their plan in detail finding a lot to be excited about. Yeah imagine that - introduce some parents and students who've heard them out, listened to their plan and shared their manifest frustrations with the inept teachers and administrators at East and Waterfront. They could have pulled some scenes from Won't Flush Down the box office drain circler released and forgotten in the time it takes a 2nd grader to bubble in a standardized test. Oh they could have told stories about the indifferent teachers shopping online during instructional time and making arrangements for boob and nose jobs, tummy tucks and liposuction. And what was to stop them from finding these weapons of mass instruction? It's not like they don't have full access to Sam Radford. Grand Poobah of the District Parent Coordinating Committee. It's as if they can't make a tuna sandwich without giving Sam a bite. If he and they wanted contact with parents they would have had some.  

Surely, as that deeply caring Edreformer Hannya Boulous reminded us all at meeting's end the children need choices. And I know she cares too because she has an art history degree from Georgetown and attended Nichols High School. Anyone whose education takes place in such sanitized and well apportioned circumstances as those 2 joints is assuredly more compassionate and knowing than slobs like us who went way the fuck into debt subbing during the day and attending Buff State's Tokyo-like overcrowded parking lots at 4:45 where we fought for a spot then ran inside Ketchum or wherever and tried to participate, engage and stay awake til 7:30 or so. Yeah I guess this is the end of the line for me listening to these overstuffed gasbags lecturing us, the people who have to get between Big Dre and Lonzo when they commence to kicking the holy shit out of each other in the hallway, about how much they CARE. Here's a newsflash dabblers, knowitalls, debutantes and opportunistic friends of Sam Hoyt : Buffalo teachers CARE about KIDS. So feel free to shut your goddamned holes about your for profit caring and the infamous war cry of the Barber of No Illusions Emilio Fuentes who declared in his now famous Haircut speech " I care about KIDS not ADULTS.   

Fact is The Chameleons don't know shit about our kids, their families or their community. If they did they could have proved it but they couldn't and they didn't. Reality is a lot of the people from the community have the Chameleons number as the white knights riding in for their own glory and profit that they really are. One said if you come walking into my neighborhood and you don't look like me then I don't really care to have you coming around claiming you are going to fix my community, my kids and my schools. Amen to that. The closest they could come to an actual African American is poor old one minority fits all Fuentes. They showed up with a lawyer, a lawyer's wife, a British accented front person, (nice touch there in embracing the hood, Chamelons) and a bunch of cheerleaders who've never set foot in a school like Waterfront or East and never will. And they tried with straight faces to run roughshod over the community, the Board of Ed and Buffalo Teachers. The only thing they could have done to give them ANY cred whatsoever was to show everyone that parents are buying in. Pretty hard thing to show when parents AREN"T buying in. Nobody is. 

The real riot though is yet to come when lil John King and his troupe of charter school flying monkees ignore the will of the parents, the community and the teachers and hands these 2 gems over to the Steve and Amy show. Does anyone out there really belive King isn't going to approve this? Based on his antics so far, his obvious(and mutual) contempt for Buffalo Schools and the misguided Charter Juggernaut creeping across NY schools, I have every reason to believe this deal is done. At least until he approves it, then things are going to get interesting. 

9 comments:

  1. If anyone is interested, the next public "hearing" for the Chameleons is tomorrow, November 13th:
    Belle Center
    104 Maryland Ave.
    Buffalo, NY 14201
    Tuesday, November 13, 2012
    6-7 PM

    Bring your barf bag!

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  2. LOL at "subbing during the day and attending Buff State's Tokyo-like overcrowded parking lots at 4:45 where we fought for a spot then ran inside Ketchum"...those were good times, good times.

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  3. Oh, yes! the memories......these newbies haven't a clue! If the chameleons do get their a-ok.....well, let's just say.....all bets are off!

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  4. I am really chagrinned that I will be missing the meeting tomorrow night ( eye surgery...no driving) Those that I have attended were so scintillating and powerful!
    A Power Point presentation(obviously done by a sixth grader during lunch) read from a seat at a table was the highlight of the last meeting. I wonder if there will be another memorable display of the" mahvelous" work the Chameleon CMO is capable of presenting.
    The "accent" is more one of snob from a finishing school, than a Brit who is pretending to be an expert from across the pond.
    The parents used as shills for the CMO displayed more knowledge and class than the faux professionals who hosted the "sit in your place and shut the hell-up" event.

    Get yer b-bags ready as Anon suggested :)

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  5. Just asking...
    If you were a "Management Organization" with plans to control millions of dollars, would you present yourself with a poorly designed and presented "sales pitch" to the Board of Education?
    If these Chameleons were real businessmen making a presentation to sell themselves and their organization in that same unprofessional, slipshod manner they would never get a second chance in the real business world.
    Would you have the hutzpah to walk in to a City Hall and ask the Board of Education to hand over a beautiful school building in a prime downtown location on acres of land? What about the newly remodeled East High with its great science offerings ?
    Wouldn't that be an example of your lack of respect for the Board and the Superintendent? Wouldn't that be a display of your lack of experience? What would be your motivation that you scramble together a sketchy plan, a group of non-educators, a filled out pile of forms and an office on a side street and expect to "take over"... Perhaps LOTS of free MONEY?

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  6. Peg,
    Yes, oh yes, to your last post. Actually, I am of the opinion that the laziness and lack of concern by the Chameleons stems from the fact that they feel this is already a done deal. They DO have powerful friends in Albany and a conversion charter would be a feather in Commissioner King's reformist cap as well as a nice kick in the pants to Buffalo, where King has received some "push back" from teachers. And former Regent Bob Bennett is licking his chops, just waiting to get this accomplished. My prediction? They will give the Chameleons ONE school to play with. I bet it will be Waterfront. The Alums at East have been articulate and "spot on" with their assessment of the Chameleon takeover of East, plus they have Johns Hopkins on the line. Waterfront? Definitely better "real estate" from the Chameleon privatizer point of view. Free parking for the Chameleon ass kissers when they go to City Hall, etc. The small group of vocal and savvy teachers at Waterfront, the ones who show up and speak up, are just that. TEACHERS. The Chameleons hate and despise Buffalo Public School teachers and Mary Pasciak will help throw the teachers under the bus, each time, every time.

    Check out Mary Pasciak's biased article on this topic this morning.

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  7. I read the News with the "bag in hand. Today it came in handy when I read her article!
    Mary obviously doesn't know where the research is located on line. We should email some articles and sources to her.

    DR.King and Mr.Bennet,( if they turn them over to the charlatans), will be responsible for the eventual student demographics of these schools after the charter folks "counsel-out" the refugee kids, the low test-score kids, and the behaviorally-challenged kids who are presently enrolled...

    Sam and Valarie will not be happy with the Chameleons when their true colors are obvious to even the color-blind.

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  8. Just a few thoughts on Mary Pasciak's Buffalo News article today:
    1. She gives a nice free advertisement for the Chameleon "hearing" to be held tonite. She ALWAYS comes through for her Deformer friends. I have attended every Chameleon "hearing" so far and cannot bear another look at the smirky Chameleon faces.

    2. She states that there "would not be enough room to accommodate all of the existing students". Now why would that be? They are being accommodated now by BPS. There IS enough room, obviously, but not if you need to get rid of the behavior problems, newcomer immigrants, etc.

    3. Ms. Pasciak includes not one word from teachers. Not one word from the people who have chosen to work with these students. But the lawyers and their wives who have no public school experience are quoted extensively.

    4. She states that "Buffalo has one of the highest charter penetration rates in the state". Do we REALLY need more charter schoolsin our city? The opportunistic privatizers see a new market and the Commissioner and Regents will do everything in their power to help these Chameleons make money. Remember the extra million or so that the CMO ( Chameleon Charter Management Group) stands to rake in. Money is a powerful motivator for school privatizers.

    5. The News also saw fit to print an uminformed pro-charter letter today from Ken Peterson, local real estate developer. Connections, anyone?

    6. There was another Anonymouse writing on the Buffalo News today and linking to Ken Peterson's article. Not me, in case you were wondering. I will no longer place comments in the Buffalo News, and certainly not on any of Mary Pasciak's biased articles.

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  9. Mouse,
    I guess I won't post comments in the News either...They don't print them. Since it takes me a long time to type, i am not happy when they disappear into the air. I think they resent comments that disagree with the opinion pieces they try to pass for "news".
    I wonder how some folks get a comment posted without their name attached to it. Several have no name at all. The new site is very frustrating and difficult to maneuver. They got fleeced.
    I tried to post a comment similar to yours..it is in a cloud somewhere..You did a better job than I.
    Tonight was their third meeting ( required) ,so maybe the rest will be done behind the the scenes like they did the first part of their surreptitious attempts to circumvent the Board of Ed.
    ( Mary didn't get that right either).

    Thanks to Sean, we can always get things off our minds right here.


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