Green ! Green! Green! Education voting Green...

The Democratic Party has suffered great losses as thousands of former loyal followers aligned themselves to the Green Party in the upcoming  gubernatorial  election.

Diane Ravitch, a leader educator and author of many books on American public education has given her support to the Green Party. 

She said, "I am voting Green because Howie Hawkins and Brian Jones will fully fund our public schools, will stop the over-testing of our students, and will not open more privately managed charter schools. They promise to rebuild our public schools, which enroll nearly 90% of the state’s children."

The Democratic Party has been viewed in the last 20 years as a major advocate for the privatization of the American public schools through the leadership of Democrats for Education Reform, drawing its support from hedge fund investors and  billionaires.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo seen as a favorite cheerleader of the group is expected that many of his traditional constituents are voting  Green instead, while others in the education field even view the Republican candidate as a better choice,

More charters to open in Buffalo

Besides a protest rally held outside of City Hall about the privatization of the Buffalo Public Schools before the Buffalo Board of Education meetimg last night, Interim Superintendent Donald A. Ogilvie discussed the timeline for the  so called out-of-time schools, Bennett, East Lafayette and MLK. RFP expected to be issued next week .

While,  by mid December and January, proposals for charters would have also been submitted to the State Education Department in Albany. 

And the school board will be able to enter  into  independent negotiations with these entities authorized to open charters In Buffalo.

All of this of course is not without controversy and the minority bloc on the  School  Board have criticized the State Education Department for allowing only new charter schools to open in the city of Buffalo.

There is concern in the community about the rush to not only open new charter schools in Buffalo but also to convert "any " of the Buffalo schools into charters  as directed in the resolution that was passed at the previous board meeting.

Also there was the issue brought up by members of the minority bloc on the school board about the district own turnaround plans.

In other matters, $1.6 million was approved to hire more teacher aides in  kindergarten in the district and to reduce class sizes.

Charter Schools proposals approved for Buffalo

"Education Department is taking the unprecedented step of opening up a new round of charter school proposals specifically for the City of Buffalo. While it is no longer possible for interested charter school founders to submit proposals for new schools in the rest of the state for 2015-16, Buffalo is an exception."

Lafayette High School Phase Out Resolution

The Resolution before the Buffalo Public School Board tonight Sandra Tan uploaded to Twitter..Lafayette High School is now considered by the NYS Education Department as a "time out school," because it has not achieved the  level of  academic progress to remove it from priority school status in the three years identification as a PLA/SURR and not implementing the EPO contract with John Hopkins University....

"I find it maddening that the superintendent can put forth resolutions that aren't publicly available BEFORE THE MEETING. How is any member of the public supposed to know what's on the agenda for serious consideration when such big resolutions can be brought forth at the last minute? "

Sandra Tan, BN blogger