What is a Charter School? Most people really don’t know. Many think that a charter school is some sort of private school. However, the general public perception of a Charter School is: If your child is selected to be in one he/she is going to get a better education than in a regular Public School.

          The truth is a Charter School is a Public School and must follow certain mandatory academic curriculum handed down by the Department of Education. But, the Charter School does carry certain uniqueness. For one, charter schools have more flexibility in hiring, ordering of supplies and teaching. For example they can incorporate non-standard teaching methods, which does often translate into accepting more private funds to accommodate their non-standard teaching methods.

          However, the real uniqueness that is relevant to this editorial is that a charter school can select its enrollment. Before we go into the consequences of that here are some other information you should know. The majority of the public does not know that there is state legislation capping how many Charter Schools can be operated in the State of New York. The current cap is one hundred with New York City operating about 60 of the seventy-seven charter schools already in operation statewide. Maybe it’s more than seventy-seven, as the beginning of the school year has now begun. Also current legislation allows a charter school or regular Public School to not only share building space with another school but even replacing one, if a school has underutilized its space or is a failing school.

          While many of you were sleeping or getting ready to go on vacation this summer Governor Pataki was pushing very hard for an amendment to the current Charter School Law, which proposed to lift the charter school cap to two-hundred fifty statewide, excluding New York City from a cap altogether, and allowing our Chancellor to replace a Public School with a Charter School at his sole discretion, instead of utilizing the previously stated criteria as his reasons.

          This bill without public forum was floating around Albany the end of spring and the beginning of the summer and was passed by the state senate, however, it was blocked from coming to the assembly floor for a vote, which really means the bill is not dead yet. Amending the charter school law has become one of Governor Pataki’s top priorities before leaving office. But why is that? (Senator David Paterson was one of the Senators who voted for the bill by the way, just so you’ll know.)

The Consequences

          While many speculate that it is a move to privatize our education system - which is hard to consider since charter schools are publicly funded - there are some that believe charter schools have a hidden agenda that is detrimental to the Black Community, particularly Harlem, which by the way has about 20 Charter Schools that are nicely tucked throughout Harlem and some not so nicely tucked but rather in your face.

          Such ulterior motive of this legislation was leaked earlier this year when Chancellor Klein ordered the principal of The Harriet Tubman School - P.S. 154, located on 127^th Street between Frederick Douglass and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevards - to give up its entire third floor to the Harlem Success Academy, a charter school founded by former Council-member Eva Moskowitz, who has just recently purchased a 1.5 million dollar condo near or on 115 th Street between Malcolm X Blvd., and 5th Avenue. Not only has Harlem Success Academy failed to prove it should share space or replace any public school, for that matter, but also The Harriett Tubman School is a high performing school and not underutilizing its space at all.

          But thanks to the dedication of the United Federation of Teachers Chapter Leader in the school’s district, who happened to be a teacher at the school, in mobilizing parents, community advocates and local officials, they managed to block this sneaky, under-handed, unconstitutional directive the Department of Education was trying to impose on the Harriett Tubman School. But, those of us who know Chancellor Klein and Mayor Bloomberg’s style know that its still not over and pay back is a you know what. So Harriet Tubman still better watch out.

          For your information, the way they went about it was that right before the mid-year school break Chancellor Klein told Eva Moskowitz to look at school space in Harlem and whatever she decided he would give it to her. So during the break she went to The Harriet Tubman School when the principal and other administrators weren’t around and asked a custodian to let her and her cohorts in to have a look. At first he was reluctant because she had nothing from the principal but was finally persuaded after some choice words were used. The principal became informed after the fact. But the real parties affected by this method of a taking – the parents - were not told at all- denying their right to due process. That changed once the UFT’s chapter leader found out.

          Learning their lesson from The Harriett Tubman School, Chancellor Klein, Mayor Bloomberg (Yes, he too. Accountability, remember?) and former Council-member Eva Moskowitz, went after Public School 162, which is in the Sojourner Truth Learning Center (118th Street and Malcolm X Blvd.), a special education school catering to children with special needs no less, and forced the principal into early retirement, gave its faculty pink slips -closing P. S. 162 altogether - and then had the Harlem Success Academy move into the school.

          Thus, when what you thought was P.S. 162 opens its doors this fall you will find the Harlem Success Academy operating Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten (so far) in its place and the Sojourner Truth name will be dropped replacing it with The Mickey Mantle School of Learning or something like that. That’s right, Mickey Mantel! And where these handicapped children will go no one knows for certain. What matters to them is that former Council-member Eva Moskowitz has her foot in the door to expand her school. And as stated before, charter schools select their enrollment. So too P.S. 149, an adjacent school to P.S. 162 in the Sojourner Truth Learning Center, better watch out.

          And mind you, if this was done in the face of Black People without the Charter School Law being amended, wait until Governor Pataki gets his bill passed. Then really expect to see schools in these Harlem areas that we have been seeing gentrify rapidly to convert into Charter Schools. Now watch how fast these neighborhoods gentrify. There isn’t enough baggy pants over size hat wearing men or mobilized senior citizens that can stop it. And they are building/converting/displacing enough to handle this new gentry.

          But even without the law being amended don’t be surprised if an attempt to make certain Harlem public schools with no justification (especially in nice park areas) share space with these bogus charter schools founded by white people as a way of getting their foot in the door to eventually move the public school out so the new gentry coming into Harlem or that want to come in (and let’s call it what it really is – white folks that don’t want their kids going to school with a majority Black student body) can have a school to go to.

            The war is on. Harlem has become the new battleground for possession. Black residents of Harlem are being attacked on all fronts, including an attack on the young Black Student Population. Someone has to go. And [they] don’t plan on being the ones going just yet.

            Some might ask where will these students go because only a handful will get accepted in these Charter Schools? Answer: Anywhere but Harlem. Perhaps a Charter School in Queens or the Bronx. No cap, remember? A certain amount of Charter Schools will be needed to placate gullible Black parents once there children are removed from the school due to it not being a public school any longer. Eventually the parents will follow because it is rough having your child go to school in a different borough from where you live. But that’s the plan – to wear you out, price you out, by any means necessary you are getting your Black a-- up out of Harlem.

          It will be interesting in a few years to see who will be the majority in Harlem, Black Folks or them – the new [gentry].

          In the meantime, CHALLENGE the destiny being thrown at you.

NOTE:  Julius Tajiddin is giving workshops called "The Challenge" in Harlem about Charter Schools and Housing.   These workshops are sponsored by  The Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence and the Comprehensive Education Plan, Inc.  Contact him about the next meeting at