On his way out the door, Mayor Bill de Blasio is trying to sneak in a final blow to public-school families: a rule allowing the Department of Education to discipline and remove elected parents from Community Education Councils (our school-board equivalent) if they criticize the school district they are meant to hold accountable.
The Panel for Education Policy will vote on this Orwellian proposal Dec. 21 — not a historically high parent-participation date.
Chancellor’s Regulation D-210 would skirt the democratic process and give the DOE sweeping power to silence parents. It relies on vague language to determine “violations of conduct” and, more disturbing, establishes yet another administrative position to monitor parents: the equity-compliance officer. This (no doubt expensive) bureaucrat would be charged with deciding who to target for removal for violating the newly expanded “code of conduct.”
One section says council members cannot engage in “frequent verbal abuse and unnecessary aggressive speech” with others. The regulation also allows the chancellor to request a CEC member be removed if she believes the member’s conduct is “contrary to the best interest of the New York City school district.” Conduct that happens outside of CEC meetings or public appearances could serve as a basis for a complaint and removal, as long as the conduct “creates or would foreseeably create a risk of disruption within the district or school community.”
Even worse, an Equity Council, a team of DOE-appointed apparatchiks, would be tasked with providing recommendations on the resolutions of complaints — in other words who to remove and silence. The regulation ominously says that “in the event of a disagreement between the Equity Compliance Officer and the Equity Council, the recommendation of the Equity Compliance Officer shall govern.” Using equity language to cover up the undemocratic impulse to unseat critics is a transparent ploy.
This is a classic case of government trying to censor speech it finds inconvenient. Tellingly, it is being proposed right after parents were finally able to vote directly for CEC members and “flipped” some councils by electing several members critical of DOE policies who are very vocal about holding their districts accountable. While the DOE pretends this regulation is about protecting students, it includes language that is clearly meant to shield the DOE from any and all criticism from duly elected council members.
Community Education Councils are governed by state law and designed to be independent from the DOE. Parents must be able to address genuine conflicts of interest between what is best for the DOE and what is best for New York students and families without fear of removal.
Over the last three years, we parents have vocally opposed the DOE’s misguided school-closure and masking policies. Parents have clashed with the DOE regarding plans to scrap the SHSAT entrance exam to specialized high schools and eliminate gifted and talented schools and programs. Parents have argued for more school choice and sharply objected to practices such as the implementation of “affinity groups” that sort schoolchildren by race.
Parents should be free to oppose the DOE on all these issues and more — that’s the whole point of an elected parent council!
A code of conduct, if properly implemented, is not unreasonable. But the fox shouldn’t guard the henhouse: The DOE cannot enforce an overbroad and pretextual code of conduct clearly designed to silence parents.
Calling parents “domestic terrorists” did not work to silence parents at school-board meetings, and trying to do an end-run around democratically elected parent leaders should not be allowed either. Every member of the Panel for Education Policy should reject this proposal.
Both NYC public-school parents, Maud Maron is former president of the Community Education Council in District 2, and Danyela Souza Egorov is its vice president.