It's still called the Department of EDUCATION isn't it?

Dear Commissioner Steiner:

CAPE, Concerned Advocates for Public Education is an advocacy organization representative of the parents and educators at PS 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn, an elementary school that is outperforming 95% of all elementary schools in New York City.  Ours in one of the first groups of its kind that bridges the divide between parents and educators for the purposes of accessing their united voice to inform and influence education policy, of which they are the true stakeholders, but are all too often ignored.

CAPE strongly opposes the appointment of Cathleen Black as the Chancellor of New York City’s public education system.  Not only was this nomination made hastily and in secret by a Mayor who has ignored our voices over the last eight years; she is unqualified for the job.  Mayoral Control has been a destructive force here in New York City.  It has been a gateway for a privileged few to gain access to our children’s schools often molding them in an image that they would not accept for their own children.  It is time to bring democracy back to the governance of our schools here in New York City.  Mayoral Control was not meant to be a dictatorship, there was and is an expectation that any elected official would be responsive to the communities they serve.

We have no illusions that the appointment of someone with zero experience or credentials in education is anything but another step in an agenda to undermine public education.  We demand a qualified chancellor with a record of service to public education that can be publically judged. The law requires it. And our children deserve it.

Respectfully yours,
Concerned Advocates for Public Education
Parents and Educators Working Together to Protect and Preserve Public Education