Parents and Community Rally; Call for School Board to Denounce the Paladino Plan
BUFFALO (October 22, 2014) – Parents and community members, joined by some of Buffalo’s major parent and community organizations and members of the School Board, rallied at City Hall outside of a Buffalo School Board meeting to call on the school board to denounce school board member Carl Paladino’s plan to dissolve the Buffalo Public School District and privatize all of the local public schools. This plan would shut parents and community members out of any decision making over how their children’s schools are run. The rally was organized by the Alliance for Quality Education, Citizen Action of NY, Buffalo PTO, and PUSH Buffalo.
Last month, in remarks to the Erie County Community Enrichment Committee, the former gubernatorial candidate and Buffalo property developer said:
“The solution is going to lie in the disassembly of the Buffalo Public School System. And we’re going to continue to do that until people smarten up. We’re going to open charter schools, we’re going to hopefully help the privates and the Catholics to become better and be able to take more kids. We’re supporting the closing of a number of Buffalo Public Schools and turning them into charters, that’s the game that we’re playing.”
His statement, which went public today, coincides with a report from the Alliance for Quality Education (AQE) and Citizen Action of NY that reveals how Paladino is earning millions from the city’s turnover of public schools to privately run charters.
The report, Good for Kids or Good for Carl: Who Really Benefit$ from Turning Public Schools into Privately Run Charter Schools? provides a detailed listing of Paladino’s numerous companies that are financially benefitting from the opening of Buffalo charter schools, through property sales, lease agreements, construction and renovations projects, and tax subsidies.
The statement and the report prompted the rally to call for school board to require Paladino to recuse himself from any board discussion and subsequent decision on closing public schools and replacing them with privately run charters.
“As much as he would like us to believe that he is on the Board of Education to enhance the education of our students, Mr. Paladino’s own words and actions speak to the contrary,” said Board of Education Member-at-Large Barbara Nevergold. “He is quoted as saying his goal ‘lie(s) in the disassembly of the Buffalo Public School System.’ And to ‘supporting the closing of a number of Buffalo Public Schools and turning them into charters.’ He even says ‘that’s the game that we’re playing.’ It’s time for Mr. Paladino to stop playing games with our children’s future. We won’t and can’t allow that to happen and we call on members of the community to join us in this struggle.”
“Carl Paladino is on mission to turn our children’s education into his personal profit,” said John Washington, a community organizer with PUSH Buffalo. “He is working against the best interest of our kids. We need to let him know our kids are not a commodity. They are our future.”
“As a public school parent, I cannot tolerate Carl Paladino and his partners dismantling our public schools with radical and unproven reforms, which are directly motivated by the personal gain of millions of public dollars,” said Larry Scott, chair of the Buffalo PTO. “Parents, educators, and this community must have a voice in major decisions about our public schools, to ensure an understanding for the various attributes, skills, and challenges, which each school and community possess.”
“As a parent in the Buffalo Public Schools, it’s scary to hear that someone we elected to serve our children is plotting to disassemble the very schools my children love and adore,” Angelica Rivera who attended the event. “All this comes at the expense of my kids. But I have a voice as a parent, and as a community our voice matters. The Board members need to know we have solutions to the problems that our schools face, and they need to be open and transparent so that we can work together for our children.”
Paladino is the chairman of Ellicott Development, one of the largest property developers in the Buffalo area. He is also one of the Buffalo Board of Education’s most vocal supporters of charter school development. This is a controversial issue in Buffalo as the Board of Education is split on the closure of public schools for privately run charters.
Early this year, Paladino promised to recuse himself from any board vote on charter schools. He has not done so. In addition, his board vote is the deciding tie-breaker on this issue.
“Carl Paladino is very good at figuring out how to make money, and he is set to bring in tens of millions of dollars from developing privately run charter schools,” said Billy Easton, executive director of AQE. “The profit motive is a powerful force and Paladino has a clear conflict of interest. He could abuse his power for personal gain. Instead of following his leadership the majority members of the school board should insist that Paladino steps away from voting on turning Buffalo public schools over to private management.”
To read the full report, click here.
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