Task Force 2009: Working for Human Rights in NYC Public Schools

State legislative authorization for mayoral control, the central organizational principle of the New York City public school system, sunsets in 2009 . An intense public debate is already underway over how well mayoral control does or does not serve the public school students of New York.

The Independent Commission on Public Education (ICOPE) began in 2003 to provide a forum for parents, educators, and others to explore the barriers to success in our New York City public schools and to develop strategies that improve our school system. The need for a unifying theme that could focus both discussion and policy formation rapidly became apparent.

On April 16, 2005, ICOPE and over 20 other organizations convened “Power to the Promise: An Education Action Summit.” This seminal gathering at the Fordham University Law School brought together nearly 100 people from across the city to analyze the reality of our public schools from the perspective of basic human rights standards. The intensive collaboration that followed this gathering produced the city’s first human rights-based school reform platform.

On September 28, an ICOPE-organized assembly of education advocacy groups and local and national human rights organizations called for a public exploration of alternatives to mayoral control. *

Their call resulted the March 6, 2006 convening of Task Force 2009 to generate policy proposals to support a school system built on a human rights framework that might fill a post-2009 policy gap. (See Associated Press article.) At the request of ICOPE, the National Center for Schools and Communities has agreed to provide policy support and coordination for this effort.

The task force comprises 15 outstanding school reform leaders who bring decades of experience as educators, policy advocates, and parents to the table. Among them are a former state commissioner of education, two former members of the New York City Board of Education, one former community school board member, and at least three Revson Fellows. Equally to the point, most members also have in-depth experience working for civil and human rights locally and nationally. See press release for the list of Task Force 2009 members.

* Endorsers of the platform and call for the task force:

African-American/Caribbean Education Association, Inc
Amnesty International
Anti-Racist Alliance
Association of New York Community Education Councils
Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence
Center for Immigrant Families
Center for Law and Social Justice, Medgar Evers College
Class Size Matters
Educators Against Academic Genocide And Racism
Gloves Off: bare-fisted political economy
Human Rights Project of the Urban Justice Center
Make the Road by Walking
National Center for Schools and Communities Fordham University
National Economic and Social Rights Initiative
New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCORE)
Parents in Action
Parents of IS/PS 268
Prison Moratorium Project
The Brooklyn Childcare Collective
The Right to Read Project
Time Out From Testing
and Ad Hoc Independent Parents Organizations