[poweroften] Blowin' in the Wind

Power of Ten Update
In This Issue:
1. Ward System Update
2. Comptroller: East Ramapo Fails to Control Expenses for Private School Books
3. Announcing the Cola-Faroul Mentorship and Scholarship Program

1) Ward System Update

The historic civil rights victory for East Ramapo voters means that there will be some public school board members who will be held accountable by the communities of color whose children attend those public schools. The exact locations of the wards and the timing of the elections are still being negotiated in court.

The school board was violating the law, denying people of color their right to have their vote counted. They spent millions of dollars from the children's education funds in their misguided effort to prevent the parents of those children from having voting rights. It did not matter to them that these resources were being squandered, because their children were attending all-white private schools and their services are not affected.

Because the board was so reckless in their actions, the district may end up paying for both sides' legal fees. The costs are high because the school board refused to negotiate a settlement. They are still rising because they have filed an appeal, even though the appeals court has said it is unlikely to succeed. Why should they care, it is not their kid's education that is on the line! The only time they even pretend to care is when they try to use the threat of legal costs to bully people into letting them violate their civil rights.

East Ramapo is proof that a system is doomed to failure when public institutions are controlled by private interests. We have been calling for a change in the governance system of East Ramapo for a dozen years. Children who entered Kindergarten when we first wrote to the Commissioner of Education about a system that violated the democratic principle of "governance with the consent of the governed" are now getting ready to graduate (sadly, many will not!).

How many times do we have to write to Governor Cuomo, before he will understand?

2) Comptroller: East Ramapo Fails to Control Expenses for Private School Books

As reported in the Journal News: Audit slams East Ramapo for 'sloppy' record keeping when buying private-school textbooks

This follows the Comptroller's report that East Ramapo has been paying yeshivas to bus students without documentation that they attend school or even exist.

For those with long memories, this is déjà vu all over again. In 2011, the Journal News reported on millions of dollars of textbooks that were unaccounted for: Audit: East Ramapo bungled millions

Resources for the public school students are constantly being scoured for savings and cuts. But for private schools, they don't even bother to keep track of millions of public dollars.

Over the years, there have been hundreds of complaints from parents and students, reports of mismanagement and corruption from administrators, board members, state agencies, major media, and appointed monitors. Every single complaint has come down to essentially the same issue, that when a public school board and budget that serves children of color is controlled by all-white private school interests, that's an unacceptable conflict of interest and it's hurting children.

How many times do we have to write to Governor Cuomo, before he will understand?

When Bob Dylan wrote Blowin' in the Wind, it was released with comments, including this: "But the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not too many people get to see and know ... and then it flies away. I still say that some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their heads away when they see wrong and know it's wrong."

3) Announcing the Cola-Faroul Mentorship and Scholarship Program

Ellen Sue Cola is a Ramapo High School graduate of 2016 and recent Brown University graduate. Her capstone paper won the Best Capstone Paper award from the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs. Ms. Cola has started the Cola-Faroul Mentorship and Scholarship Program to help other East Ramapo students achieve their dreams of higher education. This is her fourth article for The Power of Ten.

I was educated in the East Ramapo public schools from Kindergarten through 12th grade. This school district has been plagued by major budget cuts, political turmoil, and community unrest for many years. The cause of the conflict is that the white majority that uses private religious schools for their children has essentially exercised tyranny over the minority population which uses the public schools.

In November 2017, the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the East Ramapo Central School District for denying Black and Latino residents an equal opportunity to elect school board candidates of their choice. I wrote my Public Policy Capstone on this case. It is entitled "A Seat at the Table: Voting Rights, a Ward System, and a Case Against the East Ramapo Central School District." It won the "Best Capstone Paper" award within the Public Policy department.

Not many students from East Ramapo matriculate to college, let alone Ivy League institutions. When I graduated in 2016, I was the only student in the district that was headed to the Ivy League. Most of my peers at Brown came from privileged backgrounds. These students have advantages of economic class, racial privilege, social capital (i.e. legacy students whose parent, grandparent, and/or sibling went to Brown), private-school educated (or educated at a better school than that in their home community), non-first generation (meaning their parents went to college), and so much more.

Applying to college can be a daunting process that many students feels overwhelmed and intimidated by. For many low-income and first-generation college students of color, their road to higher educational institutions can be difficult. As a low-income, first generation college student of color, I understand their struggle.

That is why I have started the Cola-Faroul Mentorship and Scholarship Program (named after my father's last name and my mother's maiden name). This scholarship and mentorship program is targeted toward rising senior students within East Ramapo and will provide them with financial support, SAT/ACT prep, college essay critiques, and college interview tips. This initiative triples as both a college readiness program, college scholarship sourcing program, and a scholarship, in and of itself.

The mission of the Cola-Faroul Mentorship and Scholarship Program is to demystify the college application process for promising East Ramapo students who may not have attended college without the support of the scholarship. The vision is to help increase the college matriculation rate within East Ramapo, one student at a time.

Students apply in the summer before their senior year of high school and after joining the program, they are immediately given 1-on-1 mentorship and guidance with the college application process. At the beginning of the program, I will virtually meet with each student in an effort to better understand that students' college goals and aspirations. I will then guide each student through the entire college application process by providing them with help creating a list of safety, target, and reach colleges to apply to, SAT/ACT prep, college essay critiques and feedback, assistance with filling out the FAFSA, and resume reviews, and college interview prep. I will set guidelines and deadlines for the student to adhere to, in hopes that the student will feel more confident and reassured throughout the application process. Throughout the year, I will also source scholarships to these students and encourage them to apply for monies from local organizations that I have created partnerships with.

The Cola-Faroul Mentorship and Scholarship Program will also award a scholarship to one exceptional student that successfully completed the mentorship program. This scholarship will be awarded to one student in the summer before matriculating to the institution of their choice to support financial costs associated with college enrollment.

The application link is forms.gle/v1s1qdBYhnMF64Mj6 and applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Students are encouraged to apply sooner, rather than later, to secure their spot within the program.

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[poweroften] COVID Takes Another East Ramapo Education Justice Activist

Power of Ten Update
In This Issue:
1. COVID Takes Another East Ramapo Education Justice Activist
2. East Ramapo School Board - When Will New York State Finally Step In?
3. Another Victory for Education Justice Supporters at the Polls!

1) COVID Takes Another East Ramapo Education Justice Activist

Washington Sanchez was always ready to work for justice in East Ramapo. He attended board meetings and protest rallies, and he organized people for bus trips to Albany to lobby our representatives. He made informational videos and shared them on the internet through "Canal Internacional" with his best friend and fellow East Ramapo activist Luis Nivelo. He inspired us with wonderful singing and guitar playing. When the time came to put his name on a document challenging the corrupt school board, he did not hesitate.

This great man and great friend is now gone too soon due to the horrible pandemic. Our great sympathy goes out to his family, his father, Luis, his wife, Leticia, his children Anderson, Arely and Bruli, and his siblings Wilson, Armando, Martha, Margarita, Damián and Eliezer.

2) East Ramapo School Board - When Will New York State Finally Step In?

Historian and Professor of Education Alan Singer writes in his latest blog post that the decision by the East Ramapo school board to lease buildings for private summer camps is only the latest example of their unequal treatment of children in the district. He asks When Will New York State Finally Step In?

3) Another Victory for Education Justice Supporters at the Polls!

As previously reported in The Power of Ten, East Ramapo was the top Issue in the NY Senate 38th district election. Voters overwhelmingly supported Elijah Reichlin Melnick, who rejected an ultimatum from Hasidic leadership that he oppose a monitor with veto power for East Ramapo.

There are other signs that the notorious "bloc vote"may be losing its political clout. The Jewish Daily Forward writes Williamsburg primary upset might indicate slipping power for Hasidic leaders. There, Community Organizer Emily Gallagher beat a long-time Assembly Member, of whom the Hasidic leaders wrote "if we, God forbid, fail to reelect him we shall suffer bitterly". Some attributed the upset to greater turnout from progressives, others to dissent among Hasidic youth. Hasidic parents want their children to be happy and healthy just as much as any other parents. Despite severe censorship of books, newspapers, radio, television and the internet, they have eyes that see and hearts that feel. According to an Orthodox rabbi quoted in the article "the younger generation are fed up being directed to vote for those who keep the ancien regime functioning and alive."

The work of Educational Justice requires confronting powerful people who think universal education threatens their power. It involves confronting political leadership that is often willing to turn a blind eye or trade away children's human rights for political favors. East Ramapo has unfortunately become an example of what happens when these self-centered forces take power. It is up to those of us who believe in every child's right to an education to stay informed, to spread the word, and to stay active socially and politically. We've had some big victories recently, and we can stop to celebrate for a minute before we move on the the next step in our work.

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[poweroften] It's Mondaire!

Power of Ten Update
In This Issue:
1. Election Results
2. Ward System on the Way
3. Your Help Needed

1) Election Results

Mondaire Jones, our own East Ramapo alumnus, has won the Democratic primary election and will likely be our next representative in the U.S. Congress!!! This is why we fight for every child in East Ramapo to have a great education, so they can go on and do great things!

2) Ward System on the Way

The Appeals Court has rejected the school board's request to stop the ward system from being implemented until the appeal is decided. This means there will be a school board election using the ward system this year. Exactly when is not known yet. In rejecting the board's request for a stay, the Appeals Court said that the board had failed to show "likelihood of success on the merits" of the case.

3) Your Help Needed

The NY State Education Department wants to update regulations that ensure students in non-public schools get an education which is at least equivalent to public school. This is especially relevant to East Ramapo where the majority of children attend non-public schools, many of which provide very little education. Graduates of these schools have made complaints which have been ignored by the district. The updated regulations would clarify the responsibilities of the state and the district.

You can help to support the updated regulations by filling out this form

 

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[poweroften] Yes, It's Racism!

Power of Ten Update
In This Issue:
1. Yes, It's Racism!
2. Budget Fails
3. Vote TODAY!

1) Yes, It's Racism!

In his closing arguments against the ward system for East Ramapo, the school board's lawyer claimed that the Orthodox school board members and their supporters are colorblind: "Do you really think that the District's Orthodox voters would vote differently if the majority of public school students were white?"

Like all 'colorblind' arguments, the school board's plea is in reality only blind to the nature of race discrimination. In fact, indifference to the plight of people of color is one of the major characteristics of organizational racism.

Another hallmark of racist mindset would be to claim that you know what people of color really need better than they do. Again and again, the board makes the assertion that "race is not what is driving the elections, it's something else". They assert that Black and Latino members of the community and the organizations representing their interests are untrustworthy. They systematically exclude the board members of color from conversations about how the board should deal with a complaint from the NAACP. The white board majority did not seek guidance from the black board members even after a judge had ruled that the facts supported the NAACP.

Today, all around the country, people are reexamining unspoken assumptions and long established policies that sanction white privilege and facilitate oppression of black and brown people. The white men who make up the majority of the East Ramapo school board would have you believe that they (and their supporters) are all immune from racism, and they make this claim, astonishingly and boldly, in the same breath that they condemn people of color as untrustworthy and unqualified to know and express their own interests!!!

In perhaps the most perverse twist of all, the white board members are now using their power to take money away from an educational system that serves the children of color in another ill-fated attempt to perpetuate their racist system. They are literally robbing education from children of color to pay for a lawsuit to prove they are not racist. Could they possibly make it any clearer? Yes, It's racism!

2) Budget Fails

East Ramapo has had more failed budgets than any other district in New York State. This is because those who designed the system of funding and governing public schools never anticipated a situation where the private schools were the majority. When the same people who use the schools are the ones who pay the taxes and make decisions about raising and spending money, the system functions as intended. When the majority uses private schools, the checks and balances inherent in the system are removed.

The private school system usually tries to use a failed budget as a way to blackmail the district into shifting more funds from public programs to private services. Like any other kind of blackmail, paying once only guarantees a higher price next time.

Public school advocates have been sounding the alarm to the state for decades. What is really needed are changes to the governance and funding systems. We are waiting on Albany to correct these. The fate of East Ramapo is in the hands of Governor Cuomo, Speaker Heastie, and Senator Stewart Cousins.

Detailed information on this year's failed budget is available from The Journal News.

3) Vote TODAY!

Today, June 23, is the Democratic Primary Election. If you have not already voted by absentee or early voting, this is your last chance! Absentee ballots must be postmarked today, or you may vote in person, but be aware that they have changed some polling places.

East Ramapo is a hot topic once again. As previously reported in The Power of Ten, Mondaire Jones is an East Ramapo graduate making a historic run for congress, and oversight of East Ramapo is a major topic in the NY Senate race, with explosive allegations by Elijah Reichlin-Melnick that opposition to a monitor with veto power has become THE DECIDING FACTOR for the "leadership of the Hasidic community".

 

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[poweroften] East Ramapo is Top Issue in NY Senate Race

Power of Ten Update
Special Edition: East Ramapo is Top Issue in NY Senate Race

East Ramapo has often been a top issue in local and state elections. But in this year's Democratic Primary for NY State Senator, one brave candidate has drawn back the curtain on how opposition to a monitor with veto power has become THE DECIDING FACTOR for the "leadership of the Hasidic community"!!!

The candidate who stood up for more oversight, better education and JUSTICE for East Ramapo was Elijah Reichlin-Melnick.

Here is his Facebook post:

 

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[poweroften] School Board Loses in Court AGAIN! - Updated Voting Info

Power of Ten Update
In This Issue:
1. School Board Loses in Court AGAIN!
2. Updated Voting Info
3. COVID Testing Site in Spring Valley

1) School Board Loses in Court AGAIN!

In perhaps the most unsurprising legal decision in history, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has denied the school board's request for a 'stay' of the decision of U.S. District Court Judge Cathy Seibel's ruling ordering a ward system for school board elections. The Court of Appeals found that the "district has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of the appeal".

This is just the latest in a long series of legal misadventures that our rogue school board has embarked on since they abruptly switched from their competent and long-serving local law firm of Greenberg Wanderman & Fromson. The Nanuet based firm was charging a very reasonable $120/hr, and had an impeccable record for the district. Giving no reason, other than his own uninhibited power to do whatever he pleased, school board member Aron Wieder and his bloc vote on the board removed this competent and respectable law firm and replaced them with the very expensive and controversial firm of Miranda and D'Agostino. During their tenure in East Ramapo, they would add "infamous" to that CV, as they repeatedly and aggressively accosted school children and parents, without a single word of reprimand from the board until one lawyer was caught on camera and it went VIRAL.(warning: video of school board lawyer contains language some may deem unsuitable for children).

At that time, the legal shenanigans were focused on abusing the interpretation of the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act) in order to funnel more public dollars into the private religious schools favored by the board members. The board wanted a lawyer who would settle the cases that Fromson had been winning. Another counsel which had been approached by the board to do this work responded that "...it is our opinion that a board of education's directive to place a child in a setting contrary to that proposed by a district's CSE (Committee on Special Education) ... may rise to the level of an inappropriate gift of public monies."

The board went ahead with their plan anyway, and received several strong warnings from the NY Sate Education Dept. (NYSED). The board then sued NYSED (and lost) and appealed (and lost). All of the costs of these legal actions came at the expense of programs and services for the children in public schools. Do these actions give the appearance that the members of the public school board are putting the interests of private religious schools first? You don't have to take my word for it, according to their own lawyer they "have never denied" that they "emphasize" services for the private schools.

Despite the overwhelming evidence and record that the massive increase in legal costs were the direct result of the school board's own reckless disregard for the public funds they are entrusted with, they continue to blame everything on the public school parents who have tried to hold them accountable. The truth is they have even sued their own insurance company. In that case, the judge found that the district had been overcharged millions of dollars by their high priced lawyers.

In the most recent case, once again, serious questions were raised, even by the judge, about whether the school board was being reckless with the children's education funds in pursuit of the fleeting phantoms of their own imaginary righteousness. In short, they unreasonably denied the repeated requests by civil liberties and civil rights groups to address the longstanding and exhaustively documented inequities in their election process. At every step, they were offered a less expensive way to solve the problem. At every step, and quite ironically, they excluded board members of color in forming their answer that 'no, we don't exclude people of color'. Given that the next steps will again involve raiding the funds for programs for children in public school, with no impact on the services for the private schools that most board members "emphasize", and given that the appeals court itself has questioned the likelihood of success, the question must be asked: "Has the East Ramapo school board now stepped over a line, where they have so far abandoned their duty to the public good that they should be removed from office?"

2) Updated Voting Info

Many people have never gotten a ballot. If you have not received one, please contact the district clerk. If you have not yet mailed your ballot, the district is now putting out boxes for ballots. Since ballots received by mail after 5 PM on June 9 will not be counted, it may be wise to use the box rather than take a chance on sending by mail.

Please visit the district clerk's web page for details (I am purposely NOT giving details here because they change faster than I can keep up).

3) COVID Testing Site in Spring Valley

The Martin Luther King Center is hosting a free COVID testing program. From June 1 through June 12, Monday to Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM at the center, 110 Bethune Blvd in Spring Valley. Call 833-422-7369 to make an appointment.

 

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[poweroften] Ballot Bewilderment

Power of Ten Update
Special Edition: Ballot Bewilderment

Ballots have begun to arrive in people's mailboxes. They include the candidates for school board, even though the court has enjoined (prohibited) the district from holding another at-large (discriminatory) election. This is because, according to the district clerk, the ballots were already printed. The clerk says you should "not vote for the school board candidates". However, she does not say that it will affect anything else if you do.

The school budget and library trustee vote are STILL HAPPENING.

If you got your ballot, you should fill it out and mail it back immediately. Please mark YES for the budget and for Library Trustee Alexandre.

Be aware that ballots can only be returned by mail, and that ballots received back at the district after the June 9 deadline will not be counted.

If you have not received a ballot, you may want to contact the district for further instructions. The contact information is on the district website.

 

 

 

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