Epoch Times article on CEC elections
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Mona Davids
May 5, 2011, 9:27:44 AM5/5/11
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Education Councils Elections Mired in Bureaucracy
By Gidon Belmaker/Epoch Times Staff
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Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, shown in this file photo, has been asked to respond to questions about disorganized elections of Community Education Councils. (Tara MacIsaac/The Epoch Times)
NEW YORK—Election season is usually a festival of civic participation. Contrary to common practice, however, the current elections for the Community Education Councils are passing by mostly unnoticed. Parent groups are accusing the Department of Education (DOE) of deliberately obstructing the election process, making it harder for parents to vote and candidates to run.
Every two years, parents of public-school students elect new Community Education Council (CEC) members. The district-specific councils act as advisory bodies and are one of the main ways for parents to be engaged in their children's education. According to the DOE, the CECs play an essential role in shaping education policies for the New York City public schools.
“The Community Education Councils are district-wide advocates for parents in that district. This is the highest legal level for a parent to be involved in their children's education,” said Mona Davids from Our Schools NYC. “It is important that parents have a voice on a public, elected-official level on how their schools are run. This entire debacle of the CEC elections was another obstruction maneuver by the DOE to take parents’ voices out of the school.”
The whole process leading up to the vote has been flawed and mismanaged, claimed Shino Tanikawa, vice president of the CEC of School District 2. Though the election process should start in January, candidates were only notified of the election in late March, she said.
In response to the parents’ outcry, the DOE had announced that it would extend the deadline for parent nominations for the 2011 Community and Citywide Education Council seats until April 22. The subsequent stages of the election process were not postponed accordingly, however, which led to a rushed campaign.
Parents are able to vote online for a straw poll until May 7. Then, from May 10 through May 17, presidents, treasurers, and secretaries of parent and parent-teacher associations will select all of the new Community and Citywide Education Council members for the 2011–2013 season. The DOE’s Office of Family Information and Action (OFIA) organizes the elections.
In addition to the late notice and haste, parents wishing to vote had been unable to access candidates’ information without a school ID, said Tanikawa, adding that many parents didn’t receive the ID numbers on time. Several parents had approached the OFIA about this matter, receiving a promise that the glitch would be fixed. By Wednesday, candidates' information was available without a password.
Enraged by the way this election process has been run, parents sent many letters to the DOE asking to cancel the elections and start the process all over again. They have also considered legal action.
On May 4, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer joined the parents in their demands and sent a letter to Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, echoing the parents’ concerns about the current CEC election process.
“I believe the process [of CEC election] is so badly flawed, and the final election by parent selectors so close at hand that I am calling upon the Department of Education to postpone next week's CEC elections until such time as serious questions about ballot information and integrity can be corrected,” wrote Stringer in his letter, which was obtained by The Epoch Times.
“Moving ahead at this juncture, I believe, will cause irreparable damage to parents' confidence and faith in the validity of the election process and, by extension, in the DOE and its Office of Family Information and Action,” he added.
Walcott issued a response to Stringer’s letter on Wednesday, saying: “Borough president Stringer and I are both passionate about doing what’s right for students and we will continue to work together to increase parent engagement in our schools. I cannot stress enough the importance of parent involvement in our schools and the office for Family Information and Action will take all necessary steps to ensure that all of our parents have an opportunity to cast a vote in the CEC elections by May 7.”
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