Carranza uses his power to ignore the protests of the powerless
On Tuesday, a raucous crowd of mostly Asian American parents let Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza have it full blast as he headed into yet another invitation-only “community chat.”
It’s a timely reminder that this chancellor, like the mayor he serves, only seeks dialogue with people who largely agree with him. It’s all about isolating critics, and denouncing their motives from a distance.
“Fire Carranza!” they shouted when his city-issued car arrived at IS 31 in Bay Ridge, and rightly so: For all his talk of equity, inclusion and the need to support diversity, the chancellor draws the line at facing the Asian American critics of his plan to destroy the colorblind admissions process for the city’s top public high schools.
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Also shut out are the overwhelming black and Hispanic parents of children attending charter schools. Unless they’re affiliated with a handful of charters that the United Federation of Teachers approves of, these mothers and fathers don’t make the carefully screened invitation lists for Carranza’s community “town halls.”
It was at one of those “private” town halls that Carranza warned charter networks to “shut up” about how they outperform the regular public schools.
In an interview about his high school admissions plans, he said: “I just don’t buy into the narrative that any one ethnic group owns admission to these schools.” But no one has claimed to “own” anything — except Carranza.
For that matter, the chancellor only agreed to meet with City Councilman Robert Holden about the disgraceful conditions at PS 9, a Queens school for special needs kids, after The Post ran an exposé. Even then, Carranza refused to meet at the school, which he has never visited.
Carranza, like Mayor Bill de Blasio, claims to be a fighter for the city’s powerless and marginalized communities. Somehow, those categories don’t include minority charter school families, or (largely low-income) Asian American ones, or even special needs children.
Is there anything lower than posing as a crusader for justice even as you wield your power to avoid facing the victims of your policies?
