Dear NESTies:

We write this well-intended note with a suggestion that we believe (1) Can help preserve the good thing you have going at your public school, and (2) Pretty much represents the only way you can save your beloved principal's job at this point. (Let's face it - everyone reading this blog understands that she's toast, folks.)

We have watched in the last few months as your school community has galvanized to oppose the inclusion of the Ross charter school in your underutilized building. We've seen you display the kind of passion and organization that is sorely lacking in public education today. We love that you don't fear making waves with important people. We have been simply amazed at the number of people you've been able to turn out for your rallies.

Believe it or not, The Chalkboard understands the chip on you shoulder. Many people in the charter school world got there because they too believed strongly in public education, but had some different ideas about how to improve learning for specific groups of students and wanted a chance to do so without unnecessary interference from the bureaucracy. In many ways, the charter movement itself is a jovial bunch of misfits from the education world. Misfits with a strong desire to be left alone to do what's right for kids. Misfits who believe that public education has something to do with educating the public. You'd fit in nicely.

The irony here is that the people who are probably best positioned to really understand why you are fighting this charter school so fiercely are the people who, themselves, are associated with public charter schools. You feel you've got a good thing going. You don't know why someone would want to mess with it. You want to be left alone to tend to the business of public education in a way that you want to prove works for your kids. Charter school people really get that.

Why not petition to turn NEST+M into a public charter school?

Think about it before you roll your eyes. NEST has been practically operating like one for several years anyway. It would certainly throw people for a loop at this point. (A battle between two charter schools for school space? What will the pro-competition editorial writers say?)

The downside, obviously, is that you would have to give up some of the money you now get from the Department of Education, and you'd no longer be able to screen your students to select the most academically capable. Those are obviously important considerations.

But the tremendous upside, as you can understand better than most right now, is the freedom to be left alone. To have the kind of real autonomy in exchange for results that Chancellor Klein has been talking about. To make your version of public education truly public, in the most democratic sense you can envision. Crazier things have happened.

What say you?

Sincerely,

The Chalkboard

PS - You'll probably want to drop the legal challenge to having to share space with a public charter school if you want to keep your building, but we're sure you are clever enough to turn this into a political situation that results in you keeping your building once you get your charter. And if you can't find a way, this is the kind of stuff that makes Sheldon Silver's people giddy with imagination.