Regarding The Chalkboard's suggestion that Manhattan's NEST+M elite public school consider becoming a charter school, a parent who has enrolled her child in the Ross charter school (aka chartera non grata) writes that the NESTies have been acting like fear-mongering thugs:

As a Ross Charter Parent I am appalled at the Little Rock strategy of these parents. Do they really think picketing parents before we have even heard about the plans from the Ross Charter school itself is anything but fear mongering? I have had some email contact with their lead man and he seems to think we should jump on his bandwagon, based on his rhetoric! When I suggest we should listen to the proposed Ross plan first, then see if we can find common ground to either fight the space sharing or work out co existence he reverts to “join us to save our kids” What ??? Is that just political ignorance? Does no one remember coalition building requires finding common ground, not head bashing?

Honestly, I think there is something to this. I really do admire the organizing that the NEST people have done. I also think they got some really, really bad advice when they decided to take out their yuppie frustrations on the parents who want to enroll their kids at Ross because it represents a better option than anything else available to them. Furthermore, making a rich woman who wants to help the city's education system the enemy here also strikes me as a bit bizarre.