The July 28th edition of the Buffalo News had a full-page, scathing attack on the Superintendent of the Buffalo Public Schools, James Williams. The ad accuses Dr. Williams and the Buffalo board of education of "turning their backs" on charter school children by no longer providing district busing in certain circumstances. The ad includes a large photo of an African-American man in a business suit with his back turned, and gripping a yellow school bus in his hand. Ouch.

The group that placed the ad is called "Buffalo United Students Under Stress" (BUS-US), which has a website http://www.busus.org/.

The "Fact/Myth" section of the website has a number of its facts wrong. More misplaced, and even reckless, is its attack on Dr. Williams and the board when they are not at fault for the transportation situation with respect to charter schools. In fact, the district has been willing to work with charter schools to address the situation with the state Education Department, which sparked the problem with its erroneous finding (see The Chalkboard's previous post, below).

Now, I've had plenty of back-and-forth with the Buffalo Public Schools and its on-again/off-again treatment of charter schools over the years. On this issue the state Education Department, not the district, is at fault by misinterpreting Education law regarding transportation. Moreover, the state aid formula for districts discourages them from accommodating charter schools--which typically have longer school years--with additional transportation. This must change.

Every indication I have is that charter schools within the city of Buffalo had no role in placing this ad; in particular, the Buffalo United Charter School had nothing to do with it and should not be confused with the name of the "BUS-US" organization. Buffalo charter people to whom I've spoken are appalled by the effort, viewing it as self-serving and counterproductive to their ongoing working relationship with the school district. Moreover, the ad is misleading by claiming to be aggrieved for all 6,500 Buffalo charter students, when nearly 5,000 of them attend charters within the district and have a much smaller issue in play, and whose schools are not interested in being provocateurs.

The ad and the BUS-US group also has no connection to the NY Charter Schools Association or the Western NY Charter School Coalition, and neither organization had any foreknowledge of the ad.

The individuals behind this attack ad are mostly connected to the school with the most to lose under Buffalo's new transportation policy: the Charter School for Applied Technologies (CSAT), which is located just outside Buffalo, in the Kenmore-Tonowanda school district. Oddly, they don't identify themselves on the website, which is another story.

CSAT is understandably frustrated with Buffalo's new policy since nearly 9 of every 10 of its 1,600 students lives in the city, and will no longer be transported by the school district since it is located just beyond the northern Buffalo city line, in the town of Tonowanda. In fact, for the last two years, the school had been trying to work with the district to come up with a transportation arrangement for its students, and was willing contribute toward the expense. But bureaucracy at the state or local level never seems to be in much of a hurry.

The charter school has done well by its students as it has been high-performing on the state tests, and received a full five-year renewal from the state Board of Regents. The Buffalo children attending the Charter School for Applied Technologies deserve better on bus transportation and should be accommodated one way or the other. Problem is, any solution must begin with correcting the state Education Department, which moves at a glacial pace. Since the Buffalo district already is not required to provide transportation for this school, the bigger problem now is that Buffalo will be a whole lot less likely to be constructive in the wake of an attack ad placed by folks connected to this charter school located outside its boundaries.

By its name, that was not the intention of the BUS-US group. They no doubt believe that flexing some muscle would cause district officials to quake in their boots and relent. I wouldn't bet on that. Throwing gasoline on a smoldering fire has a predictable effect; in this case, the collateral damage more likely and unfortunately will result in CSAT "students under [continued] stress".

Peter Murphy
for The Chalkboard