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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer, on WNYC. If you think right-wing campaigns to affect education are only happening in red states, think again, and think very local. There are elections underway right now, for seats on local volunteer boards around New York City, that contribute to important decisions about New York City's schools. Community Education Councils, or CECs, represent the interest of any given school district to its local superintendent.

Now, this year's election is ongoing. It runs through May 9th, and it's just the second time that parents get to vote directly for board members, before 2021, PTAs nominated the CEC members. 2% of eligible voters participated in the last election, just 2%. That's had tangible implications. It's meant, for one thing, that relatively small groups of well-organized parents have exerted outsized influence.

My guest, Safiyah Riddle, from the nonprofit news organization, THE CITY, has reported on one of the most powerful groups that has emerged, Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, or PLACE, formed in opposition to Mayor Bill de Blasio's efforts to broaden access to selective public schools. Safiyah reports PLACE is now seen by some rival parent groups as skewing rightward, and some PLACE members have publicly compared what they view as critical race theory to nazism.

We'll learn more about this group, and about the election for CECs in general. Safiyah Riddle, an intern for THE CITY, the News Organization. She's an intern from CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, joins me now. Hi, Safiyah. Thanks for coming on. Welcome to WNYC.

Safiyah Riddle: Hi, Brian. Thanks for having me.

Brian Lehrer: A little more background on what CECs do, and who they represent. How much power do they have?

Safiyah Riddle: CECs are a largely advisory group of 12 members, this year. Previously, it had been 11 members, but in January, the [unintelligible 00:02:17] administration added a member to represent District 75 students. These councils mainly--

Brian Lehrer: District 75 special Ed students, basically, right?

Safiyah Riddle: That's correct. These councils are composed of, mostly, public school parents. Then there are two seats on each council that are also appointed by the borough president, and by the public advocate. These councils can make decisions on accessibility in schools, on curriculum. The only thing that they have a binding vote on is creating and making changes to school district zones, or school zones.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we'll bring you right in here. If anybody's involved, help us report this story as we take your calls on New York City's Community Education Councils, and the elections that are going on right now for them. Do we have anybody listening, who happens to be running for a seat on a community education council? 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. Anybody listening, who happens to be an incumbent on the council, or a superintendent of one of the 32 school districts around New York City?

Your interaction with community education council members, are they becoming ideological? Help us report this story. What are your priorities? Is there a right-wing movement that's trying to sneak into power in the New York City school system, because turnout is so, so low, 2% turnout in last year's, for example, as our guest from the News Organization THE CIY reports. 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. Come on in and help us report this story.

Safiyah, now let's look at one of the groups that's exerted some influence here, Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, or PLACE, which I mentioned in the intro. What is PLACE, who does it account as its members, and what does it believe in?

Safiyah Riddle: PLACE was formed in 2019, largely in response to the former Mayor de Blasio's position on screened admissions, and gifted and talented programs, which was-- He favored the approach of dismantling and rethinking the way that we use these systems to admit students into middle and high schools. That was, in large part, from a push, from [unintelligible 00:04:59] of integration, because New York City has some of the most segregated schools across the country.

PLACE formed on the basis of protecting these selective admissions programs and expanding gifted and talented programs. As you mentioned, in the last election, which was actually the first election where parents were allowed to vote, PLACE had tremendous success. They were able to sweep Manhattan's largest school district and get the majority on the citywide high school district. To this day, a vast majority of the candidates that they endorsed are still serving on community education councils.

In the two years since they had that tremendous success, what I noted in my piece was that, increasingly, leaders in the group were very vocally invoking nationally polarizing education issues to characterize these local education issues.

Brian Lehrer: For example, do they get explicit on things we might associate with Ron DeSantis, or Glenn Youngkin, the Governor of Virginia, raising critical race theory, whether or not it's actually being taught in the schools. Raising opposition to acknowledging LGBT students, or families. Do those things come up from PLACE, explicitly or implicitly?

Safiyah Riddle: Absolutely. A lot of it is fairly explicit, and has been very shocking, I think, to a lot of parents citywide. For example, in 2021, they sent out a newsletter that called Critical Race Theory poisonous, and explained why it was harmful to children's education. Leaders took to Fox News to deem opponents of the specialized high school test woke on Twitter. A lot of these parents are very vocal about comparing critical race theory to Nazi ideology.

A lot of these groups for this type of advocacy have gotten nods from larger national organizations, that represent the resistance to the push to have more culturally sensitive education across our schools.

Brian Lehrer: Right here, in New York City, in these elections for Community Education Council, in the various neighborhood school districts. Kay, in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Kay.

Kay: Hi, there. Can you hear me?

Brian Lehrer: I can hear you.

Kay: Yes, my children went to that largest school, in that largest school district that was swept by PLACE, and one of their members actually dropped my school from representation. My kids went to a school that's known to be politically progressive. It's a 6 through 12 school. The six through eighth grades were represented by the community education council. That's such a blatantly anti-democratic thing.

The school is clearly against the ideals of PLACE, because a lot of our students opt out of the state tests, and PLACE is very protesting. As the mother of Asian students, I really resent the implication that they make, that that sort of decision is anti-Asian. It's the affirmative action trope, where a white person is bringing this case, using Asians as their representatives. I also wanted to say--

Brian Lehrer: As the alleged victims, yes.

Kay: Yes. I also just want to say, these people are nasty. I have been in the chats, on these zooms, where people have questioned my parenting. It's shocking, because it's so MAGA. You're like, "I'm in New York City, what the hell is happening here?" Just transphobic comments. One of the presidents of PLACE tweets in favor of Kyle Rittenhouse. It's really shocking.

Brian Lehrer: It's really shocking.

Kay: When only 2% of people are voting, they claim to represent families, and yet, they were put in with such a small number of votes. I blame the Department of Education for these Byzantine election rules, that they have, so that parents can't really find out very much about candidates who are running.

Brian Lehrer: Kay, thank you very much for helping us report this story. Shocking, indeed. Safiyah, Kay might be the only caller-- Even though we have a board full of calls, other parents, other people with connections to this story, Kay might be the only caller we actually need, to inform people firsthand, what's going on. To the issue she raised at the end of her call, the 2%, dismally low turnout rate for these community education council elections.

Enabling groups that might be fringy, in the greater context of New York City, but can get into power, because nobody votes. Who is eligible to vote in community education council elections?

Safiyah Riddle: I'm glad you asked that, because it is, I think, very confusing to follow. Each parent gets one vote per child. If you have children in two different school districts, you can vote for each of those children, in each respective school district. Both parents can actually vote, as long as they have separate DOE accounts. Also, parents with a child in, as we mentioned before, District 75, so students with special needs, can cast a vote for a district representative, if the school where their child goes is physically located in one of the city's 32 districts.

I'm not sure if that answers your question.

Brian Lehrer: How do you register? How do you vote?

Safiyah Riddle: You vote on the DOE school app, which all parents use for things like admissions, and frequently receive information about their school, the various processes and admin that are required to keep your kid in a New York City public school. All parents should have the app where you vote. There's also physical locations. If parents would prefer to use those, they can go to their school and ask an administrator there.

Brian Lehrer: Here's Antonia, in Brooklyn, a current CEC member in Brooklyn. You're on WNYC. Hi, Antonia. Thank you for calling in.

Antonia: Hi, Brian. Thank you so much for taking my call, and thank you, Safiyah, for writing this article. I am a third-term, outgoing CEC member, so I'm not running again. I want to make some comments. I want to respond to a quote in the article, that you have, from Maude Maren, saying, "Land acknowledgments don't teach anybody more math. What I would say to Maude is, what do these two things have to do with each other? Nothing. You can have both accurate history instruction, and great math instruction.

As a parent, I expect and demand both. This is just a way to inject a national polarizing issue and create a distraction, and a false dichotomy. As we heard this morning on NPR, children are not doing so well in their history and civics knowledge. I also want to point out that PLACE NYC, as an organization, is composed of current CEC members who are endorsing candidates, seemingly, in violation of the DOE's own election rules. CEC members are not allowed to endorse candidates, so I don't know how they get away with this.

They do have tremendous power and reach, and there is no equivalent organization, on the other side, supporting candidates that are fighting for all students. I, as a CEC member, have always worked on policies that ensure all children in the city receive an equitable share of education resources. It's well known that New York City is the most segregated school system in the country. The unfortunate impact of PLACE NYC is to reinforce that existing two-class education system through policies that they promote, like GNT.

In our district, District 15, we're committed to providing enrichment for all. Counter to what PLACE believes, enrichment does not have to be designed to exclude. We have an upcoming opportunity to see that in action on Wednesday, May 24th, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM, we are having our first-ever project-based learning showcase at Industry City, and we'd love for the public to come and see how enrichment can include and not exclude.

I would just encourage families that care about equity and educating all children, to organize and vote for candidates that support your values. Voting ends May 9th. Thank you so much, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Antonia, let me ask you one follow-up question, that quote from a PLACE member, "Land acknowledgments don't teach anybody math." A land acknowledgment, for people who don't know, is when we say, like here in the New York, area, "We are WNYC New York, on Lenape Land," which we say once in a while, which just acknowledges the original Native American owners of the land around here. People can do land acknowledgments in any parts of the United States.

What is it that you think the members of PLACE find threatening about doing a land acknowledgment before they go on to math, and other subjects that are taught in the public schools?

Antonia: I really don't know, Brian, because I'm not a PLACE member. I would think that you would want your children to have the full scope of the world that they live in, and understand the truth, whether they be geometry, history, or algebra. You want accuracy to inform you, as you go into the world, and you seek to be employable, work with different people, and not just be isolated from K to 12, with one segment of the population, and then you go to college with a very similar segment of the population, then you graduate.

Guess what, you are likely in the managerial class and you have to manage people who come from different backgrounds. Then maybe, you have a little trouble working with different groups. I don't see how it's pedagogically advantageous to withhold truth, and to keep children isolated.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Antonia, for your call. We appreciate it a lot. I want to take the one call that we're getting, that is at least somewhat in defense of PLACE. Sharon, in Manhattan. You're on WNYC. Thank you for calling in. Hi, Sharon.

Sharon: Hi, Brian. Thanks for doing a segment on this. It's really important for parents to be aware that they can vote in the CEC elections. I just really want to beg you and other education reporters to do a better job of finding what is valuable in an oppositional organization. The PLACE organization, to my knowledge, is the only organization making a proposal for GNT in every single zone school. I'll stick to K to 8, because that's what I know about.

That would be huge, instead of shipping children off to a citywide, or to a very few local district GNT programs. If children could remain in their zone school, then you keep higher income families in the zone school. You don't have to necessarily test 4-year-olds for access to that program. You can do it when it makes more sense, when they're seven, so many educational benefits of doing it. I don't hear it covered enough, because of all of the highly polarized language around race, CRT, and everything else.

I would just really beg reporters, look for what is beneficial in the opposition. Look for the best argument, the opponent to what you think is [unintelligible 00:18:46], instead of the worst.

Brian Lehrer: Go ahead, Safiyah.

Safiyah Riddle: I think that that's a good comment, and I appreciate it. I think in the piece, I made sure to emphasize that PLACE, on their online platform, does advocate for addressing the issues that make these specialized schools more segregated. It's not as though PLACE is opposed to diversity, or doesn't want to improve the education of New York City students. I agree, I think that the polarizing national language can dominate a lot of conversations about these issues.

With that being said, as I was talking to parents, throughout my reporting for this piece, a lot of people were really alarmed with how explicitly the leaders of this group, and the most vocal members of this group, were affiliating with right-leaning and conservative education advocates around the country.

Brian Lehrer: The Community Education Council elections in New York City, going on through next Tuesday, May 9th. Now, listeners, you know more about them, thanks to Safiyah Riddle, who is an intern at the News Organization THE CITY, an intern from CUNY's Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. Congratulations on having an impact before you even graduate journalism school. Thanks a lot for coming on and talking about your article.

Safiyah Riddle: Thank you, Brian. I really appreciate it.

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