As every parent knows, it’s a blessing and a joy when your child is in a school she loves that also meets her educational needs. I’ve had that experience for my kids, and when I heard parents extolling Harlem Success Academycharter schools at their rally last Wednesday at PS 241, that same sense of satisfaction shone through.

I’ve heard that sense of school satisfaction from parents at numerous public schools in District 3. Yet to hear the Harlem Success parents say it, theirs are the only children who have chess and music and kids who love reading. This is not true. It’s also not true that PS 241, which the DOE has decided to close and hand over its real estate, is a failing school. It met its requirements for adequate yearly progress this year, according to the State Education Department, working in a difficult situation. It may be a weak school at present—the review of 241 atInside schools ties its weakness to DOE policies, which resulted in a loss of major foundation funding in 2003—but that doesn’t mean giving its space away to Harlem Success is the best decision for the district.

The Community Education Council and President’s Council of District 3 have called for the DOE to stop making school-closing and charter-siting decisions without consulting the elected parent leadership. Tomas Hunt, Senior Policy Analyst in the office of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, says “some unsavoriness of this sort is happening all over the city.”

Only last year, the DOE criticized District 3 schools for having too much crossover between zones—parents exercising too much choice. Now, Eva Moskowitz and her supporters assert that parents have not been made aware of their choices, and that’s why the public schools need to be turned over to her chain of charters. Her message: Give HSA the real estate quickly, even before Moskowitz's first schools’ achievements have been measured, and don’t ask too many questions.

If we want to go the charter school route, why support one franchise over the others? Has anybody invited Kipp Academy or Democracy Prep, or potential new charters like the French American Academy, to apply to occupy PS 241’s beautiful building? DOE officials told our District Leadership Team that proposals had been submitted for new public schools, as well, but the DLT's request to see these proposals went unanswered. Parent leaders would like to be part of such a discussion as the basis for responsible policy. The DOE has avoided public consultation on the use of school buildings, even though such consultation is mandated by state law. The Charter Schools Institute at SUNY seems more than willing to give their approval based on the patently staged cheerleading exhibition at PS 241 last week. That is not great policy-making.

Meanwhile, members of Harlem Parents United continued to attack those who disagree with them: A press release issued yesterday castigated District 5's CEC as "so-called" elected parent leaders ("supposed to represent all parents in our community") for "trying to deny parent voice" by slowing the spread of charter schools. Kyesha Bennett, who represents Harlem Parents United, is a Harlem Success parent, shoring up the perception that HSA wants to dominate the Harlem schools conversation. Note: In a democracy, elected officials are chosen by a majority of voters, which is how they're elected. Other voters are entitled to have their own opinions. Rarely if ever do elected officials share the views of every single constituent.