<!--StartFragment-->The hundreds of kindergarteners on waiting lists for schools all over the city are not the only sign of crowding in the schools, as many schools fear being forced to open extra classes in rooms that are now used for art and music. Rather than looking for the source of these failures in enrollment projections or capital planning, the Department of Educationis going on the offensive against parents. In this case, their target is parents and parent associations who fund part-time arts, chess, and assistant teachers to make up for DOE shortfalls. The new DOE approach threatens to end services for hundreds if not thousands of children.

In a series of letters and school visits, the DOE has asserted that parents must hand their money over to DOE, subject to DOE rules about timing and amounts, before that money can be used to pay for part time aides and enrichment. A few years ago Klein abolished Project Arts, the program that used to reserve funds to ensure that all public school kids would receive music, dance, and visual arts. Now the DOE is trying to crack down on parents’ efforts to provide access to these fundamentals of a decent education.<!--more-->

The Post slammed these “rogue” parents, who refused to accept DOE attempts to take enrichment out of public education. The fact that a fair measure of the children receiving the benefits of these parent-provided services are eligible for free or reduced lunch seems of curiously little interest to the DOE. It seems that music and chess are fabulous if they’re provided by a charter school (the Broad Foundation recently gave $2.5 millionto two charter networks that tout "crucial developmental programs" like arts and chess), but are a problem when the fundraising is done by public school parents at mainstream DOE schools.

Tomorrow night, parents will get another chance to speak when Betsy Gotbaum and Assembly member Linda Rosenthal hold a Town Hall on the Upper West Side. Parents can hope that Ms. Gotbaum and Ms. Rosenthal will find a way to prevent DOE from demolishing yet another shard of parent involvement in the New York public school system.<!--EndFragment-->