High Stakes Charter School Lottery Prompts Anxiety for Harlem Families

Hundreds of nervous parents, crying babies, and squirming children gathered into a large gym Thursday evening and scanned the projection screens for a familiar name—the key to an education at the Harlem Success Academy Charter School.

Yet during the course of the anxiety-filled charter school’s lottery, the bright orange and blue balloons could not detract attention from the reality that many would leave without a winning ticket in hand, bound instead for a struggling New York public school. The event underscored the challenge of Harlem parents to provide their children with an exceptional education on budgets that make a private education impossible.

Taking the stage at the Regiment Armory on 143rd Street, State Governor David Paterson opened the event by reminding the crowd of his roots. Having grown up in Harlem and now at the head of state politics, Paterson pointed out the need for the rest of the state to recognize the difficulties confronting the New York City schools, which serve 1.1 million students.

Students were selected randomly, a fact that emphasized fairness but also highlighted the seeming powerlessness of families hoping to provide a proper education for their children.

Preference is given in the lottery to children living in the charter schools’ districts, and an automatic spot is reserved for siblings of children selected. Charter schools, which do not fall under the domain of the Department of Education, receive funding from outside donors and typically allow for the development of more enrichment and college-preparation programs.

“Parents shouldn’t just be assigned to schools that may have been failing for years,” said Eva Moskowitz, CEO of the Success Charter Network and former chair of the City Council Education Committee. Parents of students already attending HSA spoke encouragingly about the benefits of being able to choose a charter school education for their children.

As they emphasized the need for charter schools, parents stressed their impatience with a public school system mired in bureaucracy that fails to improve and with politicians who seem not to care. “Our children are not failing,” another HSA mother said. “The system [of public schools] is failing our children.” She called education “the last frontier of civil rights.”

James Mtume of KISS FM and city Schools Chancellor Joel Klein appeared as keynote speakers. “We send our children to schools that have become factories for failure. We’ve been conditioned to think we can’t change it,” Mtume said.

“Over 4,000 people, and most of us are going to go home unfulfilled. I can feel the anxiety in this room,” he said, picking up on the mounting tension in the room as families awaited the lottery results. East Harlem resident Nefty Martinez said that his first-grade son was “just too nervous to come” to the lottery that night.

HSA Dean of Students Khari Shabazz announced the names of future kindergarten, first-, and second-grade students, beginning with those “who will graduate college in 2025”—rising kindergartners.

“I’m excited,” Yolette Clarke said, whose son was selected with the kindergarten class. “When he got it, I screamed.”

By the end of the night, many smiled as they clutched their “golden tickets”—symbols of their selection—perhaps already imagining their children in the orange and blue HSA uniforms.

Anthony Gaston, Bronx resident and father of another future HSA kindergartner, felt hopeful. “I want him to have a bright future. I want him to have it better than I did,” he said.

But others left only with a 28-page waiting list. Moskowitz reminded parents not to give up, telling them that many students had a good chance of being bumped from the waiting list.

Nicole White, a Harlem resident whose son attends HSA but whose nephew was not selected, gestured toward a family member. “He’s pretty upset because we didn’t get in. Hopefully, we’ll get in from the wait list. His [her nephew’s] numbers are pretty high,” she said.

White reflected back to her experience with the charter schools just two years ago: “There’s a whole lot of people this year. When it started, we were in a little church basement.”

The news was more devastating for lifelong Harlem resident Sharon Stacy, who reacted initially with anger. “I’m raising my grandnephew and I’m coming here for what is called a lottery. [Wait list] Number 711? He’s not going to get in,” she said, turning to Moskowitz for an explanation. When a current HSA parent tried to comfort her, Stacy broke into tears. “It seems like the more I try with this child, the more I get pushed back.”

“This is the part that just breaks my heart,” HSA parent Lanette Williams said. “We want everyone to get a chance and when they don’t, it just breaks your heart.”

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