NYC NOW - May 3, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: May 3, 2023

Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed Khairullah is pushing back after he was denied entry to Eid celebrations at the White House, which he says is part of a larger, discriminatory pattern. Celebrate Brooklyn has announced its lineup for the summer. Plus, voting is currently underway in New York City for parents to serve on Community Education Councils or CECs. The group contributes to important decisions about city schools and represents the interests of any given school district to its local superintendent. This year’s election runs through May 9th.

Good evening and welcome to NYC now. I'm Jene Pierre for WNYC. We begin in New Jersey, where a Muslim mayor is pushing back after he was denied entry to Eid celebrations at the White House, something he says is part of a larger discriminatory pattern. Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed Karula contends his last-minute ouster from celebrations on Pennsylvania Avenue happened because he's on a government no-fly watch list.

Mayor Karula says the list has also changed the way he travels. To be 100% randomly selected every single time I go to the airport is just not a coincidence. He's calling on the White House to put an end to the list. The Secret Service acknowledged Karula was barred but did not comment further. Celebrate Brooklyn is around the corner. WNYC's precious fondron shares what to expect this summer. Prospect Park's Lena Horn Band's, Shell will come alive this summer when Brick Celebrate Brooklyn kicks off on June 7.

This year's festival includes more than 20 free and benefit concerts, dance performances, and celebrations for Juneteenth and hip-hop's 50th anniversary. Artists scheduled to perform include blues artist Taj Mahal, Neil Sol Krooner Stokely, and alternative singer Kalela. But executive producer Diane Eber says, even if you haven't heard of a performer, take a chance. So my other pro tip has come early and see the openers because every artist, that we put on this stage has been so intentional and connects to the other artists on the stage.

Celebrate Brooklyn runs through August 24th. Stick around. There's more after the break. In New York City, voting is currently underway for parents to serve on community education councils, or CECs. The group contributes to important decisions about city schools and represents the interests of any given school district to its local superintendent. This year's election runs through May 9th, and it's only the second time parents get to vote directly for board members. Only 2% of eligible voters participated in last year's election, and that's had tangible implications. WNYC's Brian Laird talked with Safia Riddle, interned for the city, for more. She begins the conversation explaining what CECs do and who they represent.

CECs are a largely advisory group of 12 members. this year. Previously, it had been 11 members, but in January, the Banks administration added a member to represent District 75 students. District 75 special ed students, basically, right? That's correct. That's correct. So these councils are composed of mostly public school parents, and then there are two seats on each council that are also appointed by the borough president and by the public advocate. So these councils can make decisions on, you know, accessibility in schools, on, you know, curriculum. And they have, the only thing that they have a binding boat on is creating and making changes to school district zone or school zones. So, Safia, now let's look at one of the groups that's exerted some influence here, parent leaders for accelerated curriculum and education or place.

What is place and who does it count as its member? and what does it believe in? So, 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 kind of dismantling and rethinking the way that we use these systems to admit students into middle and high schools. And that was in large part from a push from proponents of integration because New York city has some of the most segregated schools across the country. So Place formed on the basis of

protecting the selective admissions programs and expanding gifted and talented programs. 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 a majority on the citywide high school district. And 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 kind of national polarizing education issues to kind of characterize these local education issues. So, for example, do they get explicit on things we might associate with

Rhonda Santis or Glenn Yonkin, the governor of Virginia, raising critical race theory, whether or not it's actually being taught in the schools, raising opposition to acknowledging LGBTQ students or families. Do those things come up from place explicitly or implicitly? Absolutely. And a lot of it is fairly explicit and has been very shocking, I think, to a lot of parents citywide. So 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. And a lot of these groups for this type

advocacy have gotten nods from larger national organizations that kind of represent the resistance to the push to have more culturally sensitive education across our schools. And right here in New York City in these elections for Community Education Council in the various neighborhood school districts. Who is eligible to vote in Community Education Council elections? So each parent gets one vote per child. So if you have children in two different school districts, you can vote for each of those children in each respective school district. And both parents can actually vote as long as they have separate DOE accounts. And 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. How do you register? How do you vote? You vote on the DOE school app, which all parents use for things like admissions and frequently receive information about their school and the various processes in admin that are required to keep your kid in a New York City public school. So all parents should have the app where you vote. But there's also physical locations. So if parents would prefer to use those, they can go to their school and ask an administrator there. That's Sophia Riddell. interned for the city, talking with WNYC's Brian Lairor.

Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. We'll be back tomorrow.