The Western New York Maritime Charter School in Buffalo is being investigated by the state Education Department for tampering with high school Regents exams, as reported in today's Buffalo News.

Some perspective is in order. Maritime itself discovered the test tampering and reported to the state Education Department. The Department had Erie 1 BOCES superintendent Donald Ogilvie investigate. He faulted the school for "almost fundamental mismanagement of test administration." But, Supt. Ogilvie believes the school is committed to correcting the problems. Note, for example, that the two staff at the school that were responsible for administering the test have since "resigned." There is no "rubber room" at Maritime.

WNY Maritime Charter School opened in 2004 and had a host of problems early on, which are recounted in the News. The current head of school, retired Marine Colonel Larry Astyk, began in 2007 as the fourth leader. He is responsible for the school's remarkable turnaround, and is credited by the Education Department for the school's improvements. The Regents last December granted a four-year renewal of its charter.

The test tampering case is a setback for the school from a public relations standpoint, even though it acted correctly and forthrightly to correct the matter. NYSUT president, Richard Iannuzzi made sure to exploit the situation. In fact, it's uncanny how the head of a 600,000-member statewide teachers union in nearly 700 school districts gets so preoccupied with piling on a negative charter school story. The Buffalo News story alotted him plenty of space to do so.

Mr. Iannuzzi asserted to the News that there are supposedly severe weaknesses in the monitoring and licensing of charter schools and that test tampering improprieties were "uncovered much more rapidly" at traditional public schools. This is bloviating, but also an acknowledgement from the NYSUT president that indeed the same problems have occurred in district schools. As to the charter oversight and renewal process, a school district would cringe at the thought of having to undergo the rigor of what charter schools endure from the state; if they did, Iannuzzi could not make such an assertion with a straight face.

Has NYSUT Ever Been to Uniondale or Yonkers?
On the subject of test tampering, has Mr. Iannuzzi ever been to Uniondale, Long Island? How about Yonkers? Those are two of several school districts that had major test tampering investigations in the last few years. Was Mr. Iannuzzi on his soapbox then, wringing his hands over the laxity in those places involving district officials and faculty?

Contrary to Mr. Iannuzzi's sanctimonious claims, there is not a single proposed change in the state's charter law having to do with "transparency and accountability" that that would have affected or prevented what occurred at Maritime, especially since charter schools have as much or more transparency and accountability than any district school. That won't stop Mr. Iannuzzi from making baseless assertions since he will exploit any bad charter press as a reason to advance his negative legislative agenda to shackle charter schools.

Ultimately, issues of test tampering require conscientious faculty and leadership to report wrongdoing, which is what occurred at Martime and in the Yonkers school district, for example. When the discussion involves charter schools, it is too much to expect Mr. Iannuzzi to be conscientious about anything when the opposite comes so naturally to him.

Peter Murphy
for The Chalkboard
twitter.com/petermurphy26
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