A polarizing group won nearly 40 percent of seats on New York City’s parent councils today, pulling those councils rightward amid an ongoing debate over integration and diversity in schools. Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education (PLACE) won 115 seats on NYC’s community education councils (CECs) according to results released Friday, ChalkBeat reported. The councils oversee educational decisions including school zoning issues, which play a critical role in how NYC’s school districts (which often have highly disparate racial and economic makeups) are drawn. Ahead of the little-watched CEC election, left-leaning parent groups accused PLACE of being a right-wing voice in the culture wars, with its members promoting more openly far-right groups like Moms for Liberty and comparing so-called “critical race theory” to Nazi teachings. The group’s co-president called city schools an “oppressor woke environment where DOE employees make them pledge allegiance to their LGBTQI+ religion.” One of the group’s central platforms is endorsing school placement exams that critics have claimed create an unfair barrier to students from disenfranchised communities.
