This is a video made by students at Middletown High School in New York.
It is addressed to Governor Cuomo, who once called himself “the students’ lobbyist.”
The students know he is not their lobbyist.
He is the lobbyist for the 3% of children in New York state who attend charter schools.
He is not the lobbyist for the students in Middletown High School.
Contrary to what Governor Cuomo thinks, our students are smart.
They can tell what is real and what is fake.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is a very memorable video. Thanks for posting this, Diane.
The youth of the public school system are the backbones of democracy. Cuomo better listen because these are the kids that will show strength in numbers when they go to vote.
Love the lyrics! I would sing No Mo Cuomo all day.
So would I
If they could shell out a million for his campaign coffers I’m sure he would listen. Maybe the district could ship all the kids up to his office and make a massive protest like Eva’s exploitation of school kids.
So sadly true!
These are the kids who have no billionaire supporting them but I still believe that they will be heard by the most humblest people out there – the public school advocates.
Out of the voices of children come truth.
Inspiring.
Across the nation schools are hurting, especially the low income, minority schools. We know the country is hurting but these are our kids come on now. Make our schools whole. They have been trimming the fat for years and now year after year it’s another program. You can’t expect this diverse country to compete with homogeneous countries around the globe especially when we are cutting their programs. Common core, good idea lets do it right, and give it time. This is a national problem now. Thank you Middletown for speaking out! We all should.
Be careful how we formulate Cuomo’s stance. No, he isn’t “the lobbyist for the 3% of children in New York state who attend charter schools.”
He’s exploiting those kids, too, as well as all the others Eva has driven right over in her triumphant procession to her six-figure salary. There is no need to set the children’s interest against each other.
chemtchr: the video was well done and heartfelt but I think your caution on that line in the posting is a needed one.
Let’s remember the math.
At last count, Eva M makes $485,000 @year for 6700 students in 20 schools = $485,000 ÷ 6700 = $72.39@student [rounded off to the nearest penny].
Carmen F makes $212,000 @year as the School Chancellor of 1,100,000 students in hundreds of schools = $212,000 ÷ 1,100,000 = $0.19@student [rounded off to the nearest penny]
Eva M makes 381 times @student compared to Carmen F @student.
As the charterites/privatizers—including those who push their eduproducts on this blog—gleefully and worshipfully point out, Eva M is worth every penny [if not more!] and Carmen F, well, ‘nuff said…
Yes, Eva M is in for the students, and why not—while that fool Carmen F is willing to settle for 19¢ per, Eva M squeezes more than $70 out of every single last one of her “most precious assets” [channelling Michelle Rhee].
$aint Eva! One angelic halo, coming right up!
😏
Link: Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/nyregion/gilded-crusade-for-charters-rolls-onward.html?_r=0
Thank you for your comments.
😎
Thanks for the math that accompanies the powerful song!
fantastic video! I shared on my facebook page and hopefully this video will go viral for all of our kids in NYS!
The lyrics put Cuomo in the spotlight. This will get his attention and others. How can he defend his twisted agenda? Music can change the world.
awesome
Terrific song and wonderful kids! Look what a difference empowered students look like compared to the kids made into robots by military-style, no-excuses charters in the “WBT” and Relay “Graduate School” videos.
If they want to keep their jobs, politicians need to remember that kids are very aware of favoritism and the 96% subjected to inequitable policies will soon become voters…
I shared this great video on my FB page.
“Dave Levin, a founder of KIPP Public Charter Schools who was appointed to Mr. de Blasio’s school space committee, said he was hopeful the mayor could find common ground, perhaps by joining with charter schools in his push to expand prekindergarten in the city.
“There’s a lot of opportunity there for sharing and learning from each other,” Mr. Levin said.”
None of that pre-k funding will go to public schools. The pre-k funding will be just another subsidy to charters.
I think it’s a real mistake to regulate charter schools at the state level, as they are (now) doing in NYC. It’s been an absolute disaster in OH, MI, FL and AZ.
They do it to get around local elected officials, but it’s a terrible way to to govern a privately-owned, publicly-funded system.
Which NYC will now find out 🙂
When no-excuses charter schools like KIPP start implementing military-style tactics on PreK children and try to turn those kids into obedient robots, will people finally come to their senses and acknowledge that this is child abuse? I have lost faith in the commitment of Americans to the rights and best interests of children and highly doubt it.
Ohio authorizes charter schools at the state level, as NY is now doing. This is how it ends up:
“After resigning this year as superintendent of a financially troubled Internet charter school amid allegations of nepotism, James McCord had a new plan, and it again involved a charter school employing him and his family.
This summer, McCord opened eight Olympus charter schools, including four in Columbus. They would be managed by a for-profit corporation formed by McCord called Education Innovations International, or EII, which would get most of the state money each month, own all the schools’ property and employ all the workers.
His wife, brother, children and an in-law all had jobs with the company, former employees said.
And again, it all collapsed. The school’s sponsor suspended it last month.
Olympus’ sponsor was a Cincinnati orphanage, St. Aloysius, which also sponsors 45 other charter schools. But St. Aloysius has little to do with overseeing them. Instead, the orphanage contracts out the oversight to a Pickerington company, Charter School Specialists.
That company also worked for McCord as his schools’ treasurer. In other words, McCord hired the same firm that acted as his watchdog. Charter School Specialists was required to report to itself by email each month on the operation’s finances.”
They don’t have the staff or desire to regulate thousands of individual schools at the state level, so they simply don’t regulate them.
Charter operators must know this, since this has now happened in OH, FL, MI and AZ when they changed state law to get past local regulation, as they just did in NY.
You’re next.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/11/19/ohios-1-2m-propped-up-owners-2nd-charter-bust.html
Thanks for posting this. It’s all over FB and websites of people in Orange County, NY and needs to keep spreading. The voiceover is Middletown Superintendent Ken Eastwood, who has been speaking out for over a year now, and was recorded at a rally for fair funding this past fall. Tomorrow their school district will join the Newburgh and Valley Central school districts in another rally for funding at the offices of the legislators who have sold out on us. Middletown is sending two busloads to this rally; Newburgh will run shuttles for 2 hours, and sent out 11,000 robocalls to district parents, teachers, and staff asking for support. The bus company is donating their services to both districts. The parents are awakening, the teachers are mobilizing, and this is only a prelude to November. We will be singing No Mo Cuomo on the lawn together tomorrow, and in November. ^o^
This video is a huge publicity stunt orchestrated by the superintendent of Middletown schools, who has spent every penny of our district’s grant monies on frivolous, extraneous additions to our schools, including (but not limited to):
a multimillion dollar football stadium, complete with astroturf (if you know anything about athletics, you know how bad running on turf is for developing bodies)
a new elementary school with a large pond, an indoor elevated track akin to what you’d see on a college campus, but not enough money to keep all the teachers
iPads for staff and students (mostly bought using the Race to the Top grant money the district won last year; however, training for use in the classroom was never fully implemented, and staff has been told to use their own money when purchasing apps.
Not to mention that this superintendent has gotten a raise every single year he has been in charge, and is now making close to $300,000 in a district of roughly 8,000 students. Please, get the facts out there, don’t let more get duped.
Oh! And a teacher wrote these lyrics, not a student.