I am late posting this article because it appeared about the time I started dealing with health issues (a bad fall that took out the ACL in my left knee).
It deserves wide reading because it is an accurate portrait of the money and power behind the charter school movement. I commend the writers, Javier C. Hernandez and Susanne Craig for getting the story that took place behind closed doors in Albany and executive suites in Manhattan. It is the best investigative report that I have seen in the “New York Times” on the money fueling the charter movement.
it answers a few basic questions? Why did Governor Cuomo take the lead in fighting to “save” charter schools after Mayor Bill de Blasio approved 14 out of 17 new charters? How did it happen that Eva Moskowitz bused thousands of students and parents to Albany on the very same day that Mayor de Blasio had scheduled a rally to support pre-kindergarten funding? Which billionaires and millionaires put up more than $5 million to create and air attack ads on television against de Blasio? Who masterminded the deal that gave charter schools preferred status over public schools in New York City? Who arranged that they could not be charged rent, that they could expand and push public school kids out of their buildings, and that the city had to pay their rent if they opened in private space?
Spoiler alert:
The deal in the legislature “gave New York City charter schools some of the most sweeping protections in the nation, including a right to space inside public buildings. And interviews with state and city officials as well as education leaders make it clear that far from being a mere cheerleader, the governor was a potent force at every turn, seizing on missteps by the mayor, a fellow Democrat, and driving legislation from start to finish.”
Money was always a potent factor in the backroom dealings:
“A lot was riding on the debate for Mr. Cuomo. A number of his largest financial backers, some of the biggest names on Wall Street, also happened to be staunch supporters of charter schools. According to campaign finance records, Mr. Cuomo’s re-election campaign has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from charter school supporters, including William A. Ackman, Carl C. Icahn, Bruce Kovner and Daniel Nir.
Kenneth G. Langone, a founder of Home Depot who sits on a prominent charter school board, gave $50,000 to Mr. Cuomo’s campaign last year. He said that when the governor asked him to lead a group of Republicans supporting his re-election, he agreed because of Mr. Cuomo’s support for charter schools.
“Every time I am with the governor, I talk to him about charter schools,” Mr. Langone said in an interview. “He gets it.”
And more is on the way, not only for Cuomo, who not only delivered for the billionaires who love charters, but for Eva Moskowitz, who will not only get a 8 new charters–not just the 5 that de Blasio originally approved–but lots of extra money, which will not be used to pay rent:
“Daniel S. Loeb, the founder of the hedge fund Third Point and the chairman of Success Academy’s board, began leaning on Wall Street executives for donations. Later this month, he will host a fund-raiser for Success Academy at Cipriani in Midtown Manhattan; tickets run as high as $100,000 a table.”
Moskowitz claims that her schools don’t spend any more than real public schools, so it remains to be seen how she pans to spend the millions that Dan Loeb will raise for her schools in a single night.
And the sweetest part of the deal for Moskowitz’s Success Academy 4 in Harlem is that her elementary school can now expand to a middle school and take more space away from PS 149, which was once considered the host school. First, she can evict the kids with severe disabilities (her own charter has none), then, thanks to Governor Cuomo, she can evict all the other students and take the entire school away, if she wishes. Sort of like a parasite that grows and grows.
OMG…they have NO SHAME or ETHICS!
Diane,
This is a clear example of why we can’t let this parasite continue to take hold and feed upon our public schools. Way to go Govenor Cuomo.
The only remaining question is what can be done to mount a successful election campaign to dump Cuomo. Lacking such a campaign, the public school situation must continue to deteriorate; as if it it isn’t bad enough already. We keep returning to the role of educators, unions, parents and communities to initiate a dump Cuomo movement. It appears that BDP has been marginalized and undercut in implementing his reform agenda. Following Diane’s postings on the Cuomo charter school power play has been an exercise in discouragement, pessimism and roiling anger.
Why aren’t more teachers active in protesting against Cuomo’s actions? You know the union leadership won’t organize anything so why not people at the local school level? It seems like the teachers just keep taking every punch and do nothing about it. Why wouldn’t Cuomo keep doing it when he knows he can do anything and the union won’t fight back and they will keep voting for him. So pathetic. I honestly don’t understand why and teacher would cast a vote for him. It is just a vote against the future of public schools. He is helping the charter industry grow and destroy the local schools. He is useless.
and they will keep voting for him.
NO THEY WON;T
Until people take to the streets in Albany and it gets MEDIA COVERAGE, these POS will NOT care.
They don’t answer to us, they answer to the billionaires.
POS?
Please explain for those of us who are AI*.
AI = Acronym Impaired
Pieces of Sh**.
What does TAGO mean?
That’s A Good One!
Thanks LP for the response.
My purpose in asking was to see if the word “shit” would actually be used. Someone please explain the difference in meaning and/or the advantages of using “POS” versus “Pieces of Shit” other than the “polite company” thing.
Oh! TAGO should have been obvious to me; I really AM acronym impaired! Thanks, Duane!
Did you notice in the article that other Democrats abandoned de Blasio? What a bunch of sell-outs. Cuomo is rotten. The rest of the Dems are absolutely useless.
You need huge numbers that continue to meet time and time again to put the heat on.
And until the UNIONS start making real noise, nothing will change
Exactly. And they just keep taking our dues and selling us out for a “seat at the table.” They don’t realize, or don’t care, that it’s a seat at the kiddie table and all they’re getting for selling us out is more of the same. It’s appalling.
THEY DON’T CARE. Our union leaders and politicians are selling us all out and they know it.
They’ll say all the right things at election time. After that just assume the position again.
Perhaps our union leaders will take notice once the are impeached at the upcoming conventions. We cannot change direction when our leadership colludes with those whose intent is to eliminate us.
The big money people have gained control and unless there is a movement to change this, we’re not going to be heard. Destroying unions was what has stopped our voices. People would meet and discuss issues, not those working at minimum wage, don’t have this luxury.
So many union members do not understand what “power” the unions actually have and do not have. Unions cannot fight regulatory mandates–they can only lobby elected officials to take a position on one issue or another. They also can support candidates through PAC–not dues–money.
The people have the power in the regulatory arena. People fight big money. Union PACs, again NOT dues, can only put support behind campaigns to help get public education-friendly candidates elected and to inform them on the issues.
Unions are only as powerful as the law allows them to be. The people need to take a stand and stop expecting that unions can change regulatory mandates. State appointed officials do not listen to unions. State elected officials do. Time to get the people organized.
Cuomo must go. The Dems have abandoned their values, so how can you support your union to find another candidate to run against him? THAT’S where you should be putting your energy. All politics are local…start there.
“In the final hours of negotiations, Mr. Cuomo successfully got the protections he was seeking, giving additional money to other schools to seal the deal. “Nobody said being mayor of New York is easy,” the governor said on Monday as he announced details of the budget. “Nobody said being governor of New York is easy. And it is not easy. But it’s all’s well that ends well.”
Victory!
Except for the public school kids already in those schools. Oh, well. Winners and losers, and they’re the losers. Suck it up, 2nd graders.
They may as well learn now who owns their elected representatives, rather than later.
We need to have an election where capture of politicians by monied interests is the major issue. I think that’s the one thing the public could still actually achieve, making that the central issue in a national election. Politicians in both Parties will fight like hell to avoid it, but I think it could be done if the public demanded coverage from media. It’s time. Past time. It’s not even subtle or hidden anymore. There’s a story like this behind every single policy decision, it seems. It’s everywhere. In every state and in DC.
This made me smile:
“But last week, in a move that could do political damage to the governor in an election year, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara asked the commission to turn over its files so that he could see whether further investigations need to be pursued.”
The US Attorneys in NY and NJ are rather… focused on the governors, aren’t they? 🙂
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/gov-cuomo-disbanding-anti-corruption-commission-curbed-administration-sources-article-1.1754675#ixzz2ym4M9QCB
Methinks there’s a connection here… Hundreds of thousands of dollars funneled into a campaign war chest looks like corruption to me… BUT… I’m sorry to say this but I doubt that the US government attorney is too interested in finding shady links between for profit charter contributors and governors… they seem to be reluctant to find any criminal intent in Wall Street’s shenanigans leading up to the stock market crash even though the evidence is hidden in plain sight.
We have an oligarchy instead of a democracy now.
Plutocratic oligarchy or oligarchical plutocracy, you decide!
Plutocratic oligarchical kleptocracy
It shows that Cuomo’s main focus is to serve himself and Wall Street. I would love to hear what advice came from Clinton. He helped charters spread.
And it looks more and more like the next Presidential election will be Clinton vs. Bush. We have no choices at all.
You can move to Canada
Each for-profit charter is an Industry onto itself which supports its creators and their followers. Educators who ‘mess with’ their ability to make $M run the risk of being harmed. It is at that level. These people are not in it to help poor little kids…it’s the $M!! Beginning to feel like organized crime…dramatic interpretation it may be, but it is all about Big Money – RealBigMoney! The more we interfere, the more dangerous it may become. Today, they hack into the OptOut account, railroad deBlasio and collect billionaires galore. There are many more billionaires where these come from. It is out of control.
Never heard of $100,000 table fundraising for public school children. What we could have done to create ‘dynomite’ programs for children. They insisted children did not need it. They were right, billionaires related to charters needed the money. Of course, why didn’t we get that from the start? We keep hoping that decent people will put a stop to this madness, but nobody has the power to stop billionaires. Possibly, other billionaires?
Looking for $100,000 tables to stop the gravy train! Any takers?
Diane, I hope you’re feeling better, so sorry to hear about your fall. Take some TLC time off and just enjoy the flowers, birds and warmer weather.
Until our union leaders and politicians start making REAL noise about APPR, especially NYC’s APPR, charter expansion, Eva, Common Core, abusive administrators and testing horrors – NOTHING WILL CHANGE..
They have the PR machines to make the noise they need – it’s time to start putting teachers and students first.
As I posted earlier, perhaps it is time to impeach the union leadership since they have done such a stellar job of “not” representing their members. Why has there not been a large demonstration comprised of teachers, parents, and students organized in Albany? Wouldn’t it be great if 40,000 parents, students, and teachers gathered and the governor ignored it? Wouldn’t that be a political elucidation?
It is up at Oped, Quicklink: Cuomo Played Pivotal Role in Charter School Push – By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ and SUSANNE CRAIG | OpEdNews
and on my Facebook timeline.
On a personal level it makes me so sad. I saw this coming years ago when my career was sabotaged just as I was a celebrated teacher. Also, as a reader of Leonie Haimison’s NYC Educator group, I watched it happen.
It is like a great tsunami of money that is taking over the nation’s schools, and nothing spells the end of democracy like an ignorant public, especially a stressed citizenry that gets all its news through a propaganda network (think Germany in 1939).
BUT>>> The propaganda tool that works today is unlike any in history… a virtual window– in the room where our citizens finally relax– is a huge, entertaining, color screen which pours out lies and complex issues in a mix that few citizens can parse. The corruption is revealed daily but people throw up their hands because they are drowning. I read about the governmental corruption at Oped news, where so many brilliant political minds uncover the truth http://www.opednews.com/populum/showtags.php?tid=7697&tag=/Government+Corruption
We teachers cannot throw up our hands… the least we can do is say NO! Enough! And, here is the truth…!”
Sadly, politics destroys more than education in the community. Cities are transformed into skyscrapers, filled with businesses and condos and high-end stores, driving the old, culturally rich, and diverse communities out and leaving mom & pop stores to evaporate (job loss, homeless, self-identify removed). These corporations have no empathy but to only to create low-end jobs for the people they’ve displaced. Did coporations give these people a voice in working together to “improve” the city? Of course not. They are treated like wildlife that are driven to live in smaller and smaller natural environments,as their habitat shinks which goes for the same as students and their families and educators. There is the cause and effect element that corporations are responsible for but manage to evade. Politicians are plenty guilty of these crimes of inequality because of their ties to coporations.
This post is an example of many how politicians are only concerned with winning and not just for election purposes. It’s a disgraceful mobster mentally when you can buy people off with money not just to defeat your opponent but subjugate the livelihoods of people trying to survive the fallout. I know our discussion is centered around education. But If members of these communities afflicted by politics came together, just imagine all of the injustices that could be enumerated along with education.
We have ample proof that the AFT works hard for it’s main constituency Bill Gates. We need to organize outside of the unions. We are a national force.
its I phone corrected me
Andrew Cuomo is a corporate (w)hore. Here in Illinois, the cable stations air commercials urging companies to relocate to New York State, where they don’t have to pay state taxes for 10 years. The ads brazenly state the 10-year corporate tax dodge.
Cuomo see himself eventually warming the seat in the Oval Office. I hope the good people of NY can derail Cuomo’s political ambitions ASAP.
Also,just thought about this …. couldn’t parents of students with IEP file suit when their students are disabled because they are being denied a Free ,Appropriate Public Education? (FAPE)
The commercials are out in Utah, too. Knowing what I know about the horrific state of education funding in New York (thanks, Diane!), I want to throw a brick at my TV.
Unfortunately Cuomo seemed like a ‘lesser of 2 evils” vote. As I remember NYSUT didn’t support either candidate. Both parties are educationally corrupt. Don’t trust the unions who created the middle class, I’m a “politician”, you can trust me! Cuomo claimed he was the lobbyist for NY’s kids, he just didn’t clarify that it was only for 3% of the kids.
Andrew Cuomo is the devil incarnate.
He makes Chris Christie look like Pee Wee Herman.
But like all bullies, he will sleep in the bed he’s made where the closet he will ever come to the presidency is in his dreams.
When DeBlasio was being backstabbed by Cuomo, an article in the NYT stated that Bill thought of Cuomo as his “friend”. The reporter filled in the obvious: Cuomo has no friends. A man with no friends has burned way too many bridges to make anywhere near the White House.
This was a successful case of Bill DeBlasio being made an object lesson in what will happen to any elected official who tries to slow down the privatization train.
De Blasio gave the charter industry most of what it wanted, and he was still savaged in the media. That message was not just intended for him, but for any politician who might be so foolish as to suggest that the Overclass doesn’t have a God-given right to smash and grab everything it wants.
What made things worse was the glaring silence of the UFT/AFT in all this. They said and did nothing while a law that harms the public schools and, incidentally, may result in large membership losses was passed. In an newsletter to his constituents, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver bemoaned the giveaways to the charter industry, but said he could not stop them because he had no one on his side of the table to back him up.
Where were Michael Mulgrew and Randi Weingarten in all this? Oh, that’s right, they were maneuvering to successfully take over NYSUT, because the then-incumbents were starting to resist Cuomo and King.
Michael Fiorillo: “It is not the answer that enlightens but the question.” [Ionesco]
😎
Anyone else see a connection between Cuomo’s sacrifice of comptroller Dinapoli andDiNapis audit and questioning of fiscal practices ofAlbany charter schools?
So many times the supporters of charters and privatization and BBC choice come on this blog to fume and rant. So many times to denounce what they consider unfair practices and demands and expectations from the advocates of public education.
But where are their objections and cautions when ‘big gubment’ with its political enablers of ‘crony capitalism’ rig the ‘free market’ to favor eduprenuers in mad dog pursuit of $tudent $ucce$$ using every weapon in their edubully arsenal against public schools?
Those old Greek guys knew the type long long ago:
“Your silence gives consent.” [Plato]
Another resounding answer to your question, Dee Dee: “Have they no shame?????”
None. Absolutely none at all.
😎
But, KTA, Have they no sham?
NY Teacher: VAM is a favorite sham of theirs.
Keeping in mind, of course, that they will never ever in a million years abandon their principled Marxist stance:
“The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
Yes, yes, yes. Groucho. Why does anyone ask anymore?
😎
Remember what Freud said. “There’s no such thing as a joke.”
What is truly sad is that Andrew Cuomo has totally abandoned the principles his father championed his entire life. Well I guess money can buy anything.
Found our theme song (Woody Guthrie):
I’m gonna tell you fascists
You may be surprised
The people in this world
Are getting organized
You’re bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose
Race hatred cannot stop us
This one thing we know
Your poll tax and Jim Crow
And greed has got to go
You’re bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose.
All of you fascists bound to lose:
I said, all of you fascists bound to lose:
Yes sir, all of you fascists bound to lose:
You’re bound to lose! You fascists:
Bound to lose!
People of every color
Marching side to side
Marching ‘cross these fields
Where a million fascists dies
You’re bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose!
I’m going into this battle
And take my union gun
We’ll end this world of slavery
Before this battle’s won
You’re bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose!
Read more: Woody Guthrie – All You Fascists Lyrics | MetroLyrics
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