The New York Times has a fascinating article today about how a handful of very wealthy people invested in Andrew Cuomo and the Republican majority in the State Senate to gain control of public schools in Néw York City and state. The article says they want to continue former Mayor Bloomberg’s policies of closing public schools and replacing them with charter schools and tying teacher evaluations to test scores.
The leader of this effort, the story says, is former chancellor Joel Klein, who now works for rightwing media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Unmentioned is the undemocratic nature of this purchase of public policy. There was a mayoral election. Bill de Blasio won handily, after making clear his opposition to Bloomberg’s education policies. So, the reformers lost at the polls but used their money to nullify the voters’ choice.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It would seem that buying governors and senators is a good investment.
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This is the result when too much money is redistributed upward, and is too few hands…like Murdoch, Bloomberg, and all the other billionaires who are parties to this scheme. What a brilliant plan it is to use taxpayers money to finance their private free market endeavors which reward them with huge returns, but they never pay back the American public by paying any taxes themselves. This exceeds the robber barons like JP Morgan for it creates a perpetual underclass of robot workers.
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Ellen–
since neither party can overcome this issue, what is the answer for our country? What law or amendment or practice would have to be change for things to function better?
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de Blasio caved much too easily without a fight. The public would’ve supported him in my opinion.
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The public did support him – Cuomo singlehandedly nullified his power and made the charter situation in NYC worse.
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Why is this shocking to anyone?
When Cuomo, Bloomberg, Klein, etc. are fully aware that they will have no real pushback or political consequences of any substance, why not?
They are as undemocratic as we let them be.
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Yes, the politics is elite driven, not democratic. But the elites need legitimacy. Opt-out undermines that.
Even kings needed to be able to claim that their rule was authorized by God, their lineage, and all that.
On the other hand, a State-wide teacher strike would cause chaos, which truly tends to undermine elites.
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Kind of alarming how it doesn’t matter who one votes for- you get the same billionaires calling the shots no matter what.
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The answers are all in history.
To counter this it requires ALOT of people putting their asses in front of the anti-democratic machine.
I don’t see that happening so much.
Opt out is great but it’s not the movement that will crack this. It’s way bigger that the unions could muster, to the unions’ deep embarrassment, but it’s not the thing here. This is a labor fight at bottom. And we won’t ever win until we start to see it that way.
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Opt-out is strategic, as long as these rich men and women have to legitimate their policies. They claim to work on behalf of the public, who want their children to have a good education. (Then they purchase politicians.)
Yes, politics is elite-driven, not really democratic. But the elites still need legitimatization or else their rule is empty.
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In my community, even the Progressive Dems who are working for Bernie Sanders, say that if Hillary is the candidate, they will work for her…despite that she is proven to be a great part of this problem of unequal wealth and power in the US…and that she is being supported by her friends, Eil Broad, and Michael Bloomberg.
The two party system is an utter failure when only money rules. Citizen’s United insures this end game.
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Pragmatically someone needs to have the ability in our democracy to overpower the other branches – in NY tHis is turned on its head because while at the federal level, congress needs to bring a bill to the executive, using the budget process governors can compel the legislative branch to bring their preferred legislation by coercion.
This has been decided in 2 major cases that outlined Cuomo’s current power. We effectively until that ability to bring legislation by budget is curtailed, have an emperor whose only limit is how slowly the courts work.
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Even the courts seem to ignore our laws and decide based on political leanings.
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The courts are failing to enforce anti trust laws that would not have allowed mega banks to become too big to fail. SCOTUS is consistently ruling against us…and Congress is a sham. Planned Parenthood is the next to fall, and Row v. Wade will follow…and then Brown v. Bd. of Ed. We are in the most significant retrogression of human (humane, and family) values in American history.
All based on religion and greed.
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I would like to remind you finally global warming will also get you. If every thing is going wrong (conspiracy every where) you are doomed. Cheer up, it may happen soon.
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Yes, Raj…but these are not conspiracy theories, they are facts.
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like NC’s Supreme court upholding vouchers just last week
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In case folks didn’t know, Jenny Sedlis used to be Eva moskowitz’s right hand/PR spinner!
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How about a post about Bill De Blasio embargoing the Blue Book Working Group report for three to six months for purely political reasons? Not to mention reaffirming his “screw you” position on class size reduction.
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Yes, thanks Flerp. That is incredible! The former public advocate! What is going on?
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Must be Cuomo.
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Crickets . . . .
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FLERP!, perhaps you could enlighten us to what the Mayor’s “purely political reasons” would be? What would be a political reason you see for embargoing the Blue Book? And what do you mean about class size? Instead of just attacking, how about some explaining?
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Look it up.
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Or if that’s too much to ask, just look at this. (Look, the blog is even named after you!)
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-citys-attempt-to-bury-news-of-its.html?m=1
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Here’s the one reply to that article (and thanks for the link, Flerp):
“Anonymous July 29, 2015 at 6:52 PM
I don’t see a real difference between the DeBlasio administration and Bloomberg. In many ways it worse. In the vast majority of high schools there 34 to class. There’s less discipline, more testing, more stress, and very little learning going on. Lowering class size is a no brainer – but the city won’t do it. That fact tells me none of this is about education- it about meeting legal requirements.”
As a teacher, I do feel a difference between the two administrations…it’s just not as big a difference as we were hoping for. At all. I think the last phrase (not the full sentence) of the above statement is right on the mark: “…meeting legal requirements”.
Anybody can promise us the moon. Think of all the times you’ve heard a politician bellow the phrase, “And I call for ________ ______!”. Sure…I called for pizza last night. That’s a lot easier to get than full funding for Pre-K on the backs of wealthy people who’ve had 12 years of Easy Street.
In many ways it’s the same ol’ same ol’, here in NYC. There’s no question that Bill’s let us down in some areas. I’m completely against mayor control, for instance. It was the cornerstone of Bloomberg’s reign and I’m appalled that DiBlasio’s fought so hard for it. It’s the beginning of the end of community control. But he’s also put his neck out in other areas. It’s a huge city and unless you’ve got the billions to tell the media what you want the public to hear, you’re gonna get blasted by the people who don’t like what you’re trying to do.
DiBlasio inherited a lot more than a beleaguered teachers union. There’s the cops, firemen, sanitation (though every mayor knows that you don’t mess with sanitation, lol), etc. Bloomberg treated us like serfs and he’s helping to dictate terms in Albany, now, which is making anything we try to get done here look like a slo-mo replay of the same penalty in the first minute of a football game.
My take: I don’t see a hidden agenda in Bill DiBlasio. I see a man who’s got a ton on his plate and who’s finding that being mayor of New York City involves a very difficult juggling act. There’s a lot more to running this city than the unions. You want this? Well, you’re gonna have to give up that. And Bloomberg’s a hard act to follow (not necessarily a good one)…especially when his agenda is still being actively pursued in Albany.
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Thanks.
I think there definitely are big differences between BDB’s and Bloomberg’s administrations. But not on class sizes.
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It is refreshing to see an investigative piece on this subject in the New York Times. Hope it becomes a trend.
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Joel Klein is also CEO of Amplify, which has contracts with states for progress monitoring, which K-2 teacher ratings are based on (it creates data for tracking children that is used to rate teachers since they don’t have EOGs in K-2).
Progress Monitoring is not considered testing, but to parents it is still testing because it is “assessment.” (M-class is an example of it).
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What’s with de Blasio and class size?!
https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20150729/sunset-park/de-blasio-not-doing-enough-fix-school-overcrowding-critics-say
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Ultimately, I think it’s just not something that he cares about. And although Farina is irrelevant, we’ve heard from her own mouth that she thinks current class sizes are just fine.
What’s new and interesting is the as-yet undisputed assertion from one of th e working group members that the City intentionally delayed the release of the working group recommendations, and the City’s rejection of the most important recommendation, for political reasons. The few reports I’ve seen on this issue cast the decision as an attempt to appease or avoid conflicts with political constituencies, perhaps including council members, that could jeopardize getting his budget passed. I would assume that it goes beyond that, straight to the heart of the budget itself. If the City aligns the Bluebook utilisation formula with the CFE class size targets, that has a direct impact on the Capital Plan. Class size advocates (well, at least L. Haimson, who to her credit is not afraid of criticizing the Mayor) have already criticized BDB for underfunding the Capital Plan. Adopting the working group recommendation would show it to be even more underfunded. And that’s not something BDB seems willing to consider.
It’s one thing to agree classes should be smaller. Watch: Class sizes should be lower. See? Didn’t cost me a dime and it felt good saying it. But it’s another thing entirely for someone with real policymaking power to do what’s actually necessary to reduce class sizes significantly. Especially if they don’t actually care about the issue to begin with.
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And double-especially if they know they won’t get called out on it .
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I hear you, but it was a campaign promise by a former radical for social justice. Holy crap!
But when you start talking budget, you know where that ultimately leads, right? I mean, Cuomo is currently asking for a few extra billion that Bill doesn’t have.
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God only knows the heart of man, but I’ve always seen the Blaz as an interest-group politicker, and I’ve gotten had the impression that I’m in one of his interest groups.
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Correction, “never had”
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“But it’s another thing entirely for someone with real policymaking power to do what’s actually necessary to reduce class sizes significantly. Especially if they don’t actually care about the issue to begin with.”
FLERP, what do you think is “necessary” to reduce class size? Suspend “expensive” (i.e. at-risk and struggling) kids over and over until they leave like the unethical charter schools do? Build new schools with money that must be spent for charter schools that take a huge profit from educating ONLY the students who are cheap and easy while leaving the DOE with the expense of all the many students they find too difficult and send back to public schools? Raising taxes on the wealthiest NYC residents, which Albany says is not allowed? Tell 75 year old retired teachers their pension is going to be half of what was promised to them and they will have to start looking for a job at McDonald’s? (Not in his power to do, although I’m sure you’d love it).
One thing I found about de Blasio is that, unlike you, FLERP, he is honestly trying to make things in NYC better for all students, and not just the rich and middle class ones. And unlike you, FLERP, he is actually trying to make public schools better instead of doing his best to undermine them by making sure there are richly funded schools for middle class high-performing kids while the rest can just rot. And unlike you, FLERP, he isn’t the kind of person who is happy to see the current public school students suffer as long as it helps to break the teachers’ union. I would bet that you don’t really believe in small class size if it means spending a penny more on education. You don’t criticize the people who demand LESS funding for the schools that educate high numbers of at-risk kids and that speaks volumes. You don’t seem to care one iota about the lives of the poorest children in poverty and how underfunded their schools are, which de Blasio does, but you will gleefully criticize him because your hero, Andrew Cuomo, has seen to it that NYC schools are underfunded and can’t lower class size. Shame on you and your gleeful celebrating of the fact that de Blasio can’t lower class size.
It is one thing to criticize de Blasio for not doing more, but your gleeful criticizing of him while you refuse to say one word against the people who are doing the most damage to public school funding truly speaks volumes. Someone once posted that you aren’t really a public school parent at all. If that is the case, you should be ashamed.
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Christ, stuff it already with the “shame on you” and the “you’re not a public school parent.” Anyone who cares about class sizes should care about the utilization formulas. If you don’t want to hear it from me because you dislike me, then I hope you hear it from someone you respect.
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FLERP, anyone who cares about class size would be criticizing the educator/politician who goes around the country collecting millions and claiming that class size and funding doesn’t matter because she has proven that every at-risk kid can be educated in large classes with less money than your neighborhood public school receives each year. If you don’t think that is a truly shameful act of someone who cares only about power and not about the kids living in poverty, then yes, you are truly shameful. Deal with it.
If you are truly a public school parent, you will understand that affluent students all over NYC are getting very good educations in class sizes of 32 students in elementary school. They are even outscoring certain charter school students on the standardized exam that is graded independently in a central location — the SHSAT. So no, smaller class size is a luxury for affluent students and a necessity for at-risk students, and I suspect de Blasio realizes that. But if you can’t criticize the reprehensible behavior of anyone claiming at-risk kids don’t need smaller classes or more funding, then you should be ashamed. Will you criticize it? Nope. Not a word. It’s called hypocrisy, FLERP, and I will call it out when I see it.
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When one asks why Klein/Murdoch/Bloomberg are able to set an agenda like this without public support, all you have to do is “read between the lines”.
This article is being published in one of, if not THE, most widely read daily publications in the USA. Though the content matter is close to reprehensible in terms of WHO, exactly, the two “reform” groups are representing, it still manages to paint them as knights in shining armor while throwing an occasional nod to the unions and parents who are concerned about the direction in which they’re being forced to go.
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I guess I should have titled the post “Who Elected These Guys?” I thought their time in office was over. Twelve years of Bloomberg total control should have solved all the school problems. How many years does it take for reform to “work”? 25 years?
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The glass ceiling. We can see it but so hard to get through to stop it. We need to build a new staircase in mid flight.
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