Opponents of corporate reform has high hopes when Bill de Blasio was elected, but their hopes are rapidly dimming. The de Blasio administration tried to slow down (not stop) the growth of Success Academy, and ran into a billionaire buzz saw. The hedge funders spent millions on a scurrilous TV campaign, falsely claiming that de Blasio administration was snuffing out the dreams of poor children of color (who had not yet been selected to enroll in the charters that might not open). The reality was that Eva Moskowitz’s chain was pushing a program for children with profound disabilities out of their dedicated space to make way for a new charter. Andrew Cuomo received big donations from the charter industry, and Eva won everything she wanted in the legislature, including free rent and the right to expand as much as she wanted. Since then, de Blasio has capitulated abjectly to the charter crowd.
Here is Leonie Haimson’s report on the latest meeting of the city’s board of education, now called the Panel on Education Policy, which is controlled by the Mayor.
Please be sure to watch the video at the end, made by the students of Meyer Levin School of the Performing Arts. The students are protesting the co-location of a charter in their school. The charter will take away the third floor of their building, which is their performance rooms.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This turns my stomach and steals the light from day. Some choice. Ignoring the voices of parents, teachers and children and going full steam ahead. The only choice here is the one monsters like Eva are making as the 0.1%, she is a member of and works for, continues to subvert the U.S. democratic process and bring an end to the republic the founding fathers created.
LikeLike
The chief beneficiaries and enforcers of corporate education reform: literally create the failure that they rail against, in part by eliminating the “competition” and replacing it with their sources of $tudent $ucce$$.
For shame.
😡
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like that line so much “the…beneficiaries…of corporate education reform literally create the failure that they rail against” so much that I’d like to use it on a facebook post. May I (with your tag as credit)?
LikeLike
ciedie aech: if something I wrote can be used to further the cause of a “better education for all,” use it with or without the tag.
😎
LikeLike
One and done Bill. Another major disappointment. What happens to these old progressives and leftists. Do they just lose their minds? Some leave and come back. Other are lost. So sad.
LikeLike
One and done? I wish, but as long as he avoids an indictment–for the illegal solicitation of campaign contributions for Senate races, for NYClass, for the Campaign for One New York, etc. — he’s likely a shoo-in. All the relevant interest groups have been bought and paid for.
LikeLike
@Tim…I miss the old days of perp walks. Based on your comment I guess I’ll miss this one. It is sad though.
LikeLike
Major disappointment!!!! He and Farina can go to hell!
LikeLike
There is so much corruption because of the money.
Here’s some shenanigans going on in Washington, that will once more help the bad guys avoid scutiny or punishment for civil rights abuse. How is that different then in the ed workplace.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gop-federal-contractors-civil-rights-violations_us_571f774fe4b01a5ebde33fa5?ir=Politics%3Fncid%3Dnewsltushpmg00000003
“WASHINGTON — A Republican lawmaker is quietly trying to slip language into a defense bill that would block President Barack Obama’s executive order requiring federal contractors to disclose civil rights violations.”
“The House Armed Services Committee is set to take up the massive 2017 defense authorization bill on Wednesday, and when it does, there will be an amendment in the mix to make defense contractors immune to the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order. That executive order requires contractors who have committed civil rights or labor violations to disclose that they’ve done so when they apply for new government contracts.”
“The defense authorization bill is must-pass legislation that Congress takes up every year, and because of its size (it’s 758 pages this year) and necessity, it’s prime for amendments that target hot-button social issues. Republicans tucked anti-gay language into it in 2011, 2012 and 2013. There was abortion language in it in 2012. In a last-ditch effort in late 2014, Democrats tried to attach an entire bill to it that would prohibit workplace discrimination against LGBT people. Republicans rejected that effort.”
“That reasoning isn’t cutting it with labor and civil rights groups. More than 40 of them, including the AFL-CIO and the America Civil Liberties Union, wrote to Thornberry in strong opposition to Kline’s amendment.”
“The Executive Order provides strong protections against the federal government contracting with employers that routinely violate workplace health and safety protections, engage in age, disability, race, and sex discrimination, withhold wages, or commit other labor violations,” reads their letter. “These protections should not be rolled back.”
LikeLike