Carol Burris has written a bombshell piece exposing the links that connect charter schools, political money, and teacher certification.
Wall Street gives heavily to Governor Cuomo. Hedge fund managers love charter schools, those entrepreneurial start-ups that they identify with. Charter schools in New York have a serious problem retaining teachers. Some charters have a teacher turnover rate exceeding 50% every year. Several charters authorized by the State University of New York (SUNY) had teacher attrition rates of at least 70%. The charter committee of SUNY was appointed by Governor Cuomo. It is considering a plan to allow new teachers to bypass the state’s high standards and to gain their teaching credential from the charter. This credential would not be recognized by any public schools in New York State.
Want to know what’s behind all of these machinations?
Let’s look at the confluence of Cuomo-appointed SUNY board members to large contributions of charter boards to Cuomo’s campaigns[1].
“The corporation with the largest number of charter schools under the control of the SUNY Charter School Institute is the Success Academy charter chain, run by Eva Moskowitz. Her political action committee, the Great Public Schools PAC, contributed $65,000 to Cuomo in 2011-2012 and another $50,000 to date in 2017. Success Academy Chairman Daniel Loeb, founder and chief executive of Third Rock Capital, and his wife, have directly contributed over $133,000 to Cuomo. Since 2015, Loeb has added $300,000 to Moskowitz’s PAC, and another $270,000 to other PACs that support Cuomo. That’s more than $700,000.
“Other Success Academy present or former board member families who contributed over $100,000 either directly to, or to PACS, supporting Cuomo include: Andrew and Dana Stone ($280,000), Bruce Kovner ($130,000); Joel and Julia Greenblatt ($280,000), John and Regina Scully of California ($110,000), John Petry ($130,000) and Daniel Nir and his wife Jill Braufman ($152,500). An additional nine other Success Academy Board members, including three who live outside New York state, collectively contributed hundreds of thousands directly or indirectly to Cuomo. Most of the contributions are direct donations.
“The Success Board is only one example of many. Paul Tudor Jones is the founder of Excellence Boys Charter School of Bedford Stuyvesant, which is also authorized by the SUNY Charter Board. He and his wife, who both live in Connecticut, contributed $400,000, with most of the contributions going into PACs that gave to the governor. Even the charter-loving Waltons, who don’t live in New York, have jumped in — nearly $100,000 in direct contributions to Cuomo and over $100,000 into PACs. And it doesn’t end there. Charter board members from the Harlem Children’s Zone to Hebrew Academy Charter Schools contribute large sums of money to Cuomo.”
That kind of money buys a lot of friendship.
We will see if it is enough to establish a special route for charter school teachers: one with lower standards.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As bombshell as this is, it is making exactly no splash here in NY that will matter.
I am hoping a real journalist will finally start looking closely at some of many instances of extreme favoritism shown to Eva Moskowitz that the SUNY Charter Institute — and especially Joseph Belluck — ever since Pedro Noguera resigned from SUNY after the charter institute allowed Moskowitz the unaccountable freedom to dump priority for at-risk kids although her charter application had that priority in them. It happened at the same time they also cheered on her changing her location of a school from a poor district to a very rich neighborhood.
From giving Success Academy schools renewals years earlier than they are supposed to, to SUNY’s unaccountable insistence that a the only measure of a charter school’s value is how many students in third grade pass state tests and if doesn’t matter how many at-risk kids disappear, or parents of kids with disabilities complain, SUNY has acted more like investors in a new company than people charged with oversight.
You suspended 25% of the Kindergarten and first graders in your school? We believe you when you tell us they are violent (is it because they are not white like Belluck and most of his rubber stampers?). You have got to go lists? We believe you when you say that is an anomaly. Model principal who trains all principals to copy her practices refuses to send renewal forms to kids she doesn’t want to come back? Sure, that’s fine says Belluck.
When presented with cohorts in which huge numbers at-risk kids disappear between 2nd and 3rd grade testing, or between Kindergarten and 2nd grade, SUNY says “none of our business”. When presented with information that there are empty seats in a charter school that claimed thousands on the wait list, SUNY said “Eva Moskowitz told us there was a glitch” so no need to do any oversight! We trust her!
The SUNY Charter Institute board has a duty to be doing oversight and not making excuses. It’s amazing no journalist has yet closely examined why one very rich charter school in particular seems to be above any oversight and has been allowed to use all sorts of questionable practices that serve to get rid of at-risk kids instead of teach ALL of them who win the lottery.
SUNY just got caught giving early renewals to Success Academy schools. They had no time to do real oversight beyond “the kids who remain have good test scores” while making the most ridiculous excuses for the reason that kids disappeared.
I’m sure the right wing billionaires are very pleased with the performance of Belluck and the rest of the Charter Institute. They are complicit. And in this case, being complicit is in direct violation of the job they are paid to do — make sure the charters who donate to political campaigns are not pushing out ANY of the kids they are legally mandated to serve.
^^^My first sentence is incoherent and I apologize.
The extreme favoritism began in earnest in February 2012, AFTER Pedro Noguera resigned his seat on the SUNY board. It happened after the Charter Institute said it was fine for Eva Moskowitz to drop priority for at-risk kids because they were thrilled she was changing the location of the school they had just approved from a poor district to a very affluent one and they understood that if she gave priority to at-risk kids, they’d take spots that affluent students might want.
It was the beginning of years of SUNY oversight consisting of “whatever you want we’ll give you” and absolutely no oversight beyond “your scores with the kids you allow to stay are amazing”.
Guess what SUNY just did? Allowed Eva Moskowitz to open a 3rd elementary school in the richest and best-performing school district in NYC — District 2 Manhattan. After all, her first two schools there had lots of the affluent children and fewer at-risk children and little if any demand, so why not open a 3rd school there? Even if most Bronx districts had one or none. Why go where wait lists are longest when there are affluent college-educated parents you can market to.
It’s shocking that SUNY allowed her to open her 3rd District 2 school. And not one journalist has asked them what they were thinking.
Pedro stayed on the SUNY charter committee longer than he should have. He knew what was going on.
A Success Academy Charter opened in my Brooklyn neighborhood. Despite the boasts about waiting lists, the recruitment was nonstop. Signs in the supermarket, signs on bus stop shelters. Wherever you looked, SA was seeking students. Apparently, no waiting list.
He may have known but there was a limit to how much he was willing to look the other way.
Not so with the current SUNY board members and administration. It is clear that there is nothing that will get them to due oversight of powerful charters as long as they can use the disclaimer “the test scores are remarkable”.
You’d think that the video or the e-mails would give them pause, but when you are all-in complicit, like Ivanka Trump or Lindsay Graham, you say “tut tut repealing Obamacare is a terrible idea” right before you go vote to repeal it.
Pedro may have been like Obama — willing to look the other way up to a point.
Now SUNY is entirely people like Eva Moskowitz who will happily endorse Betsy DeVos if it furthers their agenda.
The charter INDUSTRY and Vouchers are about pure GREED and at the expense of our young and most vulnerable. Plus PROFITS, PROFITS, PROFITS for those who run Charters and promote Vouchers.
This country has gone stupid. Hope people wake up or soon we will have the oligarchs and their SLAVES for life. This is afterall what they want — SLAVES.
Who knew that New York prices extended to public corruption? Much cheaper here in Ohio where the cost of illicit (and licit) living is lower.
Yeah, I thought we here in the Windy City were known for graft and corruption, but even out graft and corruption comes cheaper than this!
cx: our graft….
Now now, If you can take it here you can take it anywhere.
Can teachers who have to upload into the Aspire Registry sue NY State? The certification requirements, including passing tests, uploading videos, Masters degrees, additional BA credits and the accompanying fees are massive.
And does anyone know who owns the Aspire Registry system?
Burris makes a strong case for the reasons such alternative requirements are being seriously considered in New York. It is a “follow the money” tale that squarely leads to Cuomo’s desk. Burris also points out that teachers with less than thirty hours of training under the SUNY proposal would be trapped. Perhaps this is the goal. Since charters have great difficulty retaining teachers, the lesser qualified teachers would be unable to make a lateral move into a public school. This faux accreditation would ensure that charters would have a more stable workforce.
This proposal has nothing to do with improving outcomes for poor students. It is all about helping charters acquire an easily exploitable workforce. It is a continuation of the separate and unequal trend in the charter industry. It is also a slap in the face to teachers that have gone to legitimate college programs to complete master’s degrees, a tough requirement for permanent certification in New York state, whose standards for teachers are among the highest in the nation.
The slogan: High standards for public school teachers, low standards for charter teachers
What SUNY is basically saying is this:
We recognize that our charters are only obligated to teach the children who don’t need experienced teachers. We encourage charters to rid themselves of children who don’t test well with inexperienced teachers — in fact, those are the charters we are praising and expanding the most!
We think of charters as private schools, where it doesn’t matter if you can pay $40,000/year tuition if your kid isn’t able to learn and thrive under whatever teacher they get. We want your kid to leave. Even for $40,000/year he isn’t worth teaching. So why should a charter accept $14,000 if your kid can’t learn with an inexperienced teacher?
And we’re doing this because we know that this is the best way to help at-risk kids. After all, the person we admire the most told us that Betsy DeVos is the solution, and we believe every word she says. Especially when she has a powerful and rich PAC and many billionaires behind her.
Don’t be silly, Diane. The only organizations that donate to candidates are teachers unions. Icky, dirty, low class labor unions.
Charter lobbyists are as pure as the driven snow. They’re really a BETTER CLASS of lobbyists. The Best and the Brightest of the lobbying world. They have higher SAT scores than labor union lobbyists, I have heard.
Chiara,
I hit a brick wall when I point out to the “reformers” that the Waltons, Gates, Broad, Arnold, and assorted other billionaires far far outspend the labor unions, whose discretionary funding is solicited from their underpaid members. The billionaires and their shills hate unions and hate public schools.
Well, Diane, it has to do with the MOTIVES of the lobbyists.
Charter lobbyists are motivated entirely by love of education and children, while icky, dirty low class labor union advocates are “self interested”.
Public school children aren’t allowed to have passionate, committed pro-public school advocates. That is reserved for children who attend charter and private schools.
Public school kids get a mention at the end of the ed reform speech, and that’s only if they remember they’re supposed to be “agnostics”
I’m a public school parent and I support teachers unions for one very good reason- they are the only people who advocate for children in public schools. I don’t care why they do it. I’ll take what I can get and right now my kid and his school have ONE group who represents his interests, and that’s teacher unions.
Thank God for teachers unions. If it wasn’t for them public school kids wouldn’t have any representation at all in DC or my state capitol.
I should send them a donation. They work a lot harder for my kid than my elected officials.
The part I don’t get is this: charter backers proudly advocate on behalf of charter schools AND ONLY charter schools. They don’t lift a finger for kids in public schools. The same is true for voucher lobbyists.
Yet somehow it’s an outrage when public school advocates do the same for public schools.
Why don’t our schools get an advocate? Charters and vouchers get dedicated,passionate advocates and the 90% of kids who attend public schools get the potted plant “agnostics” who do nothing?
That’s a rip off. Kids in public schools deserve a real advocate. Someone who SUPPORTS their schools.
I don’t want these phony “agnostics”. They haven’t served the interests of kids in public schools at all. They’re lousy advocates.
As Peter Greene has pointed out, this pseudo-credential is only recognized by SUNY-authorized charter schools. Thus, the common path that charter teachers take:
1) teach at a charter first, because there are no openings in NYC PUBLIC schools — while you’re earning that state-recognized credential,( not the bogus SUNY credential)
… then a couple (or more) years later …
2) get a job in the NYC public schools, using your state-recognized credential …
… is effectively shut off. You’re stuck, and after Eva (or whoever) gets rid of you or you’re leave on your own, you’re unable to teach elsewhere.
Oh, and why would you want to leave working at a SUNY-authorized charter?
Well, there’s two reastons:
1) you’re sick of being treated like sh#% (Read this link)
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2014/08/citizen-jacks-compendium-of-teacher.html
… and/or …
2) because you’re forced to treat students as young as 4 like sh#% (Charlotte Dial)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIJqbSkb5Jk …
Peter Greene talks about this here:
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2017/07/ny-warm-bodies-for-charters.html
Jersey Jazzman does so here:
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2017/07/shooting-themselves-in-foot-teacher.html
JERSEY JAZZMAN: “This isn’t as explicit as the New Jersey regulations that were proposed (and ultimately rejected – for now*), but the intent is clear: the certification will only be valid at a charter school authorized by SUNY (NY has multiple charter authorizers). Which means the teachers getting this certification won’t be able to move to better paying, unionized jobs.
“Instead, teachers getting this training would be locked into their schools, with no chance of moving on to the public school districts. It’s clear the charters hope that will solve their labor problems; if you doubt me, just read the regulations:
PROPOSED SUNY REGULATION:
” *’The Committee acknowledges that many schools and education corporations it oversees that have demonstrated strong student performance have had difficulty hiring teachers certified in accordance with the requirements of the regulations of the commissioner of education.
” ”The Committee, therefore, through its authority to adopt regulations with respect to the governance, structure and operations of the charter schools it oversees, desires to provide an alternative teacher certification pathway to charter schools in meeting the requirements of paragraph a-1 of subdivision 3 of section 2854 of the Education Law.’ ”
“There you go: the charters can’t compete in the labor market with the public, unionized schools. Their solution is to rig the game.”
Oh, I forgot to add what Peter Greene said about this here:
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2017/07/ny-warm-bodies-for-charters.html
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
PETER GREENE:
“But Jersey Jazzman points out even more troubling implications. This sort of training is not so much about helping people switch careers as it is giving charters carte blanch to do their own training in house.
“In fact, the proposal seems to suggest that these warm body certificates will only be good in SUNY charters, making these warm body jobs the very definition of dead-end employment. There will be no getting a warm body charter teacher certificate and then moving on to other schools.
“And since these warm bodies will not have widely marketable skills, they will have even less bargaining power with their bosses
“And if everything we’ve heard so far doesn’t make us worry about the quality of these warm bodies, let’s ask the other question– what kind of dope would sign up for this in the first place?
“As is often the case, we are looking at the kind of ‘reform” that rich families will never tolerate. Proponents may say, *
” ‘Look, some of the most prestigious private schools use teachers who aren’t properly certified.’
“I’m going to reply,
“‘Yes, and those people at the top of their field are recruited by schools that offer great packages to make the job attractive, so that they always have their pick of top people. That is different from paying bottom dollar for a lousy job in order to recruit disposable warm bodies.’
“But then, these places aren’t looking for top talent, because many of these charters don’t believe in great teaching so much as they believe in content delivery units who follow the script and work through the approved materials in the charter-approved manner. That’s one more reason this will look like a good idea to these charter operators.
“Instead of trained professional teachers whose heads are filled with ideas about good pedagogy and a variety of instructional techniques, you get to work with people who don’t know anything about teaching except what they’ve been taught.
“Tired of hiring teachers who have been filled with nonsense about the importance of student voices in the classroom?
“Just hire people who have never heard about that, and don’t tell them about it. You can talk about folded hands and speak when spoken to and eye contact and subservient obedience and instead of having staff make doubting faces or actually questioning you, in this happy magic world of warm body meat widgets, they’ll just smile and nod and accept that what you say must be the truth about education.
“You can see why many people have pushed back on this, and if you want to push, too, the Network for Public Education has a letter you can send, saying that the least that all students in New York deserve is an actual trained professional teacher in their classroom:
https://networkforpubliceducation.org/2017/07/9535/?link_id=7&can_id=012f354d90b87664b362dda6a4b2980d&source=email-speak-out-let-suny-know-every-student-in-ny-deserves-a-professionally-trained-teacher&email_referrer=speak-out-let-suny-know-every-student-in-ny-deserves-a-professionally-trained-teacher&email_subject=sign-our-letter-every-student-in-ny-deserves-a-professionally-trained-teacher
“Warm body rules do not serve students, and New York would do well not to had down this road.”
Ever wonder what goes on in a closed-to-the-public meeting of the SUNY Board of Trustees — the group that authorizes NYC charter schools such as Eva Moskowitz Success Academy Charter Schools?
Well, hey, now’s your chance!
Somebody secretly videotaped a meeting of the SUNY Board of Trustees meeting — a meeting where the controversial measure to allow uncertified teachers to work in SUNY-authorized charters was discussed.
It’s now on YouTube.
Included in this meeting was a community leader not happy with the new regulations — one Maria Bautista.
This is truly explosive stuff, and should be posted on your blog ASAP, and please feel free to use the TRANSCRIPT I just made.
SUNY Board Chairman Joseph Belluck claims that he is livid at the tweets and overall “smear campaign” that has been portraying him as *“racist.”
In response to this, Afro-Puerto Rican activist Maria Bautista of the Alliance for Quality Education is not buying Belluck’s attempt to fabricate victimhood for himself. She then proceeds to unload on Belluck, saying that his new policy is most certainly “racist” in its effect, if not intent.
Would you want YOUR OWN kids taught by these uncertified teachers? Bautista asks him, and this sets Belluck off. Unfortunately, this is when the video cuts out.
Enjoy!
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
TRANSCRIPT
( 0:13 – )
( 0:13 – )
MARIA BAUTISTA: “Well, I just want to clarify that this ISN’T a smear campaign against you. Right?”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Okay.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “That this has EVERYTHING to do with black and brown children – ”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Right.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: ” – and THEIR access to high quality education, and second of all, if the teachers’ union wanted to be here and talk for themselves, they WOULD be.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Okay.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “So I’m here to talk about the Alliance for Quality Education.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Well, I’ll just … I’ll just say to you that, when I look at my phone, and someone tweets the following:
” ‘ @JoeBelluck is willing to allow this RACIST policy to persist.’ ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “That’s RIGHT!”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “I take – ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “Cause you ARE!”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “I take umbrage at it.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “‘Cause you ARE!”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Okay?”
MARIA BAUTISTA: ” ‘YOU”RE the Chair – ”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “I take umbrage at it.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: ” ‘YOU”RE the Chair, and you’re allowing it to proceed – ”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Well -”
MARIA BAUTISTA: ” – so that’s NOT a smear campaign. It’s ACTUALLY WHAT’S HAPPENING, and whether or not you feel defensive about that – ”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “I’m NOT defensive about it.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: ” – but this is YOUR responsibility.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “I’m NOT defensive about it.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “Exactly. You ARE defensive about it. You’re saying that this is a SMEAR campaign, and it’s NOT. We’re calling … we’re calling the cards for what they ARE.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “What I’m suggesting to you is that – ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “THIS is the card that YOU are ALLOWING to move forward — THIS idea …THESE regulations for people to give comments on, when we know that they *(classes taught by uncertified teachers) *are going disproportionately impact black and brown children.
“You would NEVER have uncertified teachers teach YOUR children, so WHY is it okay for black and brown children? Why is THAT okay?”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Okay – ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “It is NOT okay!”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “What I’m suggest – ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “That is the point.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “What I’m saying to you – ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “This is NOT a smear campaign.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: ” “What I’m suggesting to you is that the things that are going to MOVE this committee to ACT are going to be the SUBSTANCE of the regulations, and WHETHER OR NOT they are the BEST for educating the kids who are in our schools.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “Would you want THIS for YOUR children? No.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: (angry) “I’m not going to speak to you about MY children -”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “I would love that -”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: ” – because frankly .. because frankly – ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: ” – because what you would want for YOUR children is what you should want for EVERY child in this city.”
MALE SUNY BOARD MEMBER: “Alright. Can I just – ?)
x x x x x x x x x x x x
Video CUTS OUT
Jack,
Can you steer us to the rest of the video? Is the whole meeting recorded? TIA, Duane
I suspect if he could have he would have.
The link to the full video is here and it was not taped secretly, it was public: http://sysadm.mediasite.suny.edu/Mediasite/Play/c0750377a1964582b2f8b6503ecabcb51d
Thank you, nyarteacherblog!
Is there a place they put the video from their earlier meetings?
I see it the way Bautista does. It sends the wrong message, Poor minority students get a teacher with under thirty hours of training while middle class mostly white students get an authentic teacher. This is totally separate and unequal. How it this for a “choice?”
Jack,
Why did a SUNY Board of Trustees meeting need to be taped secretly? What are they hiding?
The SUNY Charter Institute — led by Joseph Belluck — convened a meeting on October 8, 2014 that was originally posted as a video on their site and which no longer seems to be available. Is there any chance you could get that video and post it? It’s the one where Belluck and Susie Miller Barker (now Susie Miller Carello) got a big laugh trying to explain the “glitch” that led to Success Academy having many empty seats despite claiming that they had thousands of students on wait lists. The entire meeting was an embarrassment to SUNY (probably why it has disappeared).
Belluck and Carello were so amused by that “glitch” that they delightedly approved Eva Moskowitz’ demand to open a third elementary school in the wealthiest District in Manhattan — District 2 — despite the fact that the two Success Academy schools already located there served more affluent and middle class students than economically disadvantaged ones! And they both had empty seats!
Moskowitz’ request for a third District 2 school was all SUNY needed to rush to give one to her. It didn’t matter that SUNY was supposed to be giving charters to serve at-risk kids, not affluent ones. SUNY is so in the pocket of Success Academy that they never once said “why should we give you a school in this rich district where you already have 2 schools and empty seats instead of in the Bronx, where your wait lists are long and where you would actually be serving the economically disadvantaged kids who are on your long wait lists there?” What kind of oversight agency is SUNY, anyway?
Thanks to SUNY’s lack of any concern for serving at-risk kids, this month Success Academy Hudson Yards will open to give priority to children lucky enough to reside in wealthy District 2 Manhattan who didn’t get spots in Union Square or Hell’s Kitchen – two Success Academy schools where they ALSO have priority and where there are disproportionately few at-risk kids. District 2 children will have 3 Success Academy schools just to serve them!
There are six districts in the Bronx, all of which have far more disadvantaged students than District 2 Manhattan. Success Academy has a TOTAL of 4 schools to serve those 6 Bronx districts — an average of each Bronx district having 2/3 of a school.
While the single richest school district in Manhattan — District 2 — will have 3 Success Academy schools to serve their children.
I repeat – a single rich school district in Manhattan – District 2 – has three Success Academy elementary schools. Six poor districts in the Bronx have an average of 3/4 of a school each (4 elementary schools total in the entire Bronx).
It’s incredible that SUNY gets away with this without any reporters questioning how this squares with SUNY’s legal mission to open charters that serve at-risk children.
And not one journalist has asked Susie Miller Carello why SUNY gave Success a third school in a district where their first 2 schools weren’t serving near the number of economically disadvantaged children that they are supposed to.
Not one journalist asked Susie Miller Carello why the entire borough of the Bronx would have only 4 Success Academy elementary schools while SUNY instead approves a third Success Academy school to serve residents in a single Manhattan District which just happens to be the richest one. And where neither of the first 2 SA charters were serving their share of economically disadvantaged students.
And when SUNY took the unprecedented step of granting early renewals — some of them years early! — of Success Academy schools this year, not one journalist has asked Susie Miller Carello why SUNY approved renewals for Success Academy schools long before they should have. And long before they had time to look into all the complaints of high attrition rates, push outs, suspensions, got to go lists, “model” teachers caught on video punishing children for no reason except they are not rich and don’t come up with the answer fast enough.
It is clear who SUNY takes their marching orders from. And Eva Moskowitz wants teachers who can be trained in the tactics we saw from her “model principals” (got to go lists, not sending home renewal forms with unwanted children, suspend 20% of the unwanted kindergarten children) and “model teachers” (punish children if they don’t know the right answer and pretend they need the “calm down” chair as if they were acting out and “bad”.)
Not a single journalist asked SUNY to comment on the NAACP’s report testimony in which a parent of a Success Academy Kindergarten child recounted how his child was counseled out of the school — along with 2 other unwanted children — within days of enrolling. So early that those children are never counted in the attrition numbers.
Instead, SUNY staff read that and said “how great, we really respect that, let’s let them certify their own teachers now.”
As an oversight agency, SUNY should be disbanded for malpractice. And questions should be asked about why some charter schools with very rich Cuomo donors on their board are being given VERY special treatment by the SUNY Charter Institute.
Democratic Andrew Cuomo (Incumbent) 361,380 62.92%
Democratic Zephyr Teachout 192,210 33.47%
600, 000 members are in the NYSUT. If a third of them are retired that leaves 400,000
plus many of those retirees still have a voting residence in NYS
Don’t blame this on Cuomo or the billionaires club . Unfortunately some of the same dynamics that played for Clinton played for Cuomo back in 14.
It is not the children who need better education but the Teachers and adults and they are getting it the hard way . However they never seem to learn.
“That kind of money buys a lot of friendship.”
Buying friends like Cuomo is like paying an attractive, sexy male of female escort for a night out. Once the money stops and the client isn’t paying for any more nights out, or the escort loses her job and is no longer in a position to be an escort for a night out, then the friendship ends.
Then, of course, there is always the chance that another client will come along with more money and the escort can’t refuse the better offer so he/she dumps the first client.
But Cuomo is a willing prostitute and not a high-class escort.
The three streets of Cuomo land…
Take money (while smiling) from the students on Sesame Street…
Mislead and bewilder (while milking) those on Main Street…
And make secret deals (while grinning) to divide the cash on Wall Street…
Cuomo’s cycle that always gives rewards…
Mayor de Blasio’s position on the uncertified teacher plan has not been made public, but the proposal dropped around the same time de Blasio secretly negotiated his side-deal for renewing mayoral control.
Wondering aloud if the two were linked in one article, Politico’s Eliza Shapiro later reported that withholding details about the concessions made to charters seem to be part of the deal struck between de Blasio and NYS Senate leader John Flanagan.
We can wonder whether de Blasio agreed to letting charters hire uncertified teachers to replace the teachers they burn through each year, but we know the proposal was first championed by Eva Moskowitz, who supports not only Trump’s call to expand charters but private school vouchers as well.
If de Blasio did agree to the uncertified teacher proposal with Flanagan, it circumvented the Assembly whose leader Carl Heastie firmly opposed expanding charters. And it would be a huge example of why mayoral control leads to more privatization, whether willingly like Rahm Emanuel in Chicago, or via extortion like we see in NYC.
So it is really convenient for de Blasio to not have to weigh in on the proposal, maybe a great reporter will press him on it. In the meantime, the proposal may face legal hurdles as Heastie seems interested in challenging SUNY’s authority to pass this regulation on its own.
I may be naive but I’m not understanding what this has to do with Mayor de Blasio when it has been made clear to him in no uncertain terms that his opinion is irrelevant and his power over charters is exactly nil. The Mayor doesn’t think charters should run pre-k without following the regulations that other pre-ks follow and the SUNY Charter Institute has made it clear that they disagree and have no problem demanding their right to have control instead of him so that Eva Moskowitz can run pre-k with the same lack of oversight from anyone that she does her K-12 schools.
I suppose you could surmise that de Blasio agreed to remain quiet on the issue in exchange for Mayoral control, although frankly at this point it’s better from a PR standpoint that the fight regarding charter teacher certification be made by people who have some minor relationship to their oversight. The Mayor does not. Not one iota. He can’t “let” charters use uncertified teachers even if he wants to, and his opinion that they should not would matter about as much as his opinion that charters should not be able to run pre-k without suspending large numbers of at-risk 4 year olds whom they claim are violently dangerous. SUNY says Success Academy should be able to treat all the 4-year olds they identify as violent however they please and SUNY does NOT want Mayor de Blasio to interfere with that because they approve.
And if SUNY says they should have control of pre-k and the Mayor’s opinion about suspensions is worthless, can you imagine how little they care about what he says about certifying teachers? SUNY wants uncertified teachers who can learn to identify the extraordinarily high number of violent at-risk kids who keep winning Success Academy lotteries and SUNY very likely worries that certified teachers might question the model teachers the way the one who videotaped the model teacher did and SUNY does NOT want that. Model teachers, according to SUNY, should be free to punish at-risk kids as much as necessary to make up for their inability to teach them.
It’s funny that you think charters were concerned about the Mayor weighing in on his opinion so much that they’d give him Mayoral control to keep him quiet. They don’t care what he says because he has no power over him. Mayoral control relates to PUBLIC schools and the only reason Albany was withholding it was to do as much damage as they could to undermine both de Blasio and public schools which is all they care about with regards to public schools.