When Bill de Blasio ran for Mayor the first time, he sought my help. We met and spoke candidly. He told me he would strongly support traditional public schools. He said he would oppose the expansion of private charters into public school space. He promised to stop closing schools because of their test scores. His own children went to public schools. He would protect them and end the destructive tactics of Joel Klein, who coldly and cruelly closed schools over the tearful objections of students, parents, and teachers.
I enthusuastically endorsed him. The campaign issued a press release. De Blasio was elected in 2013, and re-elected in 2017. I wanted him to succeed and to support public schools against the privatizers.
He tried to stand up to the charters, but Eva’s billionaire backers rolled out a multi-million dollar TV campaign and donated huge sums to Governor Cuomo and key legislators. That ended de Blasio’s effort to block charter expansion. The legislature gave them a blank check in New York City, allowed them to expand at will, and even required the city to pay their rent in private facilities if it couldn’t provide suitable public space. Now his majority appointees to the city board rubber stamp charter co-locations and expansions.
Although the Mayor and Chancellor Farina have tried to support struggling schools, they have not hesitated to close them when they don’t show test score gains.
At the last meeting of the city’s Board of Education (which Mayor Bloomberg capriciously named the Panel on Education Policy to indicate its insignificance in the new era of mayoral control but which is still called the Board of Education in statute), the Mayor submitted a list of schools to close. Sadly, like Bloomberg, he has closed many schools. Unlike Bloomberg, he does not boast about it. There’s that.
At the last meeting of the Board, onee of the Mayor’s appointees, T. Elzora Cleveland, dissented and another abstained, denying the majority needed to close two of the schools on the Mayor’s list. Cleveland has resigned, and education activists assume she was forced out to make way for a more pliable board member.
How is this different from Mayor Bloomberg’s tactics?
During the Bloomberg regime, the Mayor ousted three appointees who objected to his wish to end social promotion. The three members worried that no one had devised a plan to help the kids held back. Bloomberg fired them on the spot, and said, in effect, mayoral control means I am in charge and my appointees do as I wish. At the time, the firings were called “the Monday night massacre.”
I strongly oppose closing public schools, especially those that are historic anchors of their community. Several years back, I was on a panel with John Jackson, president of the Schott Foundation for Public Education. He said he had traveled to many countries to learn how they dealt with struggling schools. In every country, the Minister of Education said, “If a school is struggling, we send in support.” Dr. Jackson asked, “What do you do if you send support, and the school doesn’t improve?” In every case, the Minister said, “We send in more support.”
The bottom line is that accountability lies with the leadership. If a school is in trouble, it is up to the leadership to help, not punish. They control the resources. They decide whether the school will reduce class sizes and have the staff and programs it needs. Accountability begins at the top.
If you listen to the teachers at the closing schools, you’ll hear plenty about the “support” they received:” constant instability, criticism, intimidation and violations of the union contract (which the UFT did nothing about), psycho admins moved in, out and around, endless and useless mandated professional development (Farina’s particular fetish), millions spent on know-nothing and parasitic consultants/coaches, etc.
Yeah, De Blasio and Farina supported those schools. They supported them, to borrow from Lenin, the way a noose supports a hanged man.
The charter schools lobby is the Democrats’ NRA.
Don’t you dare put down the Democrats.
Actually, you can go ahead and do so. Only foreigners like me are not allowed to criticize the Democrats for deceiving people like us, lest I get bitten by a sometimes snarling but passionate and well meaning dog named New York City Public School Parent.
Woof!
Mayor Bill DeBlasshole is a fraud, and anyone should have known that based on the last undignified contract he (and his cabana boy Mulgrew) gave to the teachers.
The Mayor is another neo-liberal, save for the efforts he made to try and get NYC property tax hikes to pay for universal Pre-K, which was squashed by Albany and Quid Pro Cuomo.
Are you okay? Because the beginning of your comment sounds like……. well, maybe you need a couple of hits of very well chilled akavit.
Zorba – if you’d ever been the recipient of an NYCPSP attack, you’d know exactly what the Filmmaker is talking about.
Never have been, thanks for the heads up.
Although, a well-chilled (in the freezer) akavit (or a nice vodka) still sounds good to me. 😉
Is there a particular purpose in “poking the bear,” so to speak?
Spiteful, I suppose, yes. But when one has been poked by the bear so many times, it’s hard to resist.
“The bear” just read this.
“The bear” isn’t even going to respond to Norwegian Filmmaker’s calling me a dog. I expect that kind of nastiness from him. Saying the nastiest things you can about the entire Democratic Party is so much more more fun than actually trying to have a real discussion about the issues.
In fact, reading Michael Fiorillo’s post above, I think that Norwegian Filmmaker and Michael are correct and de Blasio and the UFT — and all teachers’ unions — are frauds that should be voted out of office right now. Why do we even have unions when they are simply corrupt organizations led by people only trying to enrich themselves at the expense of taxpayers? Unions are frauds. So is de Blasio.
Both unions and de Blasio are trying to sell out schools to enrich themselves. Let’s get rid of all of them and make Norwegian Filmmaker happy.
In fact, as a public school parent I will make you all happy and start bashing the UFT and the “union teachers” and Mayor de Blasio every chance I get. i know many parents are on the fence about how many lazy teachers there are and I know that all they need is to hear from all of you how terrible the UFT and de Blasio are to make sure we get the kind of Mayor that you all know that we need. One who will shut down that nasty UFT and lazy union teachers and make schools better.
After all, it’s that easy. i know because Norwegian Filmmaker and Michael Fiorelli have convince me. Thank you. I’ll work on bashing de Blasio and the teachers’ union in the hopes that they are both gone by the next election. Believe me, if you are looking to bash the UFT as an entirely corrupt organization and want to get parents support, it won’t take very much. Get rid of unions! Who needs them when they are run by the most corrupt people and do nothing but protect lazy teachers and enrich union leaders. Same with de Blasio. I can’t wait until we get some reform Mayor who will get rid of the union once and for all.
NYSPSP,
You go, girl!
We can agree to disagree, but I agree with you about the unions. Rather than get rid of them, which I never said should be done, we should strive hard to reform them big time.
You’re so articulate, and thank you for your writing, no sarcasm here at all!
You’re on fire!
Norewegian Filmmaker,
Thank you. I will model myself on you because you taught me that the way to “reform” an organization like the Democratic Party and the UFT is to bash them as an entirely corrupt organization that should not exist and convince American voters that every person in those unions is a corrupt and lazy and greedy sell-out.
I’m not saying that there shouldn’t be a teachers’ union. I’m just saying that the teachers’ union that exists is totally corrupt and selling out to corporate interests and, well, pretty much evil. I know if I work really hard to convince the public that the teachers union is an evil and corrupt force that is doing bad things, then there is sure to be “reform”.
As long as I bash every member of the teachers’ union as a lazy, worthless supporter of this corrupt and worthless union, and as long as I work really hard to convince the public about how evil and terrible the teachers’ union is, I can feel good knowing I am helping it “reform”.
Isn’t that what you think?
Actually, maybe my attempt at giving you a taste of your own medicine was below the belt.
I appreciate the comments you just wrote on an entirely different page about the Democrats. That’s the kind of discussion I think will take the Democrats far. And I don’t think the comments I made bashing the UFT here are the way to reform the leadership of the UFT either.
I hope the discussion can be constructive about how to change minds or run candidates who are on the right side. But with some understanding that there are huge differences between those who believe in public education but might compromise a little to get something and those who don’t believe in public education at all. Or who believe strongly that charters need no oversight except from pro-charter overseers whose ultimate purpose is to promote more charters.
NYCPSP,
I honestly and with no sarcasm do wish you great success reinventing the DNC with mostly progressive Democrats. It’s worth a try, don’t you think? It’s your life, your time and energy, and ultimately, your country. I certainly will help in that process, but I will not be chasing any dreams or ideals. I suppose you have to start somewhere.
DeBlasio’s contract with the teachers in NYC is undignified, and Mulgrew helped him do it, and vice versa. They are partners in crime.
I consider you an important ally, but we ain’t gonna be BFFs, no way no how.
But that’s alright. If you keep on writing, I’ll keep on reading, even if I have to yawn or snore now and then at some of your posts. Certainly, I will not hesitate to aid others in forming new and growing political representative parties.
Public schools don’t need competition; the the two party duopoly on Capitol Hill needs competition, big time.
As for bears, I don’t consider you at all a bear or as “poked”. One should or might see you with disagreement, but with respect.
Do consider doing a close reading of what I write and don’t fabricate my intentions or motivations. What I write is what you see and get. The GOP is a party of extremist; you might need some contrary form of ideological extremism on the blue side to counteract the the current path of the plutocratically pushed pendulum. Your country can use a healthy does of “socialism”, I have news for you.
Cheers . . .
The mayor has entered K-12 silent mode like many other NY politicians.
At his campaign event, he said his education priority was 3-K, paid for by raising taxes on the very wealthy. But then we found out he made a deal with NYS Senate Republican leader John Flanagan to renew mayoral control. The public was not privy to the details but just days later the SUNY unlicensed charter school teacher regulation went forward, and they also announced revival of zombie charters.
Next, he picked a chancellor from Eva’s List, and then we learn a top deputy Richard Buery is leaving to be a lobbyist for the KIPP charter chain.
Mayor de Blasio, please hold open public hearings on the policy decisions you make. It would make the process more democratic to get buy-in. The only reason everyone didn’t rise up against mayoral control was because they thought you were/are a progressive fighter.
jake jacobs,
Can you cite something to prove this “secret deal” in which you believe de Blasio got mayoral control in exchange for not using his power to prevent SUNY from allowing unlicensed teachers in their charters?
I’m astonished because de Blasio’s opinion on SUNY allowing unlicensed charter had the same amount of value as speck of dust. None. SUNY has not cared one whit what de Blasio thinks. They don’t care what the NY State Board of Regents think! Do you think they care about a Mayor their charter leaders can push around all they want through Cuomo?
The main reason de Blasio got his deal is because pro-charter folks weren’t sure that ending Mayoral control would help their pro-charter agenda. And they worried about ending it now would make it difficult to renew it when the new Mayor — who is sure to be much more pro-charter than de Blasio — is elected next time.
Really, since when do you think de Blasio’s opinion matters at all to SUNY Charter Institute and Flanagan? They do exactly what they want, with the blessing of Cuomo. If they aren’t worried about the Regents, they certainly don’t care about the opinion of the Mayor whose opinion meant nothing when Albany forced NYC to pay charter school rent.
Eliza Shapiro heavily implied it in this report on the package of concessions to charters in exchange for renewal of mayoral control.
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2017/06/29/mayoral-control-deal-could-change-de-blasios-poor-standing-in-albany-113160
If de Blasio opposes the non-certified teacher policy, I’ve never seen him say so anywhere, even after Elia, Rosa and many others did.
Also the previous article by Shapiro details how Flanagan was stymied by Carl Heastie in getting the policy done legislatively and turned his attention to de Blasio who could be blackmailed.
It’s possible de Blasio opposed the policy, but because the negotiations were kept secret, we can only read tea leaves.
When I dared to suggest that de Blasio was perhaps somewhat less than fully progressive a few months ago, I got a vitriol-filled rant from my favorite fellow commenter. Let me go pop some popcorn to have on hand for when she shows up.
Who? NYCPSP?
First guess. Most impressive.
If it is her/him, leave it alone. Not worth the effort of getting into the spats and unproductive trolling.
Dienne says:
“When I dared to suggest that de Blasio was perhaps somewhat less than fully progressive a few months ago…”
Hello?? You have to be kidding. What you “suggested” was exactly what Norwegian Filmmakers describes. Mayor de Blasio is a “fraud”. He is a “neo-liberal”. He can’t wait to sell out every progressive idea.
I am the one who said that de Blasio was less than fully progressive. In fact, I asked you to use language like that to explain where you wish he was more progressive, rather than to label him as a fraud, a neoliberal, a sell-out, or whatever words you used to describe how corrupt your “spidey sense” told you he was.
But I’m joining you and Norwegian Filmmaker now. I think the UFT is corrupt. It is a fraud. It is a sell-out and we need to get rid of the union right away. Isn’t that how you like people to discuss issues? You convinced me, Dienne. I’m on you and Norwegian Filmmaker’s side and I will now work hard to convince everyone that the UFT and all teachers unions are corrupt frauds.
Feel free to thank me.
Our Democratic governor in NY takes large sums of money from hedge fund supporters of charter schools. Unfortunately many Democrats support charter schools.
The NYC Dept of Ed did not even lower class sizes in the closing schools….Instead of providing coaches for the teachers, why not provide intervention teachers to work in small groups with students?
It’s not just charters. “Democratic” billionaires like Broad just got “12 Democrats to help drive what will soon amount to the biggest legislative change to banking industry oversight since Democrats under Barack Obama enacted the Dodd-Frank Act, the historic 2010 law that introduced many new rules on lenders. Congress is now poised to shrink the number of big banks that are subject to scrutiny designed to assess their ability to withstand financial shocks” helping banks like Broad’s Sunamerica. (Guardian)
Our Democratic governor in NY hates Mayor de Blasio and tries to spite him and denigrate him every time he can.
I’m sure the fact that Cuomo’s hedge fund donors hate de Blasio has nothing to do with it. After all, those hedge funders now embrace de Blasio because they know he is willing tool for them and can’t wait to do their bidding.
At least that’s what Norwegian Filmmaker tells me.
DeBlasio and most of the PEP closed a small school that was functioning very well just because of its size! He is also dismantling the adult ed program punishing long time teachers and ultimately the adult students, many of whom are the parents of children in our public schools. DeBlasio has been told about the superintendent doing the dastardly work many times under many circumstances but lied that he knew nothing about this when a teacher called into the Brian Leherer radio program on Friday. He is definitely not the progressive, pro public education mayor he proportion to be.
The number one thing De blasio can do is lower class sizes, Instead, he has done nothing. We have endless, mind numbing pd, four observations that take away time for more productive work with students, inane edicts like having a “task” card on bulletin boards, but oversized classes – meh! De blasio and his wife are phonies. Same ole same ole.
It would be much easier to compile a list of Democrats fully supportive of public education than to list those who sell us out or offer tepid support. Who would be on this list? The new Virginia Governor? Who else?
That is one tough question!
How about someone making some suggestions for NYC Mayor? Because frankly, I have only seen candidates who are far more in the pocket of the reform industry.
Please explain “Eva.”
Eva is Eva Moskowitz, CEO of the Succcess Academy charter chain, whose board contains several billionaires and Wall Street titans. Her chain is renowned for high test scores, selective admissions, and high attrition rates.
I am not from NYC, but I have wondered where deBlasio’s political power base is. It seems to me that he is far outgunned by state politicians and local power brokers who have a financial stake in the failure of the public school system. We’ve seen evidence recently of the level of engagement it takes to push change. Is it/was it naive to expect deBlasio to engineer major change without continuous and loud support from those who are being disenfranchised?
Yes, you have nailed it. But here is the brilliant thing that those who want more charters have done: they have convinced voters that it is de Blasio who is their enemy! Just like Hillary Clinton was!
Any misstep by de Blasio is a sign that he is a sell-out who needs to go. And the people who love reading this anti-de Blasio posts are the privatizers who have been chomping at the bit for a new Mayor who will do their bidding.
And de Blasio has not. He has fought them more than any other politician in NYC (I’d like to hear someone offer up a candidate who isn’t more pro-charter than de Blasio.) But of course he isn’t perfect, so he has to go and is a fraud and sell-out.
NYCPSP,
I supported de Blasio. He has given up the fight against charters.
I don’t see that he has given up the fight. Why do you think Eva Moskowitz spent all fall giving him deadlines and protesting him? Is he finding it hard to use his political capital to fight? I’m sure he is.
I think that Eva Moskowitz hates his new chancellor pick. That’s why the NY Daily News’ Ben Chapman — who is her media guy — has been running stories about scandals with the new chancellor. They want him gone or at least terrified of crossing the powers that be.
What NYC politician is better? I’d like to hear some suggestions for people who really support public schools because I’m seeing lots of people keeping quiet.
Seems to me the state legislature has left De Blasio with very little leverage, if any at all, to fight the expansion of charter schools. As I recall the law (correct me if my recollection fails), NYC must either hand over the classroom space or foot the bill for privately leased space.
That is true, but there has been NO fight back from De Blasio…NOTHING!
But if it’s true, how does he fight back? Just by yelling stuff?
It would be good if Mayor de Blasio focused on reducing class sizes in low performing schools instead of professional development and the consultant parade. It would be good if he took the time to understand why some schools get low test scores and addressed root causes instead of closing them.
Agree. Frankly I wish he was focused on class sizes in all NYC public schools, but he’s never shown much interest in class sizes generally.
FLERP!, not trying to be pithy or condescending, but if a politician is sincerely engaged in an issue and it stymied on every front, then the only thing they have left is a strong, consistent appeal to the public explaining the situation and pointing out who or what lobbies are responsible. The best historical example I can think of is Truman’s Whistle Stop Tour of 1948. If De Blasio is sincere about the issue, he needs to take them on, forcefully and repeatedly, in every public appearance and press event. If he doesn’t, it’s a sign he never much believed in it anyway; it was just a cynical tactic.
FLERP!,
For a moment I was shocked that we had the same point of view but then I remembered that Norwegian Filmmaker and dienne77 had convinced me with their intelligent posts, so perhaps they will convince you.
“Mayor Bill DeBlasshole is a fraud, and anyone should have known that based on the last undignified contract he (and his cabana boy Mulgrew) gave to the teachers. The Mayor is another neo-liberal…”
That says it all and no doubt you are now as convinced as I am that Mayor de Blasio — and the teachers unions and their leaders — are frauds who should be attacked and undermined and hopefully defeated whenever one has the opportunity.
NYCPSP,
I never said Mayor de Blasio is a fraud. What I wrote was that he broke his promise about not using school closing as a strategy.
Diane,
I know you didn’t say de Blasio is a fraud. I was referring to dienne77 and Norwegian Filmmaker who immediately jumped on your post and explained that QUOTE: “Mayor Bill DeBlasshole is a fraud” and a neoliberal. They specifically called me out because both of them often post about how de Blasio is actually a fraud (just like Hillary) and he has just been pretending to be progressive when he has been selling out public education and doing everything he can to undermine it to please the billionaires who tell him what to do. They used your post to say “I told you so, Mayor de Blasio is just another one of those corrupt sell-outs in the Democratic Party we have been telling you he is and absolutely no different than a right wing Republican.”
Your post should have resulted in a reasonable discussion about where de Blasio should do better and where he broke his promises. Politicians are going to make mistakes and they are going to make compromises, but that doesn’t mean that they are not still committed to their agenda. What we now have is a situation where self-appointed judges like Norwegian Filmmaker jump on progressive democrats who make any compromise to throw very damaging words that destroy them.
It is now impossible to have a normal conversation about where a progressive politician may not be strong enough without them throwing those truly damaging character attacks around. It’s why I often suspect Norwegian Filmmaker of being a troll. Perhaps he is not but just helps their agenda.
Bernie Sanders endorsed the DFER candidate for Virginia Governor. There are two ways one could discuss this. One would be to have an interesting discussion about how to convince Bernie to support public schools more and think about what reasons he might have for not doing so.
The other ways is to shout over and over again that Bernie Sanders is a fraud and a fake progressive and a neoliberal who has lied and pretended to be liberal but always intended to sell out America and public schools to the highest bidder.
And if Sanders wins the nomination and he is actually directly up against a right wing Republican, you will hear the trolls pretending to be “progressives” who use the second method to attack Bernie. You will see them using exactly the tactics that Norwegian Filmmaker and dienne77 use to “discuss” Mayor de Blasio. “Fraud”. “Sell out” “Fake” “Liar”. You won’t be able to have a discussion about why a politician might compromise because you will have those self described progressives screaming non-stop about how Bernie is the biggest fraud in the world.
And if it is Warren, you will hear the trolls pretending to be progressives using the same attacks on Warren. You won’t be able to discuss why she is weak on public schools without some self-described progressives doing what Norwegian Filmmaker does and shouting about how Warren is a lying sell-out fake progressive who has no redeeming characteristics and is no better than the right wing Republican she is running directly against.
It is now impossible to have a discussion without Norwegian Filmmaker and dienne77 saying that if they aren’t allowed to scream “fraud” “corrupt” “sell out”, it’s because we just can’t admit that any democrat is less than perfect.
They don’t want a discussion. They want to smear and slur and hate and say “I told you so” if any democrat is less than perfect.
Look at their responses. Because that’s what we are going to see directed toward Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren or any progressive who runs. It won’t be a normal discussion of the candidates’ decisions and compromises. It will be the slurs and character attacks and insistence that the progressive candidate was always a lying tool of the right wing and should not be trusted and is no better than any Republican.
They never say “let’s discuss why a progressive politician is ‘less than fully progressive'”. They go on the attack insisting that this is evidence of corruption, neoliberalism, selling-out, and fraud.
I believe that is very dangerous to democracy. And it makes me mourn for this country’s future because I know that things will only get worse as the people who throw around those kind of attacks get power, no matter what side they are on. Democrats should be better. Progeressives should be better.
We should WANT to have a discussion that doesn’t involve immediately throwing “fraud” and “neoliberal” and “sellout” and “corrupt liar” at politicians and then acting offended when someone calls them out on that.
Yup. Even our politicians have turned to relying on character assassination and ideological purity. We are getting to be as bad as any fanatical religious sect who may claim the infinite truth of their way and their way alone.
Thank you, speak
I try to call out people whose idea of intelligent discussion is comments like “Mayor Bill DeBlasshole is a fraud, and anyone should have known that based on the last undignified contract he (and his cabana boy Mulgrew) gave to the teachers…The Mayor is another neo-liberal…” (and frankly that is some of the tamer comments)
And then the denials that comments like that above are perfectly fine. After all, it is “just saying that the person is perhaps somewhat less than fully progressive”.
See, there is absolutely no difference in their mind.
“Mayor Bill DeBlasshole is a fraud” = “Mayor de Blasio is perhaps less than fully progressive”.
I mean, that is what they really believe with all their hearts. That both are exactly the same. That saying the first comment should be “understood” as saying the second comment, so how dare anyone criticize them because they just say the first comment all the time.
“Bernie Sanders is a complete sell-out and fake progressive” = “Bernie Sanders sometimes supports pro-charter candidates and we should talk about why and how to change that.”
Do you think they really believe it when they claim there is no difference, or are they just trying to undermine progressive candidates for their own agenda?
^^Thank you, speduktr (sorry about the autocorrect)