In 2013, when Bill de Blasio ran for Mayor of New York City for the first time, he was an outspoken supporter of public schools and an equally outspoken critic of charter schools. Taking him at his word, he won over many public school parents and advocates by his willingness to break with the Bloomberg policy of favoring charters over public schools. At the time, he met with me, sought my endorsement, and won it based on his firm commitment to stop privatization. I feel betrayed after reading the story that follows.
His first schools chancellor, Carmen Farina, a high-level veteran of the Bloomberg administration, walked a fine line, trying not to antagonize either side. The public schools enroll over 1.1 million children and the charters enroll 114,000 students. The charters are the darlings of the financial world and Wall Street and the big donors.
The new chancellor, Richard Carranza, visited three charter schools yesterday and embraced them as “public schools,” not “publicly funded private schools,” which is what most people see with their own eyes since they are operated by private boards and make their own rules about admissions and discipline and other matters.
Leonie Haimson, in a note to her listserve, asks these questions:
If they are public schools, why do they refuse to follow state law when it comes to suspension and expulsion policies? Why do they refuse audits from the state comptroller, and refuse performance audits from the city comptroller?
Why do their Charter Management Companies refuse to comply with FOILs or Open Meetings Law?
Why do they have the right to access space at the city’s expense, while more than half a million public school students are crammed into overcrowded buildings with no hope of relief?
The reality is that charter schools are private corporations that use public funding, and use their backing from billionaires to demand special privileges from elected officials, while refusing to follow the same rules or submit to the same oversight as public schools that are governed by public bodies.
There is an emerging body of law which is challenging the notion that charter schools are public schools. See The Legal Status of Charter Schools in State Statutory Law by Preston Green and Bruce Baker. The reality is that charter schools claim to be public schools when that advantages them in terms of funding or PR, and claim that they are private entities when that advantages them in terms of being able to ignore laws pertaining to student discipline, building code regulations, fair labor practices, fiscal and performance transparency, and a host of other issues.
I have some questions: If charters are public schools, why are they allowed to close school and send their students, teachers, and parents to political rallies in Albany and at City Hall? Will Chancellor Carranza authorize all public schools to do the same or will he forbid the charter schools from using their students as political fodder to get more money for the charters? If charters are allowed to control their admissions and discipline policies, should other public schools get the same approval to do so? If deregulation is important for those “public schools,” why aren’t all public schools similarly deregulated? If charters are public schools, shouldn’t they be subject to the same legal requirements as other public schools? Or are they private contractors who are not state actors, as charters have repeatedly said in their defense in federal courts and before the NLRB?
Sharon Otterman of the New York Times wrote:
New York City’s schools chancellor signaled on Wednesday that he wanted to usher in a new era of détente between the Department of Education and the city’s charter school sector, which have often been at odds under the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio over issues like finances and the pressures of sharing public school space.
“Charter Schools are public schools,” Richard Carranza, the chancellor, said in the cafeteria of the Bronx Charter School for Excellence, as he wrapped up a day of visits to three charter schools in Brooklyn and the Bronx, to which he had invited reporters along. Even that simple statement was likely to make waves among charter school opponents, who prefer to describe charters as privately run, publicly funded schools.
“The question about charters versus traditional public schools,” Mr. Carranza added, addressing reporters around a cafeteria table, “is a red herring.”
“I would say that the more dialogue we have around building a portfolio of good choices for all students in the city, and the less we emphasize a dialogue about ‘us versus them,’ the better it is for all the children in New York City,” he said.
Crossing what was once a white-hot line for the de Blasio administration, Mr. Carranza said he would visit a Success Academy charter school “in the next few weeks.” Mayor de Blasio was elected in 2013 vowing to take action against the aggressive expansion of charter networks like Success Academy, which is led by his former political rival, Eva S. Moskowitz, and which now runs 46 of the 227 charter schools in the city.
“Time for Eva Moskowitz to stop having the run of the place,” Mr. de Blasio said while campaigning in 2013. “She has to stop being tolerated, enabled, supported.”
In February 2014, Mr. de Blasio reversed a decision by former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to provide space in city public school buildings to three charter schools, all part of the Success network.
In the political fallout, state legislators, with urging from the governor, passed a law requiring the city to pay much of the rent for new charter schools if it denied them free space, effectively curtailing Mr. de Blasio from removing more schools.
Chancellor Carranza “said he was happy to hear all three of the charters he visited hired only certified teachers, but he steered clear of the divisive political issue at play: that most charter schools in New York City are not unionized.”
We are in the era of ensuring that minorities do not receive the education they deserve. We are in the era where left is right and right is left. We are in the era where human beings of color are perceived as apes. There is nothing to surprise parents anymore. Why should this chancellor care about education for all? He is no different than Duncan, or the rest of the ed reformers.
“He is no different than Duncan, or the rest of the ed reformers.”
Am I the only one who hears echoes of the 2016 campaign in this?
I believe so, NYCpsp! 🙂
Never pay attention to what someone says. Look at what they do. The older they are, the more history of what they do we will have to judge them by and if what they say matches the history, you might have found an honest person.
I wonder how many wealthy and powerful billionaires, millionaires and members of Congress are honest. I suspect that we would find none we could trust.
Trump is a perfect example of that. Anyone, and I repeat, anyone, that listens to what Trump says and tweets and believes him deserves to have the title “deplorable” carved across their forehead like a permanent dunce cap. Trump has a history going back for decades that reveals who he really is and he is not an honest man. I don’t think there is an honest cell in his body and the average human body has 38 to 40-trillion cells.
I agree with this 100%.
I do not understand how anyone can look at the entirety of Mayor de Blasio’s tenure and what he did for public education and reduce it to a complete “betrayal” because a brand new Chancellor who has already said many naive things that the press jumped on said charters were public schools.
Bernie Sanders says charter schools are public schools! So does Elizabeth Warren!
It isn’t completely unheard of for politicians to use that term and not have it mean that they plan to sell out public education. Look at what they do, not that they used those words.
What is the mayor’s record of actions to get things done since he has been in office?
None of the politicians understand that charter schools are run by private corporations with private boards with no transparency or financial accountability beyond what is absolutely necessary. I was disappointed, but not surprised to hear Bernie, Hillary and Elizabeth Warren talk about charter schools and not know what they are.
But Carranza is an experienced school superintendent! He worked in the Bay Area and in Houston. He knows very well that charter schools are private schools funded by public money and free from all those pesky laws and regulations and mandates that cause so much trouble in public schools.
Universal pre-k for 4 year olds now serving over 68,000 4 year olds each year!! 68,000!
Has directed huge resources into renewal schools (failing schools that the state wanted to close) by trying to offer wraparound services for the most at-risk kids who attend.
Efforts at integration that – while not perfect – have been working to create more integrated schools without causing huge outcry. Now he is trying to push pro-integration policies even more (and is getting more attacked for it).
Fought very hard to block charter school expansion when he first came to office, which led to a massive PR campaign to destroy him and have the state legislature write a new law that forced NYC to give free space to charter schools even if the Mayor did not want to.
PS — I don’t remember a single politician coming to de Blasio’s defense when he was fighting charter school expansion. They were all terrified to offend the rich and powerful Cuomo. de Blasio stood alone and Cuomo has punished him severely ever since.
And to this day, it would be easy for de Blasio to hand over to Success Academy every school she desired just like Mayor Bloomberg did. Instead she is throwing temper tantrums because he has been slow-walking every request and giving her space she does not want. The Mayor is obligated by law to give her something and his critics attack him when he does, but he is giving her as little as possible and trying to do it in a way that harms public school students the least!
^^^PS — I want to make clear that I do not think Mayor de Blasio is perfect. He has made mistakes. He has had to function within limitations imposed on him by Cuomo’s anti-public school buddies who own Albany and wrote rules that forced him to do things he did not want to do.
But there is a difference between making mistakes and making compromises within the limits that have been imposed on you by the state and saying that the Mayor “betrayed” public schools.
I still want to hear of a single other politician in all of NYC who has criticized charters as much as the Mayor has.
Is there anyone? I would like to know so I can support them.
Diogenes, walking the streets of Sinop, in the light of day, with lantern in hand, looking for an honest man… https://binged.it/2kCUfsL
The inscription reads:
Philosopher Diogenes, who is famous saying [to Alexander The Great], “stand a little less between me and the sun” lived in SINOP between 413 – 404 B.C. and died 324 B.C.
What might Diogenes say to Trump?
Like!
& just how would Diogenes address the evil lords & serfs of ALEC?
(This could make for a good graphic novel; all proceeds benefitting the N.P.E.)
Any clever artists/writers out there?
(Fred Klonsky, I’m talking to you!)
Having the legal publication is helpful. The claim that charter schools are public schools really is a matter of convenience for their expansion and securing public funds, with managerial and accounting loopholes that support frauds in addition to foisting test-driven policies on teachers, and students.
It’s a shame. Get ready, public school families. Prepare to have your schools declared a low priority.
The least they could do is warn the families in public schools that they’re winding down public schools, with the goal of eradicating them.
Hiding the ball is really unfair to the public and assigning their schools a lower status is not serving them.
This happened in Ohio and we’re just now coming out of it. It was all charters and vouchers for 20 years. You couldn’t PAY public employees to put any effort towards public schools- I know because we were paying them.
The quality of the public schools dropped due to neglect and outright hostility from politicians- we’ve dropped 5 places in 20 years. It probably would have been fatal to the public system except there was a series of charter scandals that broke the magic spell.
Now the politicians are all back at our schools, running for office. We’re wiser, though, I think. Almost no one believes them.
Actually, that is likely to happen after the Mayor — who is term limited — leaves.
Because all the other politicians are real pro-charter politicians. Despite what you read here, the notion that Mayor de Blasio wants to shut down public schools and help charters to undermine them is just not true.
“I believe in public education, and I believe in public charter schools,” Sanders said to applause. “I do not believe in private—privately controlled charter schools.” (Bernie Sanders quote).
“I will be voting no on Question 2. Many charter schools in Massachusetts are producing extraordinary results for our students, and we should celebrate the hard work of those teachers and spread what’s working to other schools.”
I do not believe that either of those politicians have “betrayed” public education. They both worked to limit the effects of charters.
And it saddens me that we turn against one of the few remaining politicians in America who has actually stood up strongly for public education because of semantics instead of looking at the entirety of his years in office and what he has done — and not done — when charters have demanded it.
But if anyone can come up with a better politician in NYC or anywhere who has spoken out as strongly against charters as Mayor de Blasio has (instead of remaining complicit and silent when the Mayor was attacked as hating poor kids and wanting them to suffer in failing public schools), then please let me know as I am looking for a pro-public school politician to support.
I already support Cynthia Nixon, but I hear she is only running b because anti-public school and pro-charter de Blasio encouraged her so maybe I should start attacking her, too.
This saga goes on and on and for public School supporters the battle seems endless. No matter who takes the helm it always seems like politics and the poison it spews creeps out and voila….here we go again….are we going to have this endless debate forever? Charters are poisoning the minds of all with all the bull crap of their scores and a continued barrage of hypocrisy of sending bad students back to public schools, etc.
So now Here we are again in NYC hopefully to rid ourselves of the “charter” nightmare and we get a new chancellor. Previous chancellors like Joel Klein – who was a lawyer – Kathy Black – who was a publishing socialite and lasted 3 months and Dennis Walcott and clueless office worker whom Bloomberg put in as chancellor.
So now we have Carranza from Houston,TX and he is playing the political card claiming charters are public schools. Exhausting in the fact that we all know they are not public schools!! So, here we go again as this never ending thorn on the side – the charter schools – continue to confuse the lives of people and kids and the constant push in your face of people like Eva moskowitch crying for every penny they can get and take from you. Unfortunately, the people I have mentioned in the blog as well as having a person like devos in DC and one can understand why everyone is running for the hills in the field of education.
I am part of a Manhattan Mom’s online forum. This was posted today by another mother. Assume the location is somewhere in Manhattan.
Are there any Success Academy parents out there who have experienced or know of other parents who have experienced the following:
* kid was bullied & the school denied it* have had the school call ACS, police or/& any other city agency on them* have been harassed by the principal & pushed out of school * have had their kid held back from going to the next grade out of spite or a teacher lacking in experience or constant communication
We are having a crises in this school & need parents to speak out.
Carranza should be corrected for calling charters public schools. Perhaps he would benefit from reading Peter Greene’s explanation of the difference. Perhaps multiple people should email him a copy. Carranza got away with speaking freely and inaccurately in Florida, but he is in New York now. New Yorkers know the difference, and they will call him out for the error. “Reformers” have been trying to conflate charters with public schools from the start in order to mislead the public. It’s about time “reform” jargon gets challenged.
New Yorkers have already called out Carranza on other spoken errors and he has walked them back.
The “portfolio model” he’s talking about came out of Indianapolis, where it was installed by a group of national ed reformers.
They promote it all over the country, mostly because they’ve succeeded in privatizing 40% of schools in Indy. Missing from all the marketing and cheerleading is any information on whether the schools have actually gotten better, though.
No one mentions Cleveland anymore, and that was the fashionable ed reform hot spot in 2012. They don’t mention it because the results are underwhelming. That didn’t stop them from exporting it to Indianapolis though.
They’ll plunk it down in your city next. They changed the language slightly but other than that it’s the same privatization plan they;ve been selling for 30 years.
I hate to say it, New York friends, but when it comes to Carranza, I told you so.
What did you tell us? Why be so vague? You told us that Carranza was secretly rabidly pro-charter and he and Mayor de Blasio have been conspiring to decimate public schools ion NYC and turn them over to charter operators just as soon as they can — which is probably by next September?
What exactly did you tell us? That Carranza is actually worse than Arne Duncan and he will personally go into every public school and remove each child and turn it over to charters?
I’m a little sick of the nasty innuendoes here. Just explain exactly how evil and corrupt Carranza is already and offer up your proof.
Or is saying “public charter” as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Carranza do now ground for trying to impeach them?
NYC PSP,
You are going over the top. No one said anything about “evil and corrupt.”
If the Mayor wants to stop the aggressive expansion of charters, he should tell Carranza. It sounds like he’s ready to give Eva whatever she wants. Remember how her billionaire friends lambasted deBlasio?
For the record, I never said that you were characterizing Mayor de Blasio as evil and corrupt. I was calling out this innuendo from Karen Wolfe without any explanation. Karen Wolfe warned us, apparently, but I’m not sure of what? That Carranza was corrupt? That he was a sell-out? That he was secretly pro-charter and we should be prepared to have our public schools declared a low-priority and shut down?
Mayor de Blasio has had to be less outspoken about charters because every time he does, it is used by the public school haters to punish public schools. He is trying to walk a fine line by giving charters the very least he is obligated by law to give them and trying to do so while causing the least harm for the students in public schools who are directly harmed by Albany’s forcing him to provide space.
Carmen Farina also visited these charters.
When de Blasio tried to block charters soon after he was elected, can you name one progressive politician of any stripe who spoke up for him?
Why are we jumping down the throat of one of the most pro-public school Democrats in this country? Because there are those who are more anti-charter?
If so, please name some because I am looking for pro-public school politicians to support.
The progressive politicians go running for the hills whenever the pro- charter folks attack de Blasio and refuse to defend him. And then it is de Blasio who gets attacked as the betrayer!
I also don’t understand how you believe the Mayor can refuse to give Eva Moskowitz space when he is obligated by Albany to do so.
Unless Cynthia Nixon wins and appoints new SUNY Charter Institute board members, Joseph Belluck will keep approving charters for Eva Moskowitz (staffed by teachers she trains herself) . And there is absolutely nothing de Blasio or any Mayor who follows him can do about it.
Go back and look at news articles from last fall when Moskowitz kept inventing “deadlines” for de Blasio to meet to give her space that he just ignored. He is not doing her bidding. He is following the law and giving her what he must. And his priority has always been how to do the least amount of harm to public schools when he is forced to give her space. Mayor de Blasio is not making decisions based on how to harm Success Academy the most. He is making decisions based on how to harm public schools the least. And as much as I don’t like when that means Moskowitz gets something she wants, it is actually the right thing to do. When his hand is forced, his goal should be to do what will be the least harmful to NYC students even if that means Moskowitz gets what she wants and not what she deserves.
Got it. Why did he hire a chancellor who thinks that charters with private boards and private management are “public schools”? You know they are not. What public school would be allowed to close for the day to take the students to a political rally?
Some links:
https://nypost.com/2018/05/03/de-blasio-is-trying-to-kill-nycs-charter-schools/
That one is from this month!!!
And from just a few months ago:
http://thebronxchronicle.com/2018/03/19/success-academy-files-legal-action-nyc-department-education-discriminating-harlem-students/
And from last October:
“New York City’s Department of Education said on Thursday that it would not find space for five new middle schools proposed by the Success Academy charter school network in time for the locations to be approved by a city panel in November.”
Which led to this attack on de Blasio the end of November:
https://nypost.com/2017/11/30/charter-school-parents-say-de-blasio-isnt-giving-students-enough-space/
I don’t understand how anyone could possibly accuse de Blasio of being pro-charter or betraying anyone or jumping to accommodate Eva Moskowitz. The facts just don’t bear this out at all.
Hello, he just hired a Chancellor who is pro-charter. Do you think he forgot to ask him in the interview?
Carranza may very well be “pro-charter”, but I’m going to wait and judge him by his actions and not because he used the same words that many progressive politicians like Bernie Sanders use like “public charters”.
Mayor de Blasio stopped Eva Moskowitz from evicting a school of severely handicapped children so she could expand in the location that she demanded. When Cuomo punished de Blasio for this action by making sure Albany passed legislation requiring him to give free space to charters, no progressive politicians stood up for public schools. Bernie Sanders sat next to Cuomo praising his progressive education views. Elizabeth Warren was busy praising public charters. And where were the progressive NYC politicians supporting the Mayor when he tried to curb charters? Silent.
As the articles I linked to above show, de Blasio has done his best to follow the law while trying to protect the public school students that are being harmed by forcing him to give charters free space. That’s why Eva Moskowitz still hates him. Because getting only the bare minimum of what she wants is never enough for her.
Look at the entirety of what Mayor de Blasio has done. Has he gone out of his way as Bloomberg did to destroy public schools and reward charters? On the contrary, he is directed huge resources to PUBLIC schools and done the legal minimum for charters.
What is the Mayor supposed to do when his hand is forced by Albany? Maybe encourage Cynthia Nixon to run?
It did no good for Mayor de Blasio to bash charters publicly. Do you know what that got NYC public schools children? It got them the “right” to subsidize the richest charter schools in New York City by taking money from some of the poorest students in NYC. So all the Mayor can do is work with what he has. And maybe encourage Cynthia Nixon to run.
I still would like to hear which avidly pro-pubic school politician in NYC you and Leonie Haimson believe is more anti-charter than Mayor de Blasio. I would like to read something — anything — where a NYC politician criticizes the entire charter movement and says that ALL charter schools are bad and they should not be called public.
All I see is easy criticism of specific actions (like closing down a public school that has not been able to attract enough kids) instead of any real position on what they want the Mayor to do with regards to charters. He is stuck with them. But he is doing his best to limit the harm they do to NYC public school students.
When de Blasio is gone, NYC is going to go back to a real pro-charter era just like we saw with Bloomberg. If you and Leonie disagree, then please let me know what NYC politicians you believe are strongly condemning charters. I really would like to know.
Strongly attacking Mayor de Blasio because he has to accommodate giving charters free space is not the same as attacking charters themselves and saying they should not exist. And while many politicians are delighted to jump on the first bandwagon — it is very financially rewarding to attack de Blasio — not one of them is willing to publicly criticize charters and demand they be limited and not allowed to expand. Only de Blasio. And he got punished and so did all NYC public school students because of it and not one progressive politician stood up for him.
If Leonie can name a politician who says “charters are NOT public schools and should be shut down and not given any public resources” I would be most grateful because I am looking for politicians to support. Plenty of politicians willing to bash a pro-public education Mayor de Blasio for any compromise he is being forced to make, but not a single politician willing to say “charters are not public schools and should be given no public money.” Why not?
Karen Wolfe is right. His record said it all, not his personal story.
I live in Indiana but sent Deblasio a contribution when he first ran for Mayor. Now I’m disillusioned too and wrote him to say there will be no more contributions from me and demanding that he remove him from his distribution list. He broke my heart.
On Thu, May 31, 2018 at 2:00 PM, Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: “In 2013, when Bill de Blasio ran for Mayor of New > York City for the first time, he was an outspoken supporter of public > schools and an equally outspoken critic of charter schools. Taking him at > his word, he won over many public school parents and advocate” > Respond to this post by replying above this line > New post on *Diane Ravitch’s blog* > NYC: de Blasio’s New Schools > Chancellor Richard Carranza Endorses Charter Schools > by > dianeravitch > > In 2013, when Bill de Blasio ran for Mayor of New York City for the first > time, he was an outspoken supporter of public schools and an equally > outspoken critic of charter schools. Taking him at his word, he won over > many public school parents and advocates by his willingness to break with > the Bloomberg policy of favoring charters over public schools. At the time, > he met with me, sought my endorsement, and won it based on his firm > commitment to stop privatization. I feel betrayed after reading the story > that follows. > > His first schools chancellor, Carmen Farina, a high-level veteran of the > Bloomberg administration, walked a fine line, trying not to antagonize > either side. The public schools enroll over 1.1 million children and the > charters enroll 114,000 students. The charters are the darlings of the > financial world and Wall Street and the big donors. > > The new chancellor, Richard Carranza, visited three charter schools > yesterday > > and embraced them as “public schools,” not “publicly funded private > schools,” which is what most people see with their own eyes since they are > operated by private boards and make their own rules about admissions and > discipline and other matters. > > Leonie Haimson, in a note to her listserve, asks these questions: > > *If they are public schools, why do they refuse to follow state law when > it comes to suspension and expulsion policies? Why do they refuse audits > from the state comptroller, and refuse performance audits from the city > comptroller? * > > Why do their Charter Management Companies refuse to comply with FOILs or > Open Meetings Law? > > Why do they have the right to access space at the city’s expense, while > more than half a million public school students are crammed into > overcrowded buildings with no hope of relief? > > The reality is that charter schools are private corporations that use > public funding, and use their backing from billionaires to demand special > privileges from elected officials, while refusing to follow the same rules > or submit to the same oversight as public schools that are governed by > public bodies. > > There is an emerging body of law which is challenging the notion that > charter schools are public schools. See The Legal Status of Charter > Schools in State Statutory Law > > by Preston Green and Bruce Baker. The reality is that charter schools claim > to be public schools when that advantages them in terms of funding or PR, > and claim that they are private entities when that advantages them in terms > of being able to ignore laws pertaining to student discipline, building > code regulations, fair labor practices, fiscal and performance > transparency, and a host of other issues. > > I have some questions: *If charters are public schools, why are they > allowed to close school and send their students, teachers, and parents to > political rallies in Albany and at City Hall? Will Chancellor Carranza > authorize all public schools to do the same or will he forbid the charter > schools from using their students as political fodder to get more money for > the charters? If charters are allowed to control their admissions and > discipline policies, should other public schools get the same approval to > do so? If deregulation is important for those “public schools,” why aren’t > all public schools similarly deregulated? If charters are public schools, > shouldn’t they be subject to the same legal requirements as other public > schools? Or are they private contractors who are not state actors, as > charters have repeatedly said in their defense in federal courts and before > the NLRB?* > > Shar
This should make Carranza’s detractors happy! His DOE is intentionally rejecting and slowing down charter schools’ requests to have children receive special education classification.
http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2018/05/31/charter-school-network-accuses-city-of-unfairly-denying-special-ed-to-students
“At the Success Academy Bronx 2 Middle School, teachers identified 13 students who needed special education this school year.”
Bronx 2 Middle school is a small middle school by NYC standards with only about 70 students per grade.
Because SA Middle schools are only for students who come from SA elementary schools, we know that all of those 13 students have been in the SA system for many years.
Why is Success Academy failing to identify such a high percentage of students as needing special education services until middle school and some as late as 8th grade? That’s a lot of students whose special education diagnoses seemed to be missed for many years.
And this article seems to be implying that Eva Moskowitz – despite being able to raise tens of millions of dollars in a single evening — refused to use a penny of it to pay for services for these 13 kids and told them that they had to do without services because she needed to use them as political pawns against the DOE.
It’s shocking that Moskowitz uses hundreds of thousands of dollars on rallies and public relations but refused to use a fraction of that to pay for services for these 13 students. Why wouldn’t she make sure these kids are getting what they need while waiting for the DOE bureaucracy?
Or is the idea to get those students identified and then force them out of the school by claiming that they just can’t provide the services that these kids need?
What’s the point of raising so much money if you don’t use it on the kids who need it most? To pay high salaries to marketing executives and PR personnel?
^^^”Theresa Adjei says she believes her daughter, an eighth grader at Success Academy’s Bronx 2 Middle School, needs special education. The school agrees. The Education Department rejected the request.”
I can’t believe that with all their money, Success Academy did not provide the special education that they are certain that this child needs and instead allowed her to go without any services. I could understand this happening at a very poor school, but with all their money, surely they could pay for the special education services they are certain this child needs.
Ye gads. Leave a politician in the oven–er, office–long enough, & he/she will come out…burnt. WHAT is the matter w/these people?!
&–in more (bad, but not unexpected, news), NY had its Dem Convention the other day where, as reported by the NYT, HRC endorsed Cuomo (no bid surprise to me & others…perhaps to some readers), & he gave her flowers. The article said she “ignored” Nixon. Also, another article, there, whereby Cuomo was highly praised–& endorsed–by the “Women’s Equality Party”(W.E.P.–an already evil letter combination to those who collect state/fed. pensions & cannot, therefore, get Social Security, even after having paid into the system for years–still alive in some states), which, too, is no surprise, seeing as he’d “created” it. Also, confusing to those who have been watching the Working Families Party (W.F.P.), which endorsed Nixon.
Well beyond time for a 3rd party. As the New Orleans’ unofficial slogan, “Who dat?” the can be a new one, “Who Dem?”
This time, there’s a Nixon we CAN vote for!
I like Cynthia Nixon and I am strongly supporting her.
She is part of the de Blasio crowd so I have no doubt that before primary day we will read lots of propaganda about what a sell-out she is and how she secretly supports charters and wants to destroy all of public education. Or is anti-uniion. Or some other such propaganda in which a single sentence she utters is absolute proof of Nixon’s complete corruption. We already saw it with the transit union attacks on Nixon and how she was secretly anti-union.
Progressives eating their own so that we have another 4 years of Cuomo.