The New York Daily News reports that lobbyists for billionaires who support charter schools had a cozy meeting with Democrats in the State Senate.
Even though pro-public education progressives swept control of the State Senate away from the charter-crazy Republicans in the State Senate, the lobbyists know that money is still green, no matter who is in power.
Jeffrey Cook-McCormac, a lobbyist working under Dan Loeb, one of the state’s most prolific political bundlers and once a pariah among Dems for racist comments made about now-Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers), can be heard on the tape praising Democrats for not taking steps to scale back charters.
“I just want to say that I think a lot of people are breathing a sigh of relief on how you governed in your first few months in the majority,” Cook-McCormac told an audience that included Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) as well as Sens. Brian Benjamin (D-Manhattan) and Jim Gaughran (D-Long Island)…
The comments came in the wake of a legislative session in which Dems, in control of both chambers for the first time in years, were bolstered by a slate of progressive members who are either openly wary of charters or the moneyed interests behind them….
Cook-McCormac’s presence at the Nov. 4 fundraiser at the swanky Midtown outpost Aquavit was especially surprising to some Dems considering his boss’ past comments about Stewart-Cousins.
In 2017, Loeb came under fire for a Facebook post saying that the Senate Democratic Leader had done “more damage to people of color than anyone who has ever donned a hood.”
Lawmakers, including Benjamin, staged protests outside of Success Academy charter schools at the time, calling for the billionaire founder of the Third Point hedge fund to be fired from his position as chairman of the board for the city’s largest charter-school operator. Loeb later apologized.
While Dems accepting cash from charter proponents isn’t new, some were stunned by the chumminess on display.
So, to be clear, billionaire Dan Loeb implies that State Senator Stewart-Cousins–now the majority leader– is worse than the Ku Klux Klan.
But that is no reason not to take Loeb’s money, right?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Remember, Martin Luther King, Jr. He’d be speaking out against this farce.
FYI …
Advancement Project National Office is thrilled to once again support the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Tribute at the Washington National Cathedral (3101 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20016). This year’s service will include excerpts from, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” written by Dr. King in 1963.
Join us on Sunday, January 19, from 4-6 p.m. as we celebrate Dr. King’s legacy and examine his challenge to the church, particularly the lack of progress on behalf of our incarcerated Black and Brown neighbors.
Excerpts from Dr. King’s “Letter” will be front and center with his words amplified by a reading from executive director Judith Browne Dianis, and musical performances from Washington Performing Arts Children of the Gospel Choir and the Cathedral Band.
This interfaith event is free and open to the public. All are welcome.
Were the new progressive Democrats at that event? There was a lot of pressure on Senate Democrats to lift the charter cap in NYC and had the new progressive Dems not been elected I assume that would have happened. But the charter cap wasn’t lifted. I’m not sure what other steps the Senate could take to “scale back” charters as I don’t think even Bernie Sanders is suggesting that charters be shut down yet.
It is probably a good sign if the big charter boosters are now grateful not to be shut down since they did not get what they desperately wanted in 2019 – a lifting of the charter cap in NYC. But if the Senate Democrats suddenly vote to lift the charter cap, that would be a sign that they have been corrupted by money.
The other thing that demonstrates the corruption of the charter movement is that there are still charters available for places outside of NYC and the big cities outside of NYC have much lower performing public schools. But charters don’t want to open there, likely because they don’t actually want to run a charter where they would be unable to cherry pick students the way they do in NYC with over 47% of its 1 million public school students who perform at or above grade level to choose from.
Charters want the cap lifted in NYC because they only want to open charters where education reporters with no understanding of statistics will accept without question the charter propaganda that it is absolutely impossible for charters to cherry pick students in a school system of over 1 million students.
Hint for NYT education reporters who don’t understand statistics:
The NYC Charter School Center proudly brags that there are 126,000 charter school students in NYC and it proudly brags that 57% of them are proficient on the ELA exam. That’s 71,800 charter school students doing well. WOW, that’s a number that the NY Times education reporters are simply blown away by!
But NYC public schools have 1.05 MILLION students and a proficiency rate of “only” 47%. That means that there are still nearly 500,000 students who perform at or above standards that charters would like to recruit to their school.
That’s why lifting the cap in NYC is much more important to them than teaching students in any of the other much lower performing school districts in other cities like Albany or Buffalo. Because their goal is not to teach, but to cherry pick, and they cannot cherry pick unless the state Senate allows them to expand in NYC because they are clearly not interested in expanding in other cities where they could not cherry pick from the nearly 500,000 public school students who score proficient on state tests and thus provide them with the bragging rights that seem to be their overriding goal.
It’s worth noting that NYC has a huge population from which to draw teachers, especially important since charter school churn is high. Also, charters use NYC to attract young people who are looking to live in an exciting city. Albany, Buffalo, and Rochester don’t have the same attraction.
“charters use NYC to attract young people who are looking to live in an exciting city.”
Average Success Academy teacher salaries [SA has 60% of NYC charter schools):
Entry level (assoc teacher) $45k; Teacher $58k; Lead teacher $60k. That level salary in NYC means you will be spending 30% of it on a shared rundown 1-bedroom apt in Astoria – or up to 50% of it for a nice shared 1-bedroom in a nice nbhd closer in.
… However stats also include “Eng teacher $20/hr.” SA’s schoolday is 8 hrs long but that’s still $30k/ yr which at best gets you a cubbyhole share in a yucky nbhd.
The attraction of “exciting NYC” for charter teachers will last about as long as for my millennial sons’ friends who are musicians [/waiters or package-deliverymen] and actors/ chorus-line dancers [ dance/ yoga instructors/ retail clerks]: two to three years max. Charters may appear to thrive in NYC by comparison to upstate cities, but they’re staffed w/a constant churn of inexperienced folks – hardly a quality ed alternative to NYC’s pubschs.
KEY truth: “Charters want the cap lifted in NYC because they only want to open charters where education reporters with no understanding of statistics will accept without question the charter propaganda…” Playing the media so well.
Electing progressives matters until it doesn’t, like when billionaires can finance campaigns for right-wing pro-charter competitors to replace the progressive newbies. This is why social justice advances through elections are glacial and uneven. A better way to stop the looting of public schools by charters is for teachers to go on strike, and to stay on strike until authorities at all levels accept their public responsibilities. If teachers go out en masse in solidarity with their students’ families and stay on strike until they win real reductions in class size, real increases in school spending, elimination of standardized testing and useless tech buys, and real expulsion of charter frauds from the public treasury, a recovery of damaged public education will become possible. In the recent strike waves in public schools, teachers have settled too soon for too little and surrendered their advantage prematurely to elected and appointed authorities to do the right thing. They won’t, unless teachers paralyze society by going on strike and staying out until sunrise.
I’ve been very lucky, Ira, to work most of my career in a school district with a strong local union. I never do forget…it really does make a huge difference. Absolutely, it’s issues like class size and getting the support our kids deserve that matter. I also remember the time I was in the hospital beside my wife, who was suddenly taken seriously ill. My phone rang and it was my local president calling to see if there was anything I needed. Not only that but the former local president who had retired reached out, too, as well as colleagues who’d been on the negotiating committee with me…these were people I could count on -for real. People with a collective bargaining agreement that carries legal force to protect us all.
Thank, God, I teach in New York State.
I wish I could get the message out more: unions are key.
I can only chime in w/my equally anecdotal tale of my little sis, a NYS teacher who started 35 yrs ago in SpEd, eventually running her midsch SpEd dept & gradually (always accumulating more ed – has a couple of Masters’ (plus admin credits) making her way to Asst Princ at a large hisch – & putting in much time as a union leader throughout. Bragging here, but she has always had an innate & special gift for relating to kids w/mental issues & behavioral pbms, plus vision regarding stud safety issues, so she’s been a natural in disciplinary & bldg safety positions. This kind of person devotes 24/7 to her school yearlong, & thoroughly deserves her union pension & health benefits. Tho her salary has averaged less than half of my husband’s in his 45-yr engrg career, her union benefits put our families on a par at retirement time. And I wouldn’t have it otherwise: their level of education, & hrs put into their careers, & worthiness of efforts for public good are equal.
We’re having at least a few longtime teachers who were also very active in our local union retire this June. It will be a truly sad day when they walk out the door of our school for the last time. Like your sister, they’ve done so much for their colleagues and, of course, our students.
One teacher in particular was absolutely chewed up by the alleged “common core”….put through the proverbial mill. And, still she came out the other side, better than ever.
Thanks to all of you out there who have put in those long hours (years, really) with our union.
A “lobbying love-fest” it says….
Boo hiss.
Yes!