This issue deserves a longer post by me, since my first book in 1974 was a history of the New York City public schools.

Mayors have always had a large measure of control over the city’s public schools, but only under Mayor Bloomberg did the mayor take control of appointing the superintendent/chancellor and direct every aspect of the system. Bloomberg used his power without checks/balances to close scores of schools, to fire principals, and to disrupt every aspect of the system, while expanding the public relations staff and making unsubstantiated claims of success. Bloomberg trumpeted the success of authoritarian, top-down control, absent any democratic voice. When his appointed board members dared to disagree with him, he fired them.

The public continues to think there should be meaningful democratic input into the decisions about their public schools.

Leonie Haimson sent out this summary from the Quinnipiac polling service:

Three Quinnipiac University polls over the last two years show New York City voters oppose by wide margins mayoral control of the public schools.

The independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University Poll asks, “Do you think the mayor should retain complete control of the public schools or share control of the public schools with other elected leaders?”

Opposition to mayoral control is more than 2-1, even topping 3 – 1, in each of three surveys:

May 12, 2015 – Opposed 60 – 28 percent;
August 2, 2016 – Opposed 65 – 23 percent;
May 18, 2017 – Opposed 68 – 21 percent.
“The pundits and the experts may believe that mayoral control of the public schools is the best way to proceed, but they haven’t convinced the people,” said Maurice Carroll, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

In each survey cited, Quinnipiac University surveyed more than 960 New York City voters with margins of error that were less than +/- 3.3 percentage points. The surveys were conducted by live interviewers calling landlines and cell phones.

The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts public opinion surveys nationwide and in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Iowa and Colorado as a public service and for research.

Visit poll.qu.edu or http://www.facebook.com/quinnipiacpoll

Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
124 Waverly Pl.
New York, NY 10011
phone: 212-529-3539
leonie@classsizematters.org
leoniehaimson@gmail.com

Legal teams will track voucher plans and file lawsuits against them.

No public finds for private and religious schools. No public funds for private security forces, private firefighters, private swimming pools, private beaches, private parks. Public means public! Under democratic control. Open meetings. Financial transparency. Open to the public.

VOUCHER WATCH LAUNCHED TO COMBAT USE OF PUBLIC FUNDS FOR PRIVATE SCHOOLING

ELC AND MUNGER TOLLES TO HELP ADVOCATES PROTECT NATION’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS
June 20, 2017

Education Law Center (ELC) and Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP announce the launch of Voucher Watch, an initiative to inform and assist advocates as they oppose the establishment and expansion of vouchers in their states.

Voucher Watch, located on the ELC website, will track voucher proposals in state legislatures and from the federal government, provide details on existing state voucher programs, and compile research on the impact of vouchers on student outcomes.

“Vouchers divert public funds from already under-resourced public schools,” said David Sciarra, ELC Executive Director. “With Voucher Watch, we’ll be ready to help parents, teachers, advocates and lawmakers oppose vouchers and protect and improve their public schools.”

ELC and Munger Tolles are launching Voucher Watch after their successful collaboration on a legal challenge to Nevada’s unlimited “Education Savings Account” (ESA) voucher program. ELC and Munger Tolles represented public school parents pro bono in Lopez v. Schwartz, which resulted in a Nevada Supreme Court decision finding ESA vouchers unconstitutional because they diverted funding allocated for the public schools to private education expenditures.

“The pro-voucher movement presents a serious challenge for public schools across the nation,” said Tamerlin Godley, the Munger Tolles attorney who argued the Nevada voucher case before the State Supreme Court. “Every effort must be made to ensure that public dollars remain where they are most needed and do the most good – in our public schools.”

ELC, a non-profit organization working to secure the education rights of public school children, opposes using taxpayer dollars to pay for private and religious schooling. Established in 1973, ELC is the nation’s leading advocate for fair public school funding and has assisted advocates and lawyers in advancing school finance reform in almost every state.

Voucher Watch builds on ELC’s national network of advocates, law firms, and civil rights and advocacy organizations working to secure high quality educational opportunities for public school children.

“ELC is pleased to continue our partnership with Munger Tolles through the Voucher Watch initiative,” said Greg Little, ELC Chief Trial Counsel. “Tammy Godley and her team at Munger Tolles did an outstanding job of representing Nevada public school parents in securing a permanent injunction against Nevada’s unlimited ESA vouchers. We look forward to working together to bring much needed help to those fighting vouchers in other states.”

About Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP
For more than 50 years, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP has been a full-service law firm known for trying bet-the-company cases and negotiating deals that shape our corporate landscape. Our 200 lawyers represent clients in a broad range of complex and high-profile matters in the areas of corporate, litigation, real estate and financial restructuring. Munger Tolles has been consistently ranked on The American Lawyer’s A-List since its inception in 2004, including four years in the top spot. For more information, please visit http://www.mto.com.

Press Contact:

Sharon Krengel
Policy and Outreach Director
skrengel@edlawcenter.org
973-624-1815, x 24

When Trump announced limits on travel to Cuba, he was actually executing a clever move to undercut his rivals in the hotel industry that have built new hotels in Cuba.

Under the new Trump policy, Americans can still travel to Cuba, but they have to stay in AirBNB, often squalid residences. They can’t stay in the new American built hotel.

Clearly, if Trump owned a hotel in Cuba, American policy would encourage tourism and big hotels.

I went to Cuba in 2013. It was a fascinating experience. Cuba is an impoverished country. The best way to bring about the collapse of the antiquated regime is to open normal trade relations and allow the Cuban people the opportunity to achieve a higher standard of living.

Trump’s approach will entrench the old guard.

Too bad Cuba does not have a Trump hotel. That is now the cornerstone of American foreign policy. That is why Trump is supporting Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in their battle with Qatar. He has hotels in Saudi Arabia and the USR, but none in Qatar.

So what if Qatar is home to America’s biggest air base in the Middle East? It doesn’t have a Trump property.

CNN Reports that Donald Trump blocks people on Twitter if they insult him. I understand his reaction, as I have blocked a few incendiary people myself.

But then I am not President. I am not responsible for the defense of our nation and crucial decisions every day. I’m pretty busy for a person my age, but I confess I don’t have time to read every tweet directed at me.

Trump apparently has plenty of free time, even though he has 32 million followers.

“(CNN)Tweeting about ice cream or sending a GIF of the Pope doesn’t seem particularly momentous.

“But as some Twitter users are finding out, it doesn’t take much to be shut out by President Donald Trump.

For Rob Szczerba, it was a joke about a new ice cream flavor.

“He was making fun of Trump’s baffling late night tweet where he used the now-infamous ”

“@realDonaldTrump I heard #covfefe is a new flavor from Ben & Jerry’s. But it’s mostly just nuts!,” Szczerba tweeted at the President.”

He was blocked by Trump.

There is now a hashtag for people who were #blockedbytrump

WIRED magazine posted a running list of people blocked by Trump. It includes the novelist Stephen King, who said, laughing, “I may have to kill myself.”

Jane Mayer, author of “Dark Money” and other exposes of the power of big money, wrote an article In 2013 for the New Yorker about the difficulty that NYC’s PBS station encountered when it agreed to run a documentary that focused on David Koch and other super-rich who live in a luxury high rise apartment building on Park Avenue.

PBS gets so little public funding that it depends on the gifts from fabulously wealthy people. Can PBS afford to bite the hand that funds it?

“Park Avenue” includes a multifaceted portrait of the Koch brothers, telling the history of their family company and chronicling their many donations to universities and think tanks. It features comments from allies like Tim Phillips, the president of the Kochs’ main advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity, and from activists in the Tea Party, including Representative Michele Bachmann, of Minnesota, who share the Kochs’ opposition to high taxes and regulation. (It also contains a few quotes from me; in 2010, I wrote an article about the Kochs for this magazine, noting that they were funding much of the opposition to President Barack Obama by quietly subsidizing an array of advocacy groups.)”

“A large part of the film, however, subjects the Kochs to tough scrutiny. “Nobody’s money talks louder than David Koch’s,” the narrator, Gibney, says, describing him as a “right-wing oil tycoon” whose company had to pay what was then “the largest civil penalty in the E.P.A.’s history” for its role in more than thirty oil spills in 2000. At one point, a former doorman—his face shrouded in shadow, to preserve his anonymity—says that when he “started at 740” his assumption was that “come around to Christmastime I’m going to get a thousand from each resident. You know, because they are multibillionaires. But it’s not that way.” He continues, “These guys are businessmen. They know what the going rate is—they’re not going to give you anything more than that. The cheapest person over all was David Koch. We would load up his trucks—two vans, usually—every weekend, for the Hamptons . . . multiple guys, in and out, in and out, heavy bags. We would never get a tip from Mr. Koch. We would never get a smile from Mr. Koch. Fifty-dollar check for Christmas, too—yeah, I mean, a check! At least you could give us cash.”

“For decades, federal funding for public broadcasting has been dwindling, and the government’s contribution now makes up only twelve per cent of PBS’s funds. Affiliates such as WNET are almost entirely dependent on gifts, some of which are sizable: in 2010, WNET received fifteen million dollars from James Tisch, the C.E.O. of Loews Corporation, and his wife, Merryl. (James Tisch is now the chairman of WNET’s board.) In New York City, such benefactors inevitably live in lavish buildings. Indeed, several relatives of WNET board members live at 740 Park.”

Politico posted an excellent recap of the primaries in Virginia.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/14/virginia-gov-primary-northam-perriello-democratic-party-215258

Democrats are uniting behind their candidate, while Republicans are bitterly divided. Tom Perrielo urged his supporters to unite behind the victor, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam.

Ed Gillespie was supposed to coast to victory but barely survived a challenge by a hard-right Trumpster named Cory Stewart. The defeated candidate said “never!”

A fascinating story for political junkies.