2 Sides on Charter Schools Add Cash to N.Y. Races

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

Mark H. Pollard was a little-known candidate for New York State Senate in Brooklyn facing the herculean feat of ousting a 26-year incumbent. But then he got an unexpected telephone call saying that a group of wealthy investors who supported charter schools wanted to meet with him.

So in June, Mr. Pollard, a Democrat, found himself in Manhattan, sipping wine on a Park Avenue patio with people whose names he can no longer recall. Then “the checks started rolling in,” he said, and by July he had received more than $100,000.

“They made my campaign viable,” said Mr. Pollard, a lawyer who supports the charter school movement. The windfall has made him a legitimate contender, allowing him to hire a veteran campaign manager and print thousands of pamphlets.

In response, powerful unions representing teachers and other school workers have flocked to the side of his opponent, Senator Velmanette Montgomery, who has staunchly criticized the rise of charter schools, which receive taxpayer money but are privately run. Ms. Montgomery has received more than $100,000 in contributions, much of it through union channels.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/nyregion/11charter.html

[YvonneCa]

1. Canary in the coal mine? Maybe the outcome of this...

...primary will illuminate the education reform issue. I thought this was interesting:

Both sides say the stakes are high at a time when the Legislature faces tough budget choices and contentious questions, including whether to continue granting seniority protection to teachers. They also see the primary as an indicator of whether an ambitious education agenda pushed by charter school advocates will gain momentum.

“There is an emotional attachment to the charter school movement that is working its way into these campaigns in a deeper and more meaningful way,” said Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, a pro-charter group based in New York.

This campaign season, state governments have emerged as critical battlefields in the effort to overhaul American education. In places like California and Florida, pro-charter forces and unions are funneling money into races in hopes of tipping the balance in state capitols.

The focus has turned to states in large part because of the Race to the Top program, an Obama administration initiative that offered millions of dollars to states that enacted changes in educational policy, like expanding the number of charter schools or paying teachers based on how students perform on tests.

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. Ideologically, then, pretty much big $$ RW DEMs vs. real DEMs.

Not much of a dilemma.