I almost forgot about all those suitcases full of cash from DFER, or Families for Excellent Schools, or Bill Gates, or Walmart, or whatever name reforminess is going under this week. However, Andy hasn't forgotten, and now he wants to raise the cap on charters. After all, you can never have enough non-unionized test-prep factories, and Eva Moskowitz isn't even making a million bucks a year yet.
“We support raising this artificial cap, but the legislature needs to agree as well,” Cuomo senior adviser Rich Azzopardi told The Post.
You see what he did there? He called the cap artificial. So there's an artificial limit at which the public can be compelled to support schools over which it had neither voice nor control. Under natural law, Eva should be able to open a gazillion schools, and we should have every kid in New York chained to a test prep sheet until she pees her pants.
It's not enough that Cuomo pushed a law saying that the mayor, despite "mayoral control," has to pay rent for charters if the city decides not to actually grant said charters. You'll take our charter schools, and like it, says Cuomo, as he dives into a pool of charter cash a la Scrooge McDuck. After all, Eva's BFFs deserve a return on their suitcases full of cash. It's the American Way!
It's good we replaced IDC traitor Tony Avella with John Liu. Aside from the fact that Avella was elected as a Democrat but worked to stymie Democratic initiatives. Here's what Johin Liu says about charter schools:
“There are no plans to change the cap on charter schools.”
I'm good with that. In fact, I'd be good with lowering the cap, even if it meant reducing Eva Moskowitz's salary. If she had to scrape by on, say, 500K a year, it wouldn't break my heart. Maybe she could skip a gala luncheon here and there, or forgo the second yacht if necessary. What does UFT say?
“Our message on charters has not changed: Until they agree to basic levels of accountability for how they treat all students and how they use tax dollars, the existing cap should remain in place,” UFT President Mike Mulgrew said at a state budget hearing in February.
I'm good with that. How many beginning ELLs are in Moskowitz Academies? I'd wager zero. How many alternate assessment students are in Moskowitz Academies? Another goose egg.
Now that's a win for ELLs and alternate assessment students, because I don't really want to see them peeing their pants waiting for test prep. The thing is, I don't think anyone else should be doing that either.
Cuomo looks like our friend, but the first time he senses the wind blowing in a new direction, he'll turn on us faster than Donald Trump's hair would blow away in a hurricane.
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