My column in yesterday’s Post was on the battle to raise the charter cap in New York state. Currently, only 100 of the schools can be opened in the state — and we’ve hit that cap. The teachers unions and school administrators want to keep the cap. Ten thousand or more parents want to get their kids into charter schools (that’s 1 kid on a waiting list for every 1 kid in a charter school).

In the middle of all this, there’s an ad campaign going after an anti-charter assemblyman, Ron Canestrari. And he doesn’t like having ads run about him one little bit:

"They certainly have a lot of money to waste," Canestrari said, asked
for comment on the radio spots. Though he adds: "They have a point of
view, and they’re expressing it." (He also notes that he attended eight
years of public school before going to a private high school.)

But if the assemblyman’s attitude is really so laissez faire,
why are his fellow Democrats in the Assembly - those who’ve shown the
courage to support charter schools in the face of the wrath of the
education establishment - running for the hills?

…

Where is the outrage at
the speech from the other side of this issue? Canestrari accepts tens of
thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the School
Administrators Association of New York State, which has a direct
financial interest in opposing the expansion of charter schools -
where’s the outrage?

The teachers unions pumped $61/2 million
($6,510,713, according to the database at followthemoney.org) into
state politics between 1998 and 2006 - and when Randi Weingarten asks
the state Legislature to dance, they answer, Tango or a jig, ma’am? Where’s the outrage?

It’s OK to hear from folks with a financial interest in perpetuating
the status quo, apparently. But somehow, when the parents who are
getting status quo-ed in the rear raise a peep, they’ve violated proper
decorum.

The rest after the jump.

VOICE FOR KIDS

By RYAN SAGER

May 25, 2006
– IF there’s anything politicians like less than hearing from their
constituents - a.k.a. their supposed bosses - we constituents have yet
to invent it. Witness the brouhaha up in Albany as the Legislature
debates whether to lift the cap on the number of charter schools that
can be opened in New York state.

Charter schools are public
schools run by private (almost always non-profit) operators who are
freed from much of the red tape that makes it a waking nightmare to run
a traditional public school. They can set their own curricula, for
example, and their own hours. But - also unlike traditional public
schools - they can be held to strict account for results (or lack
thereof).

The 1998 law that created charters in this state limited the number to 100.

Albany-area Assemblyman Ron Canestrari, a favorite of the teachers
unions and public-school administrators (both of whom feel threatened
by charters), wants to keep the cap firmly in place.

  And he doesn’t want anyone to talk about it.

In recent days, a group calling itself Parents for Public Charter
Schools has begun airing radio ads taking dead aim at Canestrari - in
particular, pointing out that Canestrari went to private school, but
wants to keep other people’s children locked in failing public schools.

"I’m a mom, and nothing is more important to me than my children.
That’s why I enrolled my son and daughter at a public charter school.
The school is safe, small, and high quality," a woman says in one ad.
"That’s why I am so mad to know that Assemblyman Ron Canestrari is
‘dead set’ against letting any more parents choose public charter
schools for their children."

The ads also urge constituents to call Canestrari’s office.

"They certainly have a lot of money to waste," Canestrari said, asked
for comment on the radio spots. Though he adds: "They have a point of
view, and they’re expressing it." (He also notes that he attended eight
years of public school before going to a private high school.)

But if the assemblyman’s attitude is really so laissez faire,
why are his fellow Democrats in the Assembly - those who’ve shown the
courage to support charter schools in the face of the wrath of the
education establishment - running for the hills?

As soon as
the anti-Canestrari ads started running, a group of pro-charter
assemblymen, led by Sam Hoyt of Buffalo, sent a letter to Bill
Phillips, president of the state Charter Schools Association, asking
him and his colleagues to leave Speaker Shelly Silver’s powerful ally
alone.

"As the Assembly’s leading advocates for charter
schools, we encourage you, in the strongest possible terms, to stop
this ill-conceived strategy immediately," the letter urged. Also
signing: Assemblymen Michael Benjamin and Ruben Diaz Jr. of The Bronx,
Darryl Towns and Roger Greene of Brooklyn and Adriano Espaillat of
Manhattan - all honorable men who’ve been standing up for the interests
of kids over school bureaucrats.

But where is the outrage at
the speech from the other side of this issue? Canestrari accepts tens of
thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the School
Administrators Association of New York State, which has a direct
financial interest in opposing the expansion of charter schools -
where’s the outrage?

The teachers unions pumped $61/2 million
($6,510,713, according to the database at followthemoney.org) into
state politics between 1998 and 2006 - and when Randi Weingarten asks
the state Legislature to dance, they answer, Tango or a jig, ma’am? Where’s the outrage?

It’s OK to hear from folks with a financial interest in perpetuating
the status quo, apparently. But somehow, when the parents who are
getting status quo-ed in the rear raise a peep, they’ve violated proper
decorum.

Parents in the Albany school district are desperate.
As the state’s recent School Report Card shows, 89 percent of Albany’s
African-American eighth-grade students don’t meet middle-school English
standards.

Charter-school opponents like Ron Canestrari
complain that funds going to charter schools aren’t going to
traditional public schools (where his campaign contributors butter
their bread). In fact, the money flows to charters in direct proportion
to the number of parents who have decided that enough is enough and
lined up in droves to save their kids from educational ruin by getting
them into these schools that are offering kids around the state a
glimmer of hope.

About 10,000 kids statewide are on waiting
lists to get into charter schools - just about one kid on a charter
waiting list for every kid in a charter seat.

Over the next
month, Albany lawmakers must decide whether or not to expand this
so-far-successful educational experiment. The charter movement must
also fight off poison-pill ideas like making it easier for unions to
bully teachers in charter schools to organize, or giving local district
administrators a veto over competition from charter schools.

In all of this, the teachers unions and the school administrators will have a voice - a booming, multimillion-dollar voice.

Those who want to speak for the kids can call their legislators. Canestrari’s number is (518)455-4474.

editor@rhsager.com