Sick: NYC’s Bill de Blasio Puts Politics Before Poor Kids

“Sick: NYC’s Bill de Blasio Puts Politics Before Poor
Kids,” produced, written, and edited by Jim
Epstein. 

This video originally aired Mar 6, 2014  Original
writeup is below:

About 11,000 charter-school students and their parents descended
on the state capitol building in Albany on Tuesday to protest New
York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision to block two new charter
schools from opening next year and to halt the expansion of a
third.

De Blasio will allow 16 other charter schools to move forward
with their plans to open next year. So what does he have against
these three schools in particular? The answer: He’s settling an old
political score on behalf of his cronies in the teachers union.

The three schools sunk by the mayor are part of Success Academy, a charter
network that posts exceptional
test scores and had five
applicants for every opening last year. “You’re stopping one of
the best charter schools with the highest grades,” says Dyreeta
Donahue, whose child attends a Success Academy school. “That just
doesn’t make sense. If the school was failing, then I would
understand.”

But Success Academy happens to be run by a former politician
named Eva Moskowitz, who made enemies with the United Federation of
Teachers (UFT) during her tenure as chair of New York City
Council’s education committee.

In November 2003, Moskowitz held a multi-day hearing on how
union contracts imposed inane work rules on public schools and made
it nearly impossible for principals to fire bad teachers. At the
hearings she went toe to toe with one of the most powerful
political figures in the city, UFT President Randi Weingarten.

During her testimony, Weingarten was flanked by the head of New
York City’s Central Labor Council,Brian
McLaughlin, who would later go to prison for embezzlement.
McLaughlin told New York’s Daily
News that he showed up because he “wanted to remind the
city council members that the entire labor movement in the city is
watching them.”

They got the message. Bill de Blasio, at the time a member of
the city council, did what he could to distance himself from
Moskowitz during the hearing. When a group of witnesses spoke about
how the UFT contract made it difficult to remove bad teachers, de
Blasio was dismissive. “I served in the Clinton administration, so
I know what spin looks like when I see it,” de Blasio said. “And
this is spin.”

Two years later, when Moskowitz ran for Manhattan borough
president, Weingarten and the teachers unioncampaigned
against her. Moskowitz lost the election, which (for the time
being at least) ended her career in politics.

During a public forum held on May 11, 2013, which was hosted by
the UFT, de
Blasio told the audience: “It’s time for Eva Moskowitz to stop
having the run of the place…. She has to stop being tolerated,
enabled, supported.”

Now that he’s the mayor, de Blasio is doing what he can to
please the teachers union and undermine Eva Moskowitz’s
schools—even if it means taking away the opportunities for
thousands of kids to get a better education.

But at Tuesday’s rally, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) and several
state lawmakers from both sides of the aisle threw their support
behind Eva Moskowitz and the kids she serves. Because many of the
rules and funds governing charters are set at the state level,
Cuomo in many ways has more control over the issue than de
Blasio—and he may intervene and provide the funding that Moskowitz’
schools need to open after all.

New York’s battle over school choice is just getting started—and
nobody has more at stake than the parents and kids who may be
forced to return to their failing district schools next fall.

About 5 minutes.