De Blasio Rolled - Say no to this budget deal; call the Speaker & your Assemblymember NOW!

I hate to tell you I told you so, but I told you so. That Eva would never pay a dime in rent.
Not only that but now de Blasio will have to pay her rent. Here's the lesson boys and girls. We can't beat the 1% in the political arena. Massive grassroots organizing is what it would take. And having a tepid UFT not being able to lift a finger in opposition leaves us defenseless.
Even though I voted for deB in the primary when it came to the general election I just couldn't pull the trigger for him and wrote in some candidate.
There are 2 hopes now -- build MORE into a force in the UFT and Change the Stakes into a force on the opt-out movement. We have precious little else we can do.
For those who finally had hope due to the deB win - well, enjoy the bitter victory -- he is folding faster than a cheap suit -- can I predict right now -- one term. Go ahead, keep wasting your efforts in the increasingly stacked political arena - keep spitting into the wind. 

Gothamist
March 28, 2014

Today's Lead Story

Tentative Deal Struck To Protect Charters In State Budget

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state legislative leaders struck a tentative deal on charter schools during budget negotiations yesterday that would increase per-charter pupil spending statewide and force the City to provide rent assistance to charters. Per pupil funding would rise $1,100 over three years, starting with $250 the initial year, then $350 the next, and $500 the third. The boost would amount to an increase of about 3.4 percent. Also, the city would be forced to look for space for charters in public schools, or provide rent money for them to use in private spaces, which could cost up to $40 million a year. According to the deal, a third-party arbitrator would make a final ruling if the City and a charter school disagree over a co-location plan and the City would be barred from charging rent for space in public school buildings. The deal would also force the City to find space for the three Success Academy schools run by Eva Moskowitz whose co-locations were rolled back last month. The plan does not, however, offer building aid for charters to replace the $210 million in capital funding that Mayor Bill de Blasio recently diverted away from charters.

This just in from Leonie. She says to call your local politician -- I'm going over to mine, Phil Goldfeder soon to yell at him.

According to today’s NY Post, the legislature is about to make the worst possible deal imaginable: considerably more per pupil funding for charters, including more than $1100 per student over three years, and free space or rent paid for by NYC  for any new or expanding  NYC charter going forward – just in NYC, by the way, where we have the most overcrowded schools in the state, with more than half our students sitting in extremely overcrowded schools by the DOE’s own metrics, which we know are an underestimate.

Thousands of kids on waiting lists for Kindergarten each spring, thousands more sitting in trailers, and the capital plan provides less than one third of the seats needed to eliminate current overcrowding and address future enrollment growth.  But charters will be guaranteed the space to expand – paid for by city taxpayers, while our public school students  are crushed into larger and larger classes with less space to learn.

Call the Speaker’s office now:  tell him to say NO to the deal forcing the city to pay for facilities forever for new or expanded charters, while public school students will sit in increasingly overcrowded buildings.

Speaker Silver: (518) 455-3791. 

Then call your Assemblymember and urge them to say NO to this deal as well; find their contact info here:

If this deal goes forward, this will truly create a two tier system in which the charter schools will  be the only ones in uncrowded facilities, with the rent paid for by NYC taxpayers, and all parents will be forced to apply to charter schools whether they want to or not,  just to guarantee a seat for their child in a school that is not hugely overcrowded.