CC-BY-SA-3.0/Matt H. Wade at Wikipedia
A wave of progressive Democrats elected to the New York Senate will be replacing pro-charter senators from both parties.
In New York, where Democrats decisively took control of the state senate, the battle against charter schools and standardized testing has taken a turn. Incoming lawmakers have expressed strong positions against school privatization, echoing sustained sentiment from parents, students and classroom teachers.
This wave of newly elected officials includes those who have themselves seen the harms of school privatization up close—former students who were subject to the standardized testing regime begun in 2002, former teachers and even “opt out moms”.
When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez created shockwaves with her win over ten-term incumbent Joe Crowley in the June Democratic Congressional primary, she was asked about K-12 education reform and told PBS that we need to reassess over-reliance on policies like No Child Left Behind, which reduce children to scores on bubble tests and hurt outcomes. Instead, she suggested we re-examine the way current school funding, largely fueled by property taxes, creates a “mad dash” to better schools, leading to profound inequity, determined by zip code.
Perhaps just as significant as the Ocasio-Cortez “earthquake” was the September 13th aftershock, where six other insurgent, grassroots-backed New York candidates won primaries in State Senate races against members of the former Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), a controversial group of eight breakaway lawmakers who shared power, perks—and donors—with senate Republicans for over seven years.
All six “No IDC” challengers handily beat their Republican opponents in the general election November 6, including Alessandra Biaggi, a former legal counsel in the Governor Andrew Cuomo administration who ran on the promise to “stop siphoning money to privately run charter schools” and a call to prevent charters from expanding in New York.
Despite being outspent, Biaggi defeated Jeff Klein, the ringleader of the IDC, who funneled upwards of $700,000 in charter industry PAC money to IDC members. Working with Republicans, Klein repeatedly blocked funding for needy public schools while dramatically increasing per-pupil spending for charters. A thirteen year incumbent, Klein lost 54-46 percent, out-hustled by Biaggi who attended public schools in Pelham before hitting the Ivy league, and at thirty-two years old still owes over $180,000 in student debt.
Defeating another IDC member awash in charter PAC money was progressive Robert Jackson, a longtime New York City Councilman who was an original lead plaintiff in the original 1993 Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit seeking increased funding for impoverished schools.
A fierce critic of school privatization, Jackson is eager to take on “groups such as StudentsFirst who push a non-transparent, corporate agenda that makes money off of children’s backs, strips schools and districts of resources, and undermines public education,” his chief of staff Johanna Garcia tells me in an email. In 2011, Jackson sued the city to stop charter school co-locations, or the takeover of space in public school buildings. He has also been a staunch supporter of the opt-out movement, championing legislation in the New York City Council to reduce standardized testing.
Likely to have a profound impact in Albany, Senator-elect Jackson’s position on standardized testing is resolute: “The sooner and farther away we move from standardized testing, the quicker we can focus on supporting learning environments that are responsive and include teaching critical thinking skills, small class sizes, arts and science programs, recess, and funding for resources, social services and enrichment opportunities.”
In Queens, another progressive Democrat to unseat a pro-charter IDC member is Jessica Ramos, a former aide to Mayor Bill de Blasio with a background as a labor organizer and immigration activist. Also a public school product, Ramos is a mom of two who “cannot wait to opt-out” when her oldest son enters third grade next year. Seeing the stress and waste of the testing regime, she “absolutely” backs legislation to eliminate state testing mandates.
Ramos opposes diverting funding from public schools to charters who she sees pushing out high need students in order to preserve their “brand.” Like Robert Jackson, Ramos supports the NAACP moratorium on new charter schools as well as the longtime fight for equitable public school funding.
Also in Queens, former New York City Comptroller John Liu defeated former IDC state senator Tony Avella, who in 2009, claimed to be adamantly anti-charter. But in 2014, Avella joined the IDC and voted for budgets that increased funding for charter co-locations and school choice. Senator-elect Liu wants to prevent the growth of charters and make them pay rent to the city, while also reducing the emphasis on standardized testing.
In Brooklyn, another pro-charter incumbent was defeated by thirty-one-year old Ivy-educated lawyer Zellnor Myrie. Though Myrie has not publicized a position on charter schools, he has advocated for equitable school funding and culturally responsive education.
Outside of New York City, Syracuse professor (and former high school math teacher) Rachel May was the sixth challenger to defeat a charter-funded IDC incumbent (by only a whisker) and then her pro-charter Republican opponent. Senator-elect May has stated that “charter schools went from innovative experiments to educational profit centers that drain taxpayer dollars, promote privatization, and leave public schools to deal with their failures,” adding “we need to reduce reliance on standardized tests”.
Adding to intrigue are the two IDC members who survived their challenges. In the Rockland/Westchester County suburbs, founding IDC member David Carlucci narrowly held on to win a tough primary against public school teacher Julie Goldberg, easily beating the Republican on November 6. Carlucci now says he will caucus with the mainline Democrats, prioritizing public schools and keeping the charter school cap where it is. He says he supports full funding of needy public schools and suggested raising revenue in part through reforms to the state lottery program. With two young children in public schools, he also describes the standardized testing system as “a disaster” and regrets that New York’s teachers are merely teaching to a test.
Just to the north in a district that includes Rockland and Orange county, 31 year old Assemblyman James Skoufis was able to flip a Republican state senate seat after sponsoring bills to reduce standardized testing, including a total ban in K-2. He also tried to codify the right to opt-out, protect data privacy and increase test transparency. In a county that went for Trump 51 percent to Clinton’s 45 percent, Skoufis’ opponent received significant funding from billionaires Robert and Rebekah Mercer, who were Trump’s largest contributors and according to multiple reports, persuaded the president to embrace charter schools.
Also worth noting is a Brooklyn/Queens seat where Julia Salazar, a community organizer who identifies as a democratic socialist won a Democratic primary against an eight-term, charter-funded incumbent. Salazar opposes school privatization such as charter expansion.
Out on Long Island where Democratic lawmakers proudly embrace the opt-out movement, Councilwoman Anna Kaplan won in the 7th state senate district replacing pro-charter incumbent Republican Elaine Phillips, who had more than double Kaplan’s campaign contributions, thanks to corporate PAC support.
Sensing trouble as the 2018 midterm election drew near, the biggest last-minute charter industry donations were reserved for the governor himself, who hauled in $130,000 during the last three weeks from a PAC run by the CEO of Success Academy charter schools Eva Moskowitz, not one but two Walton heirs, and the wife of billionaire Paul Tudor Jones II, who not only funded Republican anti-immigrant mailers, he holds hundreds of millions in Puerto Rico “vulture debt” obligations.
Through their multimillion dollar PACs, these particular billionaires issued an explicit ultimatum just a month before the voting, warning “officials who do not support charters could face consequences during elections.” New York voters had other ideas, it turns out, suggesting unlimited campaign cash may no longer be such a determinative factor in legislative races.
New York lawmakers now appear poised to challenge the current testing and school privatization regime in a new landscape where evidence and research matter more than Albany’s rampant “pay-for-play” arrangements.
As envisioned by NYS Senator-elect Jessica Ramos, Albany could stop legislating exclusively through backroom budget deals and begin to allow Senate hearings that “take public testimony from average everyday New Yorkers.”