Fear and smear
The United Federation of Teachers is apparently scared, really scared, that a pro-student, pro-achievement, pro-school-reform organization is set to challenge the union’s domination of New York’s political world. So scared that a union-backed group has published a report that attempts hilariously to paint the UFT’s rising nemesis as a conspiratorial tool of Mitt Romney and clone of Bain Capital.
On command, 33 of the union’s sheep baaed Tuesday that, as candidates for election, they will not accept a penny from StudentsFirstNY, the local arm of a bipartisan organization dedicated to teacher accountability and school choice.
No one expressed the fevered thinking of these members of the City Council, Assembly, state Senate, Congress and candidates for various offices with more over-the-top brio than Manhattan Sen. Liz Krueger, who averred:
“Fueled by a mix of big corporate money and an education-reform industrial complex run amok, shadowy groups are now pushing policies to punish teachers and take resources away from some students to give to others.”
Luminaries who joined Krueger in this killthe-messenger rhetoric include Controller John Liu, a mayoral hopeful; Councilmen Charles Barron and Robert Jackson; Sen. Eric Adams; Rep. Nydia Velazquez, and anti-reformer Noah Gotbaum, who is running for public advocate.
Some of Liu’s mayoral rivals refused to submit to union arm-twisting. Council Speaker Christine Quinn said last week that she will not sign a pledge to reject contributions from StudentsFirstNY, and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer refused to sign, at least for now.
While declining to sign, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio on Tuesday said that he will not take contributions from the StudentsFirstNY’s PAC because of policy differences. Former Controller Bill Thompson credited the innuendo against StudentsFirstNY for giving him pause to consider whether to sign the pledge.
“The last thing we need is super-PAC-like organizations attempting to influence education policy with little transparency and accountability,” Thompson said in a statement — never mind that he is precisely describing the UFT front New Yorkers for Great Public Schools.
The group’s attack on StudentsFirstNY is a preemptive strike against plans to advocate for advances like rating teacher performance, rewarding top instructors with merit pay and expanding opportunity through charter schools.
To their unthinking disgrace, the 33 elected and would-be officials are standing with the UFT in opposition. Never mind that President Obama supports those concepts. Never mind that many of their local schools are downright rotten, and have been for a long time on their watches.