Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stopped by The Post yesterday, and he looked mighty perplexed when he learned how De Facto Gov. Sheldon Silver and his partners in perfidy are treating charter schools in New York state.
Traditional schools — that is, teachers-union franchises — get a half-billion bucks more in the Silver-crafted budget now wending its way through Albany’s legislative labyrinth.
Charters — public, non-traditional and largely non-union schools — are targeted by Silver for slow starvation; they get not a nickel of new money.
And Duncan doesn’t understand why.
“These are our kids,” he said. “These are our tax dollars. These are our schools.”
Well, here’s why:
Charter schools, generally speaking, are immensely successful undertakings. In Harlem, for example, charter schools are setting performance standards that put the traditional schools — with their union work-rules and such — to shame.
So the governor-without-portfolio and his fellow legislators — who depend heavily on teachers-union money every election year — have decided that charters must go without this year.
That’s not how Duncan intends to spend the considerable sum of federal money now at his disposal.
“The dollars have to follow the kids,” he said. “To be clear, we don’t fund a school. We fund kids. Money follows the children.”
That sounds fair to us.
And this simply sounds smart:
“I believe in choice. I believe in competition. Give parents and students great options,” Duncan said. “When there are waiting lists, do more of those schools. When no one’s buying, close them.”
Words to live by, Mr. Silver.