Some years ago, brilliant author Midge Decter warned against sitting on the sidelines during important political and cultural battles. “You must join the side you are on,” she declared.
Gov. Cuomo did just that yesterday. He shook up the charter war by joining the side he was on.
Cuomo’s late-morning decision to speak at a rally in Albany was the shot heard ’round the school universe. He put icing on the cake by throwing an elbow at the union during a short speech before a raucous crowd of students, parents and teachers outside the Capitol.
But his decision to show up spoke far louder than anything Cuomo actually said. Just by being there, he tips the scales toward decency and away from Mayor de Blasio’s obscene attack on charters and the mostly nonwhite children they serve.
Cuomo’s appearance sealed his full commitment to the movement. The Post had reported that he told a gathering of supporters last month that he would help charters if de Blasio undermined them, but that was a private event. Now he does it publicly and gives the movement a huge boost at a crucial moment.
Coming in an election year, when charters could cut both ways politically, it was a bold act for the best possible cause. It may rank as Cuomo’s finest moment as governor.
He was joined onstage by a gaggle of legislators, including Senate co-leaders, Republican Dean Skelos and Democrat Jeff Klein. Their support virtually guarantees that charters will continue to grow throughout the state.
The situation in the city, however, sits at a crossroads, and it is here where Cuomo’s support is needed most. With a hostile de Blasio joining the massive teachers union to oppose charter expansion, and doing everything he can to make them outcasts in the educrat universe, the movement faces a crisis.
The mayor knows he doesn’t need to kill charters off immediately. That he green-lighted some while dooming others should not be mistaken as a compromise.
Rather, de Blasio understands that the movement will wither if it doesn’t grow. He can kill it slowly by keeping it a marginal player.
With 70,000 students out of 1 million, charters represent about 7 percent of the city school population. As impressive as some are, there are not yet enough students and parents to make a fundamental difference in the system.
Doubling the size would constitute a tipping point. Then the charter model becomes a full challenge to the union-political model, and widespread comparisons on student performance will be unavoidable.
Growth is also necessary because the backers who help charters augment their public funds with donations aren’t likely to stay involved in a marginal operation. They are investing in an idea and they want to see that idea grow beyond a single school or network. They think big and want something “scalable,” meaning a model that serves as many children as possible.
Cuomo’s support makes that possible. The details of what he will do remain unclear, but his voice instantly becomes the most powerful one in New York.
As for de Blasio, he is so far off track that it is mind-boggling. And his desperation is showing.
He lied when he claimed the charter rally was a “march against” his push for universal pre-kindergarten. No doubt that would come as a shock to Cuomo, who plans to fund pre-K across the state — without the tax hike de Blasio demands.
But the mayor’s real problem is that his hostility to charters defies explanation. The Post talked to a Harlem mother going to the Albany march whose son attends one of those the mayor plans to close.
“It’s kind of hard to explain to him,” Kimberly Wiggins said of her 5-year-old son, Jayden. “When a school is performing as well as this, why would you want to shut it down?”
She deserves an honest answer, but won’t get one from de Blasio. When it comes to schools that work, he can’t handle the truth.
Right where Vlad wants ’em
He’s a Godless Commie, but it wouldn’t surprise to learn that Vladimir Putin falls to his knees each morning to give thanks. After all, he would have been cursed to lead Russia when Ronald Reagan was in the White House and Margaret Thatcher ran Great Britain.
Instead, his lucky stars gave him as opponents the Frat Boys of the West, Barack Obama and David Cameron. For a would-be czar, opponents don’t get any softer than the selfie twins.
Putin proved again yesterday that he is the straw stirring the drink. A day after world stock markets tanked because he invaded Ukraine, the Russian dictator broke his silence to explain himself.
Wearing a slight smirk and air of complete confidence, he brushed off concerns about a shooting war, insisting that was “a last resort.” He claimed, ridiculously, there were no Russian troops in Crimea, but did it with such a fine imitation of a reasonable man that investors scrambled to buy back the stocks they dumped Monday.
Indeed, Putin looked so smug that you had the sense he was toying with Obama, Cameron and assorted quislings of Europe. Like a cat with a trapped mouse, he is so certain of the endgame that there is no reason to hurry.
One example involved Russia’s deal to supply discounted natural gas to Ukraine. He said the deal was off and Ukraine owed Russia $1.5 billion. That happened to be 50 percent more than the $1 billion in loan guarantees America offered to Ukraine hours later.
The sequence showed that Obama, Cameron & Co. are still pulling their boots on while Putin consolidates his power. The likelihood of serious sanctions is low because the West’s leaders know what Putin knows: They are scared and he is ruthless.
Of course, Obama did drop the H-Bomb, declaring that Putin is “on the wrong side of history.”
Such highfalutin nonsense must have made the president proud and provoked cheers in the faculty lounge. Putin probably laughed.
Confusing murderers with martyrs
On the off-chance the White House decides to stop bullying Israel and face facts about Arab terrorism, it should read the files of the Palestinian Media Watch, which reports on what Mahmoud Abbas and others say when Americans aren’t paying attention.
The latest outrage involved Sarhan Sarhan, a suicide bomber who killed five Israelis in 2003, including a mother and her two children. Israel transferred his remains to the Palestinian Authority, which reburied him with honors and called him a “brave, heroic fighter.”
An Abbas aide said that other terrorists “will be escorted as bridegrooms, as this heroic martyr was escorted.”
And Israel is the obstacle to peace?
A work place
Reader Sharon Mahn thinks Mayor de Blasio doesn’t get the spirit of Gotham. She writes: “Many of us come here to live and work because this town affords hardworking and ambitious people a wonderful opportunity. We should be applauded, not punished.”
Amen.