Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver flipped a stiff middle finger to Presi dent Obama and Education Secre tary Arne Duncan over the weekend, all but flushing $700 million in special federal school aid down the toilet and initiating the dismantlement of New York’s stunningly successful charter school movement.
It was a signal victory for the United Federation of Teachers, which can’t abide charter schools because — unlike the majority of unionized schools — they actually educate kids.
Silver had help.
* John Sampson, a honcho in the comic cabal that runs the state Senate, signed off on the cave-in.
* As did state Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch, who could have spoken out against it but didn’t. Her silence signaled complicity.
And where was Gov. Paterson while this was going on? In a New Jersey steakhouse, apparently in full canoodle with a woman not his wife.
It is to weep.
Paterson’s love life should be of relevance only to himself, his wife and what passes for his conscience.
But the governor was desperately needed in New York this past weekend, putting some muscle where his mouth has been on school reforms demanded before tomorrow by Obama and Duncan in exchange for $700 million — the state’s share of the $4.35 billion federal Race to the Top school-reform program.
Duncan is demanding that states en courage charter schools — publicly funded, privately run institutions that have been hugely successful everywhere, especially in New York.
No surprise, then, that they have been targeted for extinction by the UFT; it can’t stand the competition, so to hell with the kids.
And no surprise that Silver popped up with a bill meant to create the impression of compliance with Race to the Top criteria — but which in fact is intended simply to kill charters in New York.
The measure seems expansive — it purports to raise the current 200-school statewide cap on charters — but it plants so many poison pills in the relevant governance law that the movement simply can’t long survive.
Even Silver isn’t so arrogant as to believe Duncan will fall for this scam — he surely won’t — so clearly the speaker has written off the $700 million.
So, too, Sampson and Tisch.
Happily, Silver’s bill is no sure thing in the Senate.
And Paterson, if he can overcome his distractions, intends to call lawmakers to Albany tonight to vote on an alternative to the Silver bill.
So faint hope remains.
But, in the end, it’s better that no bill passes than one that further damages New York’s beleaguered charter schools.
Silver, Sampson and Tisch have a lot for which to answer.
Perhaps it’s better to leave it at that.