September 17 - 19, 2010
How the Lobby is Buying Elections
The Charter School Con
By MARGARET KIMBERLEY
Rich people have always had the ability to bend electoral politics to their collective will. They determine who has the opportunity to run for office and sadly, more often than not, they determine who will win. This subversion of democracy is now on full display in races across the country in which politicians who have rightly questioned the mania for charter schools have been targeted for defeat by the charter school industry and its lobby.
New York state is one of the recipients of Race to the Top funds. It has been awarded $700 million from the federal government in exchange for a promise to undermine public education. In New York and other states long term incumbent state legislators are now facing unknown but suddenly well funded newcomers whose campaigns have been bankrolled entirely by hedge fund investors who are making a fast buck from the charter school industry.
As one challenger of a New York City state senator put it, “The checks started rolling in“ after wealthy charter school backers began supporting his and other’s campaigns for office. This sudden largesse and alleged concern for public education proves beyond any doubt that the charter school movement is a gigantic fraud, a mirage created for the sole purpose of enriching one class of people at the expense of millions of children whose right to an education will be jeopardized.
When the dust clears from this election cycle there will be fewer political voices protecting the right to a decent education in public schools and the rights of teachers and administrators to carry out their mandate as they see fit. They may keep their principles but they will have learned a hard lesson, namely that they may also pay a price for speaking out against the charter school racket. The candidates with checks rolling in will increase in number and so will the unaccountable charter schools. The usual suspects will be the winners and the people will lose one more vestige of a supposedly civilized society.
Read the full article at:
http://www.counterpunch.org/kimberley09172010.html
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