Two Education Reform Groups Spent $13 Million Dollars In Last Year And A Half To Push Reform In New York

Ben Chapman in the Daily News:

Two groups have spent more than $13 million to push education reforms while laws are being debated in Albany, a new report says.

The study from Hedge Clippers, a union-backed activist group, says New York City-based Families for Excellent Schools has spent more than $10 million on ads and lobbying since January 2014 to lift the charter school cap and allow for the creation of more of the publicly funded, privately run schools.

The Coalition for Opportunity in Education has spent nearly $3 million in the same time period to boost support for an education tax credit for donations to scholarship funds and public schools, the report says.

...
It shows Families for Excellent Schools has spent more than $9.6 million on lobbying since January 2014 and another $367,000 on pro-charter school advertising.

...

According to the report, the Coalition for Opportunity spent $2.7 million on ad buys and $381,000 on lobbying since 2014.

Nearly $10 million in lobbying money spent by the two groups since January 2014.

That's an awful lot of "lobbying" money to spend in the last year and a half or so.

No wonder Sheriff Andy Cuomo is so sold on imposing education reform onto the state, public opinion be damned.

No wonder so many other heavy hearts in Albany are either happy, willing or both to go along with him.