Is Success Academies Breaking The Law By "Forcing" Political Rally Attendance?

A commenter left the following on this morning's post about the Families for Excellent Schools rally late in September:

It is now beyond obvious that charter schools are NOT public schools. If they are "forcing" teachers, students, and families to attend a blatantly political rally on school time, this proves that these schools are breaking the law. (NYC regulatoions forbids school employees from engaging in political activites during school hours) And please don't say that since these schools operate a longer school year schedule that it is not on school time. Wednesday, September 30th is a regular school day and these kids may have a brother or sister at a different public school that day. Parents have every right to have their kids in school on Wed, Sept 30th and should not be forced to attend a rally that they might not even agree with. (Same goes for the teachers of these schools)

The memo from the Success Academy "advocacy team" that got leaked to Politico NY does suggest that parents who do not attend the rally will have non-attendance held against them by Success Academies.

In addition, it's pretty clear from the memo that despite protestations to the contrary, this will be a "political rally" meant to damage the current mayor and promote a charter school agenda, with the side benefit that Success Academies Mistress Eva Moskowitz herself will benefit politically from both those goals.

Are they breaking the law by forcing teachers to attend a political rally while they're getting paid?

You can make the argument that there is a conflict of interest here, that's for sure.

Same goes with the "messaging assistance" Success staff are providing to parents that amounts to undue pressure and threats if they don't attend.