Public school teachers, parents and students are in a tough position here. While De Blasio has not been as strong as people hoped - no surprise to many readers of this blog, I imagine - he nevertheless is making some efforts to right the grotesque inequities caused by charter schools, and can safely assumed to be under tremendous pressure by the local Overclass to allow privatization to continue.
Unless we get out into the streets to show that there is a large constituency willing to fight for the public schools, De Blasio will either give in completely or be destroyed. In either case, that could lead to the endgame coming upon us very soon.
Whatever his temporizing and shortcomings, we probably have no choice but to (critically) support him, get active and loud, and show that there is widespread opposition to the takeover of the schools.
I agree completely - sure it would have been nice to see de Blasio cancel all eight of Eva's charters and give the space to traditional public schools, but you can see from the uproar over de Blasio's cancellation of three schools why that wasn't going to happen.
As Michael notes, the corporate forces have mustered a heavy assault against the moderately progressive policies de Blasio has taken on charters and if those of us who support traditional public schools don't get vocal about supporting him on this, we're going to see, as Michael puts it, "De Blasio will either give in completely or be destroyed."
Let me go on record saying, I support de Blasio on this issue, the so-called "war on charters" is a phonied up meme that came out of Eva Moskowitz's public relations office (as I wrote last night), and we need to hit the media over and over for acting as stenographers rather than journalists in covering this story.
Start with WNBC 4 - give them a call and let them know how you are permanently shutting the channel off over their stenography on the Eva issue.
Patrick Walsh also blogged about the chop job they do on his interview with them over the charter co-location issue.
Here's the number:
866-639-7244
It is time to start talking boycott of the media outlets that carry water for the pro-privatization movement.
NBC and Comcast have carried water for the corporate education reform movement for years now, most notably with their Education Nation pro-privatization propaganda fest (literally subsidized by the for profit University of Phoenix) and it is high time they pay an economic and political price for this.
Turn off NBC, cancel any business you do with Comcast and let them know this again and again and again.
I just called NBC to let them know.
You should do it too.
Blog it, tweet it, get the story out there - public school teachers have had ENOUGH of the pro-privatization propaganda spewing from NBC and are taking the action to shut the network OFF.
If Eva Moskowitz can get loud and shrill, so we can - WE SUPPORT BILL DE BLASIO ON THE CHARTER SCHOOL ISSUE.
