Looks Like Cuomo's Working The Phone Again, Lashing Out At Enemies

State Senator Marc Panepinto publicly backed Mayor Bill de Blasio in his battle with Governor Andrew Cuomo earlier this month, saying “I have a great deal of respect for the governor, but he wants to rule the Democratic Party with an iron fist.”

Today the Daily News' Glenn Blain reports the following about Panepinto:

ALBANY — A state senator from Buffalo pressed state Workers Compensation Board officials to take action favored by his multi-million-dollar law firm, the Daily News has learned.

Sen. Marc Panepinto, a Democrat, lobbied Workers Compensation officials to abandon plans to alter — and in some instances reduce — the reimbursement rates paid to doctors and other medical service providers shortly after taking office in January.

Panepinto's opposition mirrored that of his law firm, Dolce Panepinto, which, according to its website, specializes in Workers Compensation cases and recovered more than $8.5 million for injured workers in just the first few months of 2015. The senator personally earned more than $1 million from his work as a partner in the firm in 2014, according to records.

The firm trumpeted Panepinto's efforts to roll back the proposed rate changes in its most recent quarterly report, boasting that the senator was part of a coalition that "banded together to successfully defeat this regulatory barrier to quality health care for injured workers."

Workers Compensation Board spokeswoman Rachel McEneny confirmed that Panepinto "discussed a variety of issues" with board executives during a Feb. 11 telephone call but declined to provide further details. She stressed that the board was still considering the rate changes.

Panepinto's response:

A spokeswoman for the senator defended Panepinto's efforts.

"Senator Panepinto received no compensation for his efforts fighting the ill-conceived Workers Compensation Board proposal and his law firm had no financial stake in stopping this reckless policy change," the spokeswoman said.

She said the proposed regulatory fee change was “a bad plan that would have harmed millions of hardworking New Yorkers and it would have created additional costs to taxpayers.”

The spokeswoman did not respond to requests for further information about Panepinto's activities or say whether he sought approval from the Legislative Ethics Commission.

And then there's this at the end of the article:

Insiders familiar with the Workers Compensation System suggested the changes, if implemented, would not drastically alter the financial recoveries earned by Panepinto's firm, but the firm's efforts likely endeared it to unions and doctors that refer cases.

"There's always something to be gained by doing something indirectly for the hand that feeds you," said one insider.

Panepinto, who pleaded guilty in 2001 to misdemeanor election fraud charges for collecting false signatures on nominating petitions, was elected to the Senate in November with heavy backing from labor unions, including the state's powerful teachers union.

Cuomo used the Daily News to dish dirt anonymously on de Blasio last month before de Blasio returned fire on Cuomo publicly.

It's not a stretch to think that Cuomo's using the Daily News again to strike out at enemies - including Panepinto, but not limited to him.

There's also a Ken Lovett Daily News expose on Eric Schneiderman today that reports the attorney general has "raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations over the past six months — through a loophole he has said should be closed."

Schneiderman, seen as a potential candidate for governor in 2018, is another enemy of Cuomo, having criticized the governor and the legislature for not closing the LLC loophole.

Lovet does report that $1.4 million of the $5.2 million raised in the last six months by Andrew Cuomo has come through the LLC loophole too.

But overall, the Lovett piece is aimed at Schneiderman, not at Cuomo.

And frankly, the story's kinda bullshit.

Scheiderman raised a combined $267,850 from more than 40 different limited-liability companies.

Seems like a lot until you put that into context.

Hell, last week alone Cuomo got eight checks amounting to $250,000 from four different LLC's with connections to the land development guy in the village of Kiryas Joel after Cuomo vetoed legislation that might have out the kibosh on Kiryas Joel's ability to annex 500+ acres of land next to the village.

Cuomo taking a quarter of a million from four LLC's with connections to the land development guy in Kiryas Joel just days after he helps Kiryas Joel with a veto - kinda puts the Scheiderman LLC donations into a bit of perspective, doesn't it?

How come Kiryas Joel/Cuomo story didn't make it into the Lovett column today?

Unless I missed it, I haven't seen the DN cover the Kiryas Joel/Cuomo $250K story at all.

The NY Post had it.

Two Daily News pieces attacking two Cuomo enemies today - Panepinto and Schneiderman - I dunno, seems odd, especially since Cuomo's used the Daily News in the recent past as a weapon of choice to lash out anonymously at enemies.

I'm no "insider" in the ways of Albany or anything and maybe I'm just being naive here, but my bullshit meter goes up when I see this sort of thing. 

Feels like Cuomo's working the phones again, using the press to plant stories and lash out at his enemies.

13WHAM: We're Not Going To Pimp Cuomo's Book

Governor Cuomo canceled a four minute interview he was scheduled to give with 13WHAM in Rochester when they refused to abide by the guidelines he wanted for the interview and only ask questions about his just released book.

Here's how Brian Houseman, the assignment manager at 13WHAM, defended the station:

"We were not going to sit there and pimp his book … This is someone when he comes to town, which is rarely, he gives us very limited time to ask questions."

Cuomo trying to stage manage the interviews, most of the sheep played along, but not 13WHAM.

Cuomo avoided venues where he knew they wouldn't play along, however:

In the past, Mr. Cuomo has steered clear of the national news media, arguing that granting high-profile interviews would lead to speculation that he wanted to run for president. He has defied his own rule in order to promote his book, delivering the Top 10 List on David Letterman’s show on Tuesday and granting some television interviews.

But his promotional efforts have been limited, even cautious, compared with other politicians promoting books.

“The Daily Show” invited Mr. Cuomo to be a guest, but he declined, and he also turned down MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” according to people familiar with the matter.

Reading the Top Ten List on Letterman is safe, but going on The Daily Show is not - so Cuomo wouldn't do it.

Ditto for the Morning Joe Show, where they savaged him over the Moreland Commission controversy back in the summer.

Same for NY1 - notice Errol Louis wasn't on the media tour.

Cuomo's people term his press strategy of just doing friendly or stage-managed interviews "cautious."

I would term it "cowardly" - and not just on Cuomo's part.

The members of the press who agreed to abide by Cuomo's agreement for the interview became nothing more than unpaid extensions of his PR operation.

Not 13WHAM, though.

Good for them for sticking to their guns on the ground rules and then going public with the defense.

Enough playing pimp to Cuomo's agenda.

Why Is Cuomo In Israel When Parts Of Long Island Are Under The Sea?

Newsday tonight:

Long Island commuters were struggling Wednesday evening with the aftermath of the historic weather event that earlier dumped double-digit amounts of rainfall across parts of Long Island, flooding roadways, rail lines and basements.

The epic rainfall -- the National Weather Service's Upton office said 13.27 inches poured down between 11 p.m. Tuesday and 10:30 a.m. Wednesday -- overwhelmed virtually every major roadway in Nassau and Suffolk counties at some point.

As of 6 p.m., all lanes on Sunrise Highway eastbound -- except the furthest left lane -- were closed, just west of Islip Avenue in Islip because of flooding, Suffolk Police said. The westbound lanes in that area remain closed.

The state Department of Transportation reported the following closures were still in effect as of 6: 30 p.m. due to flooding.

Wantagh State Parkway was closed both directions between Exit W5 (NY 27) to Exit W4 (Southern State Pkwy).

Ocean Parkway eastbound at Tobay Beach, the right and center lanes are closed.

Meadowbrook Parkway Northbound approximately ¾ of a mile north of Loop Parkway, the right lane closed at the False Channel Bridge.

Robert Moses Causeway has one right lane closed southbound at Sunrise Highway (NY 27) in Bay Shore.

Route 25A at Lawrence Hill Road in Cold Spring Harbor is closed.

Route 27A in Islip between Ocean Avenue and Saxon Avenue is closed.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who is in Israel, dispatched emergency equipment and personnel to Long Island, and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, who said the county received several reports of homes damaged by flooding, added that the rainfall was "historic."

On the roads during the day, drivers encountered flooding almost everywhere.

Speaking from a fire house in North Babylon, where 50 motorists had been stranded, Bellone said, "I've never seen this level of flooding in my entire time in government." He said that there had been a flash flood warning, but "no one predicted anything like this."
Nearly every major roadway in both counties reported full to partial closures because of flooding as early as 4:30 a.m. and until past noon, according to the state Department of Transportation.

The most seriously affected areas included the westbound Long Island Expressway from exits 49 through 50, where the fatal accident took place, and the Southern State Parkway eastbound, between exits 40 and 43N.

In many cases, all lanes were closed for several hours, with traffic backed up for miles. The Southern State had cars stranded in several feet of water.

Also heavily flooded were parts of Route 110 in Farmingdale and Route 111 in Smithtown.

According to Newsday, weather experts called this "historic" rainfall a "200-year old weather event."

Governor Cuomo was overseas in Israel today, so he couldn't coordinate the state's response to this "200-year old weather event."

A few weeks back when there was the threat of an MTA strike, members of the press were grousing on Twitter that Mayor de Blasio didn't cancel his family vacation to Italy to deal with the crisis (even though as mayor of New York City, he has no authority over the MTA, even though the "crisis" hadn't actually happened yet and turned out not to happen at all.)

Today we hear no grousing over Cuomo's overseas trip, even as parts of Long Island remain under water.

Here's a photo from this evening:

@MichaelMurphyNY @MercyMercyf Taken 2 hours ago, long after the storm ended. U see any emergency crews? #wherescuomo pic.twitter.com/37BWWyAvB6
— Christine (@quadgurl) August 13, 2014

My take was this:

@MercyMercyf @quadgurl @MichaelMurphyNY If this were de Blasio, they'd be screaming "Where is the mayor?"
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) August 13, 2014

@MercyMercyf @quadgurl @MichaelMurphyNY Cuomo gets pass thought. "Oh, he's in Israel" - along w/ most of press corps.
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) August 13, 2014

Much of the state did not get the kind of rainfall parts of Long Island got.

NYC got less than an inch of rainfall.

But the parts of Long Island that got rainfall got Noah's Ark rainfall.

It would be nice if Cuomo said, "You know, being in Israel is great and I'm happy I've made my appearance and shown solidarity with Israel, blah blah blah, but now it's time to help Long Island get out from under the water."

Alas, not going to happen.

And it seems the press is not going to call him on it.

Again I ask you to imagine if this were de Blasio and parts of Brooklyn were under 13 inches of water from a historic rainfall while Blaz was overseas doing some politicking.

How do you think that would play in the media?

Ask Eva Moskowitz About The Attrition Rate At Success Academies

From State of Politics:

At 6:30 a.m., Success Academy Harlem Central Middle School scholars will appear on MSNBC’s Morning Joe with their principal, Andrew Malone.

Yesterday the hosts of the Morning Joe Clown Show beatup on Mayor de Blasio over the Success co-location issue.

Today, they let Eva use the program for more pro-Success propaganda.

But one stat never makes it into these mainstream media propaganda fests - the attrition rates at Success Academies:

Many uptown Manhattan parents hope that winning the lottery for a seat at Harlem Success Academy I will put their child on the path to academic achievement. But just because a child gets into Harlem Success does not mean he or she will complete 5th grade there. The school -- part of Eva Moskowitz's Success Academy network -- has a high attrition rate, leading critics to charge that the school may push out low achieving or difficult students.

Harlem Success denies that's the case, and says the attrition can be explained by children moving away--or even skipping a grade. Without better data from the state, it's impossible to say who is right. But one thing is certain: Harlem Success loses a lot of kids between kindergarten and 5th grade.

According to figures on the school's New York State Report Card, 83 students entered kindergarten in 2006-07, the school's first year of operation. When that class reached 4th grade in 2010-11, it had only 53 students -- a drop of 36 percent. Harlem Success also took in a 1st grade class with 73 students in 2006. When that group reached 5th grade, it too had shrunk appreciably -- by 36 percent.

The attrition accelerated as the classes advanced. The 2006-07 1st grade class, for example, did not shrink at all as it entered 2nd grade, but saw one sharp falloff between 2nd and 3rd and another between 4th and 5th.

So far, following classes have not shown a similar decline. The 2007-08 kindergarten started out with 123 students, increased to 127 the following year and then fell back to 117 by the time it reached 3rd grade in 2010-11.

The United Federation of Teachers charges that the school may weed out students before they take standardized tests at the end of 3rd grade. Citing Harlem Success's attrition during a panel discussion on charter schools sponsored by the New York City Bar Association, UFT vice president Leo Casey said, "All of the students who would have brought down the statistics are gone."

In a subsequent email, Casey wrote, "It may be significant that the bulk of the attrition at Harlem Success Academy 1 seems to have come in the tested grades."

Harlem Success boasts extremely high test scores and the network has made them a major selling point.

Asked about the attrition at Harlem Success, a spokeswoman denied the school pushes out students. "Success Academy Charter Schools does not counsel out students or encourage them to leave," she said in an email. Shifts in size, according to the school, come from students moving, skipping a grade or having to leave for other reasons, such as illness.

You can be sure the clowns on the Morning Joe Clown Show did not ask about all the kids who used to be at Success Academies who mysteriously disappear before they have to take the state tests.

What Will You Miss Most About Bloomberg?

Just one month until the Mayor of Money flies off to Bermuda one last time as mayor.

I think what I'll miss most about him is the imperial tone he uses as he talks on his radio show or the annoyance that he shows when a reporter, rarely enough, challenges him on his b.s. at a press conference.

Following a close second is the insane reliance on ever-improving statistics so that every piece of data that emanates from government these days is phonied up - from the graduation rates to the emergency response times to the crime stats.

You know, on second thought, I won't miss any of that.

How about you?

What won't you miss after Bloomberg leaves?

Sick Of Self-Serving Celebrities, Politicians And Media

Errol Louis patting himself on the back for serving food at a mission on Thanksgiving

Comptroller @JohnCLiu and I both brought our sons to serve meals this morning. 10 am seating was full. pic.twitter.com/ISgwzdbUTd
— Errol Louis (@errollouis) November 28, 2013

My response:

@errollouis @LindseyChrist @JohnCLiu We need a society where people have jobs that allow them to feed themselves
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) November 28, 2013

I'm so sick of these politicians, celebrities and media figures using their charity work for these self-serving p.r. opportunities.

Hey Errol, want to help the people you were serving at the mission today?

Stop shilling for the neo-liberal project that fetishizes the market above all and commodifies every part of human existence.

Help build a world where no one has to go to a Bowery Mission on Thanksgiving and have some fevered ego like yourself feed them.

Your ladling out gravy today did nothing in the grand scheme of things except give you the opportunity for some p.r.

The NY Times Leads Off With Some Bloomberg Propaganda Today

Income inequality has skyrocketed in NYC during the 12 years Mayor Bloomberg raigned.

But if you read the NY Times opinion pages today, you learned just how much Bloomberg has done for poverty and how much more he will do not that he is freed from his municipal duties to focus on his "philanthropy" efforts.

And so, the inevitable post-Election Bloomberg Propaganda Juggernaut begins.

Ignore what your eyes and experiences tells you is so, instead listen to the magic words of the propaganda-meisters as they tell you how great Bloomberg is and was.

Charter School Sycophants

De Blasio talking pt that he's focused on 95% of non-charter students is flawed. Will be closer to 88% by 2017, his 3rd yr in office
— Geoff Decker (@GDeckernews) October 16, 2013

Decker fails to mention the increase is partly due to Bloomberg opening as many charters as he can right before he exits office.

But the next mayor, if he so chooses, can decide not to replace closed charters with new ones (and a few actually do close.)

The next mayor can also decide not to open any new charters (although SUNY can still add new ones.)

That 88% figure, which Decker gets from the charter school pamphlet he does his stenography from, may not be 88% after three years of policies different from the ones we have now.

Decker, as usual, slants from a pro-charter stance.

Alas, that's what happens when the "journalist's" paycheck comes from Wall Street philanthropy funds and Gates Foundation grants.

Gotham Charter Schools - all the reform-friendly education journalism funded by hedge fund managers that's fit to post!

Arne Duncan, As Usual, Totally Incoherent On Education

This is from the Morning Education email from Politico:

Although Education Secretary Arne Duncan couldn't attend MSNBC's Education Nation event in person due to the shutdown, he was on hand via satellite to deliver tried-and-true talking points about the flaws of No Child Left Behind and the merits of college- and career-ready standards.

NCLB's "laser-like focus on a single test score led to all kinds of perverse incentives," Duncan said, but the law overlooked other measures such as school dropout rates and whether students are going to college and persevering.

He also said that he loves the commitment across the country to higher academic standards.

"Raising standards is the easy part. Implementing them is the hard part," Duncan said.

He noted his offer of flexibility to states that have committed to new standards and committed to tying teacher evaluations to test scores from tests based on the new standards.

Duncan said his decision on the flexibility option was based on talking to teachers who, he said, are hugely excited about raising the bar but also fearful about being judged so soon on how their students perform.

OK, so let me get this straight - NCLB was a problem because it focused on just a single test score that then led to all kinds of perverse incentives.

But now things are better that they've added all kinds of other tests and added even more peverse incentives like, you know, firing teachers if those scores don't show "added value"?

And this flexibility thing - why doesn't some media shill call him on this?

It is the opposite of flxibility when you force states to add all kinds of new tests tied to the Common Core standards and force them to evaluate teachers using test scores from these tests.

Duncan has threatened California for putting a moratorium on testing for high stakes until the new Common Core tests are ready.

He has threatened three states with NCLB sanctions if they do not add teacher evaluation systems based upon test scores.

Tell me exactly what is "flexible" about any of this?

This is federal overreach, this is Arne Duncan saying you will run your school systems the way I (or actually my owners, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg et al.) want them run or I will destroy you.

How do the "journalists" at NBC and MSNBC not see these contradictions and call him on them?

Are they ignorant, willfully blind or simply on the take?

Duncan's talking points are completely incoherent and even a middle school journalist could take these apart like Edward R. Murrow taking down McCarthy.

And yet, the journalists at MSNBC and NBC let him drone on like what he's saying makes sense...

When Does The NY Times Do The Hit Piece On Joe Lhota?

They did one on Quinn.

Did one on Weiner.

Did one on Thompson.

Now they've done one on de Blasio.

When do they do one on Lhota?

As I have blogged over and over and over, this guy's got anger management issues.

He challenged a 77 year old man to a fight last year at an MTA board meeting he was chairing.

No, really.

Back during the Giuliani administration, he got into a shoving match with a reporter right outside City Hall.

Those are the two stories we know about.

I bet there are more.

Wouldn't it be nice if the Times looked into it?

They've done their hit pieces on every other candidate.

Isn't it time Joe Lhota gets his 15 minutes?

Geo Karo On The NY Times Sandanista Hack Piece On De Blasio

If you haven't seen Geo Karo's post on the hack job the NY Times did on Bill de Blasio the other day over the Sandanista bit, you should read it.

Geo says the Times took the FOX News route on this and I think that's exactly right.

That all three daily newspapers - the Post, the News and the Times - are attacking de Blasio daily should tell you something about the fears these people have over what a post-Bloomberg New York City will be like.

It seems unreasonable to me, as I wrote earlier today.

And yet, when you see how shrill they're getting, you can see how fearful they are.

The Post-Mayoral Propaganda Around Bloomberg Is Starting Already

From the Daily News:

Hizzoner is getting a big honor indeed – a biography.

Simon & Schuster announced Tuesday that outgoing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is getting a “major biography” by way of author Eleanor Randolph, a longtime journalist and editorial board member for the New York Times.

According to the release, the biography will take an intimate look into the “extraordinary career and legacy of Bloomberg, who revolutionized business reporting, who has been a powerful and innovative mayor of New York City for the last 12 years, and who has become a public figure of national significance.”

Gee, that doesn't sound like a puff piece at all.

Oh, no...wait...

It does sound like a puff piece.

Is Eleanor Randolph on the Bloomberg payroll?

Probably not.

Does she want to be on the Bloomberg payroll?

Sure sounds like it from the description of the book.

Bloomberg has tons of of his own journalists on payroll already, from Jonathan Alter to Andrew Kirtzman, who will provide plenty of pro-Bloomberg propaganda in the coming years.

And then we have shills from the NY Times editorial board who look like they're about to add to the pro-Bloomberg propaganda canon.

Will anybody do an independent accounting of the Bloomberg Years?

Will anybody look into the manipulated crime stats?

Or the phonied up graduation rates?

Or how they lied about the test scores?

Or how they lie about emergency response times now?

How about all the scandals - from CityTime to the 911 system that STILL doesn't work and almost killed another person this week to the NYCHA computer mess to the FDNY GPS scandal to the Seedco scandal to the NYCDOE scandals (see here and here) and on and on and on...

And let's not forget the Bloomberg Boxer Day Blizzard disaster, when he couldn't get the streets outside of Manhattan plowed and people died as a result or his downplaying of the seriousness of Sandy prior to Cuomo forcing him to call for an evacuation when the governor shut the MTA down.

So much to scrutinize, but Eleanor Randolph's book doesn't sound like it's going to look into any of that.

Then again, as a member of the NY Times editorial board, she's been responsible for a lot of pro-Bloomberg propaganda in the past, so there's no reason to expect that will change now that the mayor is leaving.

NY Times Hit Piece On Bill De Blasio

Read Alex Pareene's take on the NY Times hit piece on de Blasio as a closet Sandanista.

Here's a bit:

The New York Times dropped a bombshell last night: As a young man, Democratic nominee for mayor of New York Bill de Blasio was… pretty left-wing. And he supported the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. And he once was in favor of democratic socialism. The Times presents this information as something they uncovered, as if de Blasio had somehow hidden it.

In fact, de Blasio has spoken publicly about his time in Nicaragua as recently as last December. But the story of de Blasio’s youthful activism is interesting and not that widely known — I didn’t know about it, and I have actually been paying a decent amount of attention to this race — making it great material for a brief biographical sketch of the candidate as an idealistic young man.

This brief biographical sketch, though, sounds a bit like opposition research, or at least like an attempt to “shake up” the race and force the candidate to answer questions about his Commie past. It’s got hints of that very sober but slightly inflammatory tone that the Times puts on when it’s causing trouble. De Blasio, we’re told, “went to Nicaragua to help distribute food and medicine in the middle of a war between left and right. But he returned with something else entirely: a vision of the possibilities of an unfettered leftist government.” Unfettered! I don’t like the sound of that.

The Times says “[de Blasio's] time as a young activist was more influential in shaping his ideology than previously known” (this is the declaration that the information in this article is relevant news and not just old stories) “and far more political than typical humanitarian work.” Yes, because it was… activism? I mean what is “typical humanitarian work” here, exactly? De Blasio was working with the Quixote Center, a Catholic social justice group that fights poverty and economic inequality and that is inspired by liberation theology. This is actually very typical humanitarian work, and Catholic groups in particular have been doing it for years.

I'm surprised the Times didn't launch this against de Blasio in the primaries. 

It is clearly a hit piece meant to damage him, as they deploy unnamed critics and some anonymous sources to tar de Blasio as a commie pinko.

But I'm with Pareene here - the story makes me like de Blasio even better.

Frankly, I always assumed he was some DLC Clinton-type just talking the progressive talk to get elected.

He may be doing that anyway, but it's good to know that he once did humanitarian work down in Nicaragua and stood against Apartheid and Reagan's illegal Contra war.

Also, as Pareene points out, there are plenty of Republicans out there who supported apartheid, Pinochet, and a host of other evil things back in the day and that stuff never gets reported as "So and so supported racist Apartheid policies and CIA assassination squads."

It's interesting how having a "lefty" past is a crime to the Times but flirting with fascism back in the day just warrants a yawn.

Bloomberg Propaganda-Meisters All Over The Internet

You see these Bloomberg shills, paid press whores like Howard Wolfson or Andrew Kirtzman, flacking their Bloomberg propaganda all over the place these days as the mayor's Reign of Error sunsets and Bloomberg's anxiety over his legacy heightens.

Here's a recent example from Kevin Sheekey, former deputy mayor and current Bloomberg LP executive (because there is always a gig for you in a BLOOMBERG enterprise if you are a loyal servant to Bloomberg the man):

Is the Progressive the retiring Mayor? Will successor create largest affordable housing plan in nation's history? http://t.co/pVYYQdFGzf
— Kevin Sheekey (@ksheekey) September 18, 2013

Of course it's easy to debunk this jive Sheekey is spewing and somebody quickly does:

.@ksheekey I hope so cuz Bloomberg's 50,000 homeless could use a place to sleep!
— Tom Scocca (@tomscocca) September 21, 2013

Expect the amount of pro-Bloomberg propaganda to increase exponentially as the end of the year nears.

Bloomberg has a ton of press shills and p.r. people on his payroll and tons more who are dying to get on that payroll as their own journalism jobs and outlets die.

Bloomberg is going to have his shills mount a Bloomberg Legacy propaganda-fest that will put Bush's Iraq war propaganda-fest to shame.

Gotham Schools Finally Owns Up

I've been saying for a long time now that Gotham Schools is such a pro-corporate education reform-friendly site that they ought to dispense with the sham about being "independent journalists" and just own up to being the corporate education reform shills they are.

Turns out, now they have - they've renamed the site "Gotham Charter Schools" and are continuing to offer all the corporate education reform-friendly news that's fit to post and make their hedge fundie backers and corporate donors happy.

Good to finally see some honesty from the public relations specialists and Gates Foundation interns at Gotham Charter Schools.

Research Group Financed By Bloomberg Philanthropies Hails Bloomberg Education Policy

The Daily News has a story out today about research group MDRC releasing a report that shows how Bloomberg's small schools initiative has improved graduation rates of students compared to other schools in the system.

The group claims the following on their website:

(New York, August 26, 2013) — MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research firm, released new findings today from its multiyear study of small high schools in New York City. Those findings show that the schools, which serve mostly disadvantaged students of color, continue to produce sustained positive effects, raising graduation rates by 9.5 percentage points. This increase translates to nearly 10 more graduates for every 100 entering ninth-grade students.

These graduation gains can be attributed almost entirely to Regents diplomas attained, and the effects are seen in virtually every subgroup in these schools, including male and female students of color, students with below grade level eighth-grade proficiency in math and reading, and low-income students. In addition, the best evidence that currently exists suggests that these small high schools may increase graduation rates for two new subgroups for which findings were not previously available: special education students and English language learners. Finally, more students are graduating ready for college: the schools raise by 6.8 percentage points the proportion of students scoring 75 or more on the English Regents exam, a critical measure of college readiness used by the City University of New York.

“With the nation’s attention focused on turning around failing urban high schools, this study provides convincing evidence that large-scale transformation is possible in an urban public school system,” said Gordon Berlin, President of MDRC. “While more certainly needs to be done if all students are to be prepared for college and careers, the small school strategy as implemented in New York provides a blueprint for future reforms across the nation.”

MDRC doesn't seem to have tracked the students who used to be at the large "failing" schools to see what happened to them (indeed, they say that (" The study does not compare the SSCs to the large, failing high schools they replaced but, rather, to the other public high schools operating in the reform-rich atmosphere in New York City"), but you can be sure the overwhelming majority didn't end up in Bloomberg's small schools.

You can also be sure that the large "failing" schools served high populations of ELL's and support service students.  MDRC notes the following about their study (emphasis added):

The best evidence that exists indicates that SSCs may increase graduation rates for two new subgroups for which findings were not previously available: special education students and English language learners. However, given the still-limited sample sizes for these subgroups, the evidence will not be definitive until more student cohorts can be added to the analysis.

Gee, how does MDRC claim that this study proves the small schools initiative "as implemented in New York provides a blueprint for future reforms across the nation" when the schools they studied had limited sample sizes of ELL's and support service students, unlike, say, the larger schools they replaced?

Given the political atmosphere these days, with the Common Core test score rates plummeting in Bloomberg's last year in office and much of his reform measures under attack, this study has the feel of Bloomberg propaganda.

MDRC is claiming this study proves Bloomberg's reforms work, but even they admit that the students in these schools are different from the students in the larger "failing" schools they replaced and these school populations have fewer ELL's and support service students in the student cohorts than in the system at large.

Both of these caveats call into question the entire value of the study, but of course MDRC isn't going to note that in their p.r. paper.

Also, notice how MDRC opens up their p.r. statement:

MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research firm...

Right from the get-go, they want to make sure that everybody knows they've got no straw in this drink, they're just here to do the independent research and publish the findings, regardless of what those findings are.

But is it true that they're an independent research group?

Well, that depends on what you mean by independent.

You see, they partnered with the Bloomberg administration and the City of New York back in 2007 on another schools initiative called Opportunity NYC:

In March 2007, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced his intention to test a set of antipoverty initiatives, called Opportunity NYC, which would use temporary cash payments to poor families to boost their income in the short term, while building their capacity to avoid longer-term and second-generation poverty. Such payments are known internationally as “conditional cash transfers” because the payments are contingent upon family members making certain efforts to build their human capital.

...

Opportunity NYC includes three separate demonstration projects, each of which took a somewhat different approach. Family Rewards was a comprehensive, two-generation strategy that focused on children’s education, family preventative health care, and parents’ workforce efforts. Work Rewards targeted the workforce efforts of low-income adults living in subsidized housing. A third project called the Spark program focused solely on children and their school performance. All three projects have been supported by a consortium of private funders.

In collaboration with the Mayor’s Office, a host of City agencies, and Seedco (a private, not-for-profit workforce and economic development organization), MDRC helped design Family Rewards and Work Rewards and is leading random assignment evaluations of the effectiveness of these programs. The operational phase of Family Rewards and the incentives component of Work Rewards have concluded as planned, and the long-term evaluations are still underway.

Oh, so this independent, non-partisan, non-profit MDRC partnered with the Bloomberg administration to try and prove that merit payments (i.e., "conditional cash transfers") to poor people improve social outcomes.

Gee, that doesn't sound so non-partisan or independent to me.

In fact, that sounds like MDRC very much had a stake in the outcome of just how the city tried to improve social outcomes (i.e., with market-based initiatives) and it sounds like MDRC finds itself very close to the Bloomberg administration indeed.

MDRC has also partnered with Bloomberg and NYC before on other initiatives as well, like the Social Impact Bond Project at Riker's Island.

MDRC loses its claims to "non-partisanship" when it partners with the Bloomberg administration on two major initiatives the Bloomberg administration promoted, both of which are "market-based initiatives" out to prove that free market ideas will solve social issues like poverty and prison recidivism.

Lastly, guess which billionaire philanthropist's philanthropy group is a major funder of MDRC?

You guessed it - Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Gee, I can't imagine Bloomberg's writing some of the checks to keep the lights on in the MDRC offices would sway any of the research they do over at MDRC, can you?

This study will be hailed by the usual corporate media cheerleaders like the Daily News (Gotham Schools is shilling the DN story in their morning post as well), but the truth is, the study is compromised by MDRC taking money from Bloomberg and by MDRC having partnered with Bloomberg on other initiatives.

In addition, the study is misleading at best, because while it claims Bloomberg's small schools program is "a blueprint for future reforms across the nation," it fails to note how that blueprint has "still-limited sample sizes" of ELL's and support services students.  Given how the system at large, and the large "failing" schools these small schools replaced have larger "sample sizes" of these populations of students, it stands to reason that if you add a larger subset of ELL's and support service students to the mix, you are going to get different outcomes.

It would be nice if the Daily News would have mentioned the Bloomberg financial connection in their story.

You can bet if the UFT or the AFT were a major funder of a research group releasing an education study, the Daily News would have mentioned that.

Somehow the Bloomberg Philanthropies connection isn't mentioned in the DN story, however.

It also would have been nice if the Daily News would have mentioned the caveat to the study over ELL's and support service students.

Both of those call into question what MDRC is claiming this study proves - that Bloomberg's small schools reforms is "a blueprint for future reforms across the nation."

De Blasio - A Public School Parent Who Could Be Mayor

Dana Rubenstein at Capital NY:

De Blasio pointed out that if he wins, he will become the first mayor in the city's history with children in public school.

It's not a claim I could substantiate. I can say with certainly, however, that he would be the first mayor with a child in public school at the time he was mayor in at least 50 years.

(Abe Beame sent his children to public school, but they graduated long before he became mayor.)

None of the other leading candidates from either party who have children made the decision to send them to public school: Bill Thompson sent his daughter to private school and his step-children are in boarding school, while Republicans Joe Lhota and John Catsimatidis sent their children to private schools.

The two Democrats with connections to public education—John Liu, who sends his son to public school in Manhattan, and Anthony Weiner, who has said he plans to send his son to public school—trail their rivals by significant margins in the polls.

Fernando Ferrer, the Democratic nominee in 2005, said his daughter graduated from public school, although she actually graduated from Catholic school.

In 2001, when Michael Bloomberg was mounting his first run for mayor, his youngest daughter, Georgina, was a senior at the Spence School and his older daughter Emma was a senior at Princeton. 

His opponent Mark Green (and Green's opponents in the Democratic primary: Peter Vallone Sr. and Alan Hevesi) all sent their kids to private schools.

Ruth Messinger, the Democratic candidate for mayor in 1997, sent her kids to public school, but they weren’t school-aged by the time she ran for mayor and anyway she lost to incumbent Rudy Giuliani, who sent his kids to private school.

Ed Koch didn’t have any kids. Dinkins sent his kids to private school, the Ethical Culture School and Fieldston, but they weren’t school-aged.

Beame's two sons went to public school, according to his former campaign manager, though they were grown-ups by the time their father got to City Hall.
 
John Lindsay had school-age children, but he sent them to private school.

Bobby Wagner, the son of Robert Wagner, went to the Buckley School and Phillips Exeter Academy. (I can't find any information about the Wagner siblings. Help, please, if you know.)

Vincent Impellitteri had no children.

Bill de Blasio has two.

His daughter Chiara is in college now, but she graudated from the Beacon School, M.S. 51, and P.S. 372.

Fifteen-year-old Dante de Blasio attended he same elementary and middle schools and is now a student at Brooklyn Tech.

De Blasio’s status as a public school parent comes gives him an undeniably appealing talking point, one he has shown no hesitation in using. "Lucky husband of @Chirlane. Proud public school parent," reads his campaign Twitter profile.

It's been helpful to de Blasio in making his case to voters, no doubt.

“To have a mayor who says, 'I’ll tell you how much I’m going to care about the public schools, I got my own kid there,' is a very powerful signal,” said Ken Sherrill, a Hunter College political science professor. “That’s more than spending one night in public housing."

Good piece by Rubenstein.

This is the kind of piece Gotham Schools should be doing.

Instead, they're doing hit pieces on de Blasio dating back to his time on a school board in the 1990's.

I wonder how much the Quinn campaign paid GS for this advertising spot?

Nah, just kidding - they don't have to take Quinn's money for this post.

They'll be paid in kind by the hedge fundies and Wall Street folks around donation time.

Spin, Baby, Spin

Those fine journalists at Gotham Schools, ever mindful of their funding and perhaps angling for some of that Bloomberg philanthropy money, spin the state tests scores for the mayor:

The state’s first round of Common Core test scores are out and they are just as low as officials warned.

But there is some good news for New York City: Its scores are close to the state average, and far ahead of those of other large cities.

...

As expected, New York City’s scores are lower than they have been, too. But the good news for city students and educators — and, perhaps especially, for Mayor Bloomberg — is that the city’s proficiency rates are not so far off the state’s.

...

The picture gets even better when looking at the scores of other large cities with student populations similar in many ways to New York City’s. While the new scores have New York City students hitting the proficiency standard only about half as often as they did last year, other cities saw performance fall more sharply. In Buffalo, only a third as many students — 9.6 percent — are considered proficient in math as they were last year. In Rochester, only a fifth as many students — just 5 percent — hit the math proficiency bar.

A commenter on the post notes the following:

There definitely is a positive spin in the charts shown since nyc is close to the average of ny state, but since the next four largest cities are below the state average, the stat inference can be drawn that the missing data from the chart (all other schools in ny state) are a mirror image of the downside figures but on the upside instead (to make the full average). But this data appears purposefully not shown on the displayed charts giving the impression that nyc didn't do quite so badly. Further, since nyc comprises almost 50% of the state as a whole, we are really interested in results of ny state w/o nyc in which case nyc would again show an even a worse comparison to the rest of the state. This is also purposefully not shown in the displayed tables above either.

I found most interesting how the deformists can so quickly mobilize their front in the billionaire propaganda papers, get Duncan to show up personally and even get Klein to put in 2 cents. Very slick orchestrated PR on short notice although no doubt they probably had a leak of the reports before the public to prepare in advance.

Indeed, the spin doctors are out in force today.

One of the problems with that, however, is that some of that spinning is getting done at "news" sites.

Bloomberg: I'm A Fiscal Genius!

Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave a speech today in which he publicly patted himself on the back for his genius at stewarding the city through rough economic waters and warned that whoever follows him into City Hall had better follow the Bloomberg plan or New York City will turn into Detroit.

Yeah, it was a real humble speech, full of soul-searching and honest reflection for why New York City has income inequality levels approaching Third World proportions, a gap that has significantly worsened under Bloomberg.

No, actually it wasn't that kind of speech at all.

Bloomberg clearly has a fine conception of himself, his abilities and his track record, but as he was touting his fiscal genius in general terms in today's speech, I couldn't help but think of some of that fiscal genius in individual terms.

There was the $500 million Bloomberg allowed to be stolen as part of the CityTime project - the worst fraud perpetrated in NYC history.

There is the 911 system that doesn't work, sometimes crashes half a dozen times a day and puts New Yorkers at risk - but in the end will cost over $2.3 billion, at least $1 billion overbudget.  Oh, and it's at least 7 years past deadline.

Then there is the $80 million ARIS system that everybody in the NYC school system hates and the $36 million dollar NYCHA computer system that doesn't work and the GPS systems he bought for the FDNY that he spent $7.3 million on ($56,000 per GPS unit) that don't work and often gives directions for trucks to drive into the East River and the $43.2 million he allowed some consultant crooks to steal from the DOE with the help of former Tweedie Judith Hederman.

Wow - just look at all that genius! 

I mean, how could NYC ever have survived the 2008 recession without Mike Bloomberg's fiscal genius?

And that's not even tallying up all the little frauds perpetrated by the outside consultants and vendors here and there - the $1.7 million stolen by Willard Lanham from the DOE or the $2.7 million stolen by Nelson Ruiz from the DOE or the myriad other "little" scandals that Bloomberg turned a blind eye to while he pursued his fiscal genius policies.

It would be nice if somebody in the press would call him on his propaganda, but that would actually take somebody in the press with the guts or desire to do that.

Instead they suck up to him like Bill Keller at the Times and Michael Wolff at The Guardian, no doubt knowing that someday they, too, will have to work for Bloomberg or one of his rich pals when their newspapers get bought up in a vanity purchase by one of the half dozen oligarchs in this country still willing to own print.

And so we have this myth that follows Bloomberg around, spread by Bloomberg and the journalists and p.r. people on his payroll, that Bloomberg has been a masterful fiscal steward of the city when, even a rudimentary closer look at the history, shows that is just not so.

Weiner Accuses Bloomberg Of Manipulating Test Scores And Closing Schools To Get Around The UFT Contract

Fresh from being told to go ---- himself by a voter on Atlantic Avenue yesterday, Anthony Weiner decided to go on the offensive against Mayor Bloomberg on education policy today:

Former Congressman Anthony Weiner accused Mayor Michael Bloomberg of using school closures to skirt union rules and fudging test scores ahead of his 2005 re-election bid during a conversation on education policy this morning that represented a rare reprieve from relentless questions about his latest sexing scandal.

Still trying to shift the conversation away from revelations that have engulfed his fledgling mayoral campaign in recent weeks, Mr. Weiner spent nearly an hour discussing everything from test scores to classroom diversity during a CUNY Institute of Education Policy Breakfast at Hunter College.

Asked about the Bloomberg administration’s controversial school closure policy, Mr. Weiner made the case that schools are being closed, not to improve them, but because it allows the city to skirt union rules that would otherwise bar the changes.

“It is simply a way to use their tools to be able to do what they want to ultimately do, which is to move teachers. And I think that–frankly–it’s not a particularly productive way to solve what is basically a labor–a contract–negotiation,” he said, describing the process as deeply disruptive to students.

“We’re basically saying to kids, ‘Don’t worry this school is a failure,’” he charged.

The allegations continued as Mr. Weiner accused Mr. Bloomberg of messing with test scores ahead of his 2005 re-election bid in order to make it seem as though more progress was being made.

“The mayor himself, I think, fudged the scores wildly leading up to his re-election in 2005,” said Mr. Weiner, who at the time was also running in the race. “A lot of those early numbers turned out to be discredited.”

In a scrum with mostly education reporters after the forum, Mr. Weiner doubled down on the accusation, pointing to news reports from the time questioning the scores.

“There was a spate of press conferences about how amazing the schools were doing that were later on discredited when those numbers came crashing back to earth,” he said. “These numbers are getting fudged in hundreds of ways,” he said.

Why would the press challenge Weiner on Bloomberg's playing funky with the test score data?

Bloomberg used to scream to holy heaven about how great the test scores were, how his reforms had closed the achievement gap.

But after the state acknowledged that state test scores were inflated, the city scores dropped precipitously and Bloomberg could no longer brag about either high test scores or closing the achievement gap.

Seriously, political journalists can actually look that stuff up if they want and see it for themselves.

Or they can call a journalist like Juan Gonzalez and ask him.

It's a fact - and not even a "Weiner" fact, but a real, honest-to-God true fact:

For years, Mayor Bloomberg, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and top education officials in Albany touted big jumps in math and reading scores statewide - and skyrocketing results among New York City's pupils.

The scores, they said, were proof that mayoral control and Klein's data-driven version of school reform had succeeded.

Schools were winning the "civil rights battle of our time," the chancellor claimed, by closing the racial "achievement gap."

To promote his reforms nationwide, Klein even founded a nonprofit group last year with the Rev. Al Sharpton. They called it the Education Equality Project.

Now, state officials have revealed a startling nosedive in test scores. Admitting that results from previous years had been inflated, the state announced tougher standards this year - resulting in the lower scores. Thousands of parents who had been told their children were at grade level are suddenly learning they aren't.

Even worse, the new scores show the racial "achievement gap" has increased.

Back in 2003, 73.3% of white fourth-grade students met state standards, compared with only 46.3% of black pupils. The gap between the two groups was 26.9 points. This year, the gap between black and white fourth-graders increased to 31.7 points.

For Hispanic fourth-graders, there was a smaller rise, from 29.7 points in 2003 to 30.3 this year - but a rise nonetheless.

Comparisons aren't possible for all grades because the state only tested fourth- and eighth-graders until 2006.

More than 15% of the 400,000 students who took this year's reading test registered at Level 1 - the lowest possible level - while only 2.8% did last year. An astonishing 85% of those lowest achievers were African-American and Hispanic.

The new scores are so bad Sharpton has begun to distance himself from Klein. "I'm very disturbed and concerned by these scores," Sharpton said.

"We were told students were improving, but it seems our kids were victims of dumbed-down tests to make the administration look good."

See?

Too bad the political press are too busy trying to get Weiner to say whether he's seen Sydney Leather's x-rated video released yesterday to look this kind of thing up and see that he's right about Bloomberg manipulating the test score data to make himself and his reforms look better.

This might have been a teachable moment for the political press and the corporate media, but alas, anything that doesn't jibe with Mayor Bloomberg as fiscal and education reform genius doesn't seem to compute with them.

Call it The Bill Keller syndrome - the inability to see Mayor Bloomberg for what he is.