Cuomo, Lhota Compadre On Charter Schools, Other Issues

So says our old ed deform friend and failed DFER candidate Basil Smikle:

Smikle said Cuomo also is philosophically closer to Lhota than de Blasio on education issues, particularly on charter schools. For his part, de Blasio has proposed a moratorium on charters, which are publicly funded but privately run, and even supports charging them rent.

“That would eviscerate the charter school movement,” said Smikle.

Mayor Bloomberg provides the charters co-located in public schools with free space. De Blasio also said he supports a moratorium on closing low-performing schools, arguing that more should be done to address their needs before the doors are shut.

In Buffalo last month, Cuomo said failing public schools should get the “death penalty.” Lhota supports the policy of closing low-performing schools.

The Post article notes that Cuoo refuses to raise taxes on rich people (a stance Lhota shares with Cuomo) while de Blasio wants to raise taxes on rich people to fund universal pre-K.

The Post also reports that Cuomo dismissed any policy differences between himself and de Blasio:

 “No mayor or governor in recent memory will have as close a personal relationship as Gov. Cuomo and Bill de Blasio,” a source close to the governor said.

As I have written before here at Perdido Street School, if de Blasio and Cuomo are working well together on issues, it will mean that de Blasio has caved to the governor on many of his progressive policy positions from the campaign and is following along with Cuomo's Third Way social liberalism/economic corporatism stances.

So here's hoping they don't work well together.

One final point:

If Cuomo is compadre with Joe Lhota, the former Giuliani administration official, on so many issues like taxes and charter schools and education reform, why is Cuomo a "Democrat"?

The question is rhetorical, of course.

Cuomo is a "Democrat" the way the hedge fund managers at the Democrats For Education Reform are "Democrats."

Bill Perkins Beats Charter School Stooge: 76%-24%

Bill Perkins defeats Basil Smikle - by 52 points:

In the race that pitted State Sen. Bill Perkins against political operative Basil Smikle, incumbent Perkins seemed to enjoy the same sort of support from the community that Rangel did.

Perkins claimed victory late Tuesday night. Outside of Paris Blues, a bar on 121st Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd., he said his election shows that his constituents do not want him to be silent on certain issues, such as charter schools.

Perkins has been critical of charter schools and charter school proponents had filled his opponents' campaign coffers.

"The hedge fund millionaires lost and they do not dictate the outcome of an election by virtue of their money," Perkins said.

"The vote tonight tells me that even charter school parents support me. They are not of the belief that my voice should be silenced when it comes to wanting more transparency regarding charter schools," he added.

The election numbers are here.

DFER and the hedge fund criminals threw an awful lot of money into this race to beat Perkins, once a charter school advocate who now supports more transparency and accountability for the charter school movement and the people running it.

It's good to see that sometimes hedge fund criminal money CANNOT subvert democracy and buy an election.

It's also good to see that Basil Smikle - despite endorsements by the NY Post and the NY Daily News - got his ass kicked and lost by 52 points.

That's a pretty emphatic victory.

It's even better to see former NY1 political reporter, current charter school advocate and convicted wifebeater Dominic Carter wrong as usual.

He declared Perkins in "serious trouble" and predicted the tabloid endorsements, along with Smikle's support of charter schools, had given Smikle the "momentum" over Perkins.

Nice work, Dominic - you got stuff wrong again, just like in the old days when you were still on NY1 and not writing your political commentary from a jail cell.