(From The New York Times, September 10, 2010)
By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ
Mark H. Pollard was a little-known candidate for New York State Senate in Brooklyn facing the herculean feat of ousting a 26-year incumbent. But then he got an unexpected telephone call saying that a group of wealthy investors who supported charter schools wanted to meet with him.
So in June, Mr. Pollard, a Democrat, found himself in Manhattan, sipping wine on a Park Avenue patio with people whose names he can no longer recall. Then “the checks started rolling in,” he said, and by July he had received more than $100,000.
“They made my campaign viable,” said Mr. Pollard, a lawyer who supports the charter school movement. The windfall has made him a legitimate contender, allowing him to hire a veteran campaign manager and print thousands of pamphlets.
In response, powerful unions representing teachers and other school workers have flocked to the side of his opponent, Senator Velmanette Montgomery, who has staunchly criticized the rise of charter schools, which receive taxpayer money but are privately run. Ms. Montgomery has received more than $100,000 in contributions, much of it through union channels.
In an election season dominated by talk of reforming Albany, a less-visible battle has broken out over charter schools. With a make-or-break primary on Tuesday, Wall Street financiers and unions are spending huge sums and mobilizing supporters in hopes of propelling their education agendas to victory.
The behind-the-scenes foment has set the stage for a half-dozen combative races in districts that might otherwise have been sleepy and predictable.
In Harlem, a laboratory for charter schools, State Senator Bill Perkins, a Democrat who has been outspoken in his distaste for charter schools, faces a stiff primary challenge from a well-financed outsider, Basil Smikle, a former aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton when she was a United States senator from New York.
In Buffalo, which is home to some of the state’s lowest-performing schools, Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, a Democrat, has made his support for the charter movement one of his issues in his primary battle against Joseph Golombek Jr., a member of the city’s Council.
Both sides say the stakes are high at a time when the Legislature faces tough budget choices and contentious questions, including whether to continue granting seniority protection to teachers. They also see the primary as an indicator of whether an ambitious education agenda pushed by charter school advocates will gain momentum.
“There is an emotional attachment to the charter school movement that is working its way into these campaigns in a deeper and more meaningful way,” said Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, a pro-charter group based in New York.
This campaign season, state governments have emerged as critical battlefields in the effort to overhaul American education. In places like California and Florida, pro-charter forces and unions are funneling money into races in hopes of tipping the balance in state capitols.
The focus has turned to states in large part because of the Race to the Top program, an Obama administration initiative that offered millions of dollars to states that enacted changes in educational policy, like expanding the number of charter schools or paying teachers based on how students perform on tests.
New York won about $700 million through the competition last month, after a divided Legislature voted in May to more than double, to 460, the number of charter schools in the state.
In response, teachers’ unions, which say charter schools lack accountability and are overly focused on test scores, have bolstered their political efforts. They have exhorted union members to make phone calls for candidates and contribute to campaigns.
On the East Side of Manhattan, the United Federation of Teachers went as far as to encourage one of its own members, Gregg Lundahl, a high school teacher, to vie for the seat held by Assemblyman Jonathan L. Bing. Mr. Bing drew the ire of the union when he sponsored a measure this year to end the longtime practice of laying off teachers based on lack of seniority. Opponents of the practice say it makes it hard to remove poor teachers.
The political clout of unions faces a new threat from Wall Street hedge fund managers who have embraced charter schools as incubators of innovation free from the rigid rules of the traditional education system. While the unions have the foot soldiers, the investors have deep pockets and wealthy friends.
Several months ago, Michael Tobman, a political consultant representing groups that support charter schools, approached Mr. Pollard, who also teaches at Medgar Evers College, and said he was intrigued by Mr. Pollard’s views on charter schools and wanted to meet.
Mr. Tobman invited him to the June reception, which drew about 50 people. It was held at the home of Boykin Curry, a managing director at Eagle Capital Management, and his wife, Celerie Kemble, an interior designer.
Two other pro-charter school Democrats also attended: Mr. Smikle of Harlem and Lynn Nunes, who is challenging State Senator Shirley L. Huntley in Queens in the primary.
Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, criticized the involvement of Wall Street, suggesting the investors were drowning out the voices of average people.
“People are leery when you have hedge funders come into areas where they’ve never been before and all of a sudden are starting to influence political races,” Mr. Mulgrew said.
But even as candidates accept significant contributions from charter school advocates, they have generally not made education a centerpiece of their campaigns. With populist anger sweeping the country, many have instead focused on plans to remake state government.
Indeed, the rhetoric about charter schools is tamer than many political operatives expected, perhaps in part because of the state’s success in the Race to the Top competition, which advocates say helped legitimize the charter school cause.
“This sort of mass uprising on this issue that I think many of the charter advocates promised and expected hasn’t materialized,” said Jonathan Rosen, a Democratic political consultant. “It’s hard for either side to have much of an ax to grind.”
That has created challenges on the pro-charter side. It has been hard to energize donors, given that the Legislature eventually approved the bill to expand the number of charter schools.
Even with wealthy financiers behind them, many insurgent candidates face strenuous battles heading into Tuesday. They have learned it is hard to compete with the name recognition of incumbents and a fine-tuned union machine.
Mr. Pollard has kept a packed schedule: train stations in the morning and evening; elderly centers in between; block parties on Saturdays; and churches on Sunday.
“I always thought the campaign was winnable, but I’m not naïve,” he said. “You need substantial money to be a viable candidate.”