(From City Hall, September 28, 2010)
Patrick Van Keerbergen
New York Field Director, Democrats for Education Reform
Age: 32
During the recent push by the charter-school movement into local politics, the facet of the operation that has gained the most attention is the amount of money the movement’s hedge-fund donors can pour into campaigns.
But Democrats for Education Reform, the pro-charter umbrella group coordinating many of these efforts, has also been trying to expand their ground game to compete with the field operations of the teachers unions. (The primary-election results show that they are still doing some catching up.)
In April, DFER’s executive director, Joe Williams, brought Patrick Van Keerbergen aboard just as the group was making a final push to lift the charter cap to expand the group’s electoral influence.
“I definitely do think that, given the number of charter-school parents that are highly vested in this issue, there is a lot of potential and it’s starting to get tapped,” he said.
Van Keerbergen cut his teeth doing organizing for the Working Families Party, before working as chief of staff for Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh, then as Manhattan field director for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2009 re-election campaign.
Van Keerbergen is one of several people (including Bloomberg campaign manager Bradley Tusk) who moved from the pro-charter mayor’s campaign into promoting the cause for DFER.
“This was a big issue in the mayoral campaign, and something the mayor talked about openly,” he said. “It was natural to move into this.”
How did past jobs get you to where you are now?
I’ve been very lucky that every job I’ve had so far, I’ve been surrounded by smart people who passed things on and taught me about building power and relationships.
What will your business card say in five years?
Five years is hard to imagine. No idea about the title, but I hope I’m in New York City, still working on issues I care about.
If you weren’t in politics, what would you be doing?
Organizing or working in the non-profit sector.
What is your spirit animal?
Beaver