(From NY1, September 17, 2010)
By LINDSEY CHRIST
When State Senator Bill Perkins held hearings questioning charter schools in April, he put a target on his back. Tabloid editorial pages railed against him. The New York Post claimed his Harlem constituents were angry and said, “He needs to go. Time to primary Perkins.”
Basil Smikle was the Democrat who took up the primary challenge against Perkins, and he raised more than $100,000 from charter school supporters. But he lost in a landslide.
“Obviously the issue that they thought would resonate against us in terms of charter schools, obviously was not as significant for our constituents,” Perkins said.
The two other candidates backed by charter supporters also lost in Brooklyn and Queens.
“We were disappointed. There were a couple of races we wish the candidates we were supporting did better,” said Joe Williams of the group Democrats for Education Reform.
“The people have spoken that it’s about fixing our public schools, it’s not about charter schools,” said Mona Davids of the group New York Charter Parents.
The issue has created a bitter divide. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein got charters and supporters have raised a substantial amount of money from Wall Street and wealthy individuals like Bill Gates.
But Democrats like Perkins, supported by the teachers union, don’t share the mayor’s agenda. And the primaries this year went the way of the union — 30 of the 31 candidates they supported won.
“We had a very, very good night on Tuesday,” said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.
But the charter lobby hasn’t given up.
“I’m happy when public education is being discussed and reform is being discussed. And when elected officials are forced to confront that parents are unhappy when they aren’t getting a good public school education for their kids,” said James Merriman of the New York City Charter School Center
“I don’t think it’s a set back at all. We were looking to send a message that the charter school movement is growing and I think we’ve done that,” Williams said.
Charter school supporters say that even if they lost in the primaries, the political pressure worked. All three of the state senators they had been challenging actually ended up voting in favor of allowing more charter schools last May.