De Blasio Dismisses Moskowitz Charter Protest as ‘Sideshow’

[hrmjustin]

JILL COLVIN

Mayor Bill de Blasio today dismissed planned protests in Albany by charter school operators and advocates next week as a “sideshow” that he insisted would not distract from his pre-K push

Success Academy Charter School head Eva Moskowitz will be shutting down all of her schools this coming Tuesday to join more than 2,000 charter school advocates from across the state in Albany to push lawmakers to support their schools. The date happens to coincide with the new mayor’s planned descent upon Albany to convince reticent state lawmakers to support his plan to raise taxes on the city’s wealthy to fund universal pre-K and after-school programs.

But Mr. de Blasio insisted today that his aims would not be distracted by the charter push from Ms. Moskowitz, who yesterday learned that Mr. de Blasio’s administration had halted three of her charter schools from co-locating in other buildings.

“You know, this is the seventeenth month in which I’ve been working on full-day pre-K for every child in this city and after school for middle school kids, so I think I’ve gotten the point across. I think there really is that extraordinary critical mass of support. I don’t think any sideshow takes away from that,” said Mr. de Blasio, when asked at an unrelated press conference whether the other advocates would overshadow his pre-K message.

http://politicker.com/2014/02/de-blasio-dismisses-moskowitz-charter-protest-as-sideshow/

[Turbineguy]

1. Shutting down schools in support of education.

Sounds a bit like driving to an Exxon protest.

[hrmjustin]

2. He has been against Charter Schools for years.

He says that it takes from regular public schools. Looks like it will be a big debate.