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."
No comments:
Post a Comment