Introducing Cathy Nolan

There is a constant fight to protect charter schools from the education establishment.  Behind the scenes, the establishment pressures politicians, many of whom you have never heard of, to do things to stop the progress of competitive alternatives to traditional public schools. 

The latest example in New York State comes from Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan.  Here and here are links to two new anti-charter bills that she recently introduced.  The first one would impose mandatory union membership on all charter schools.  The second one would eliminate the State University of New York ("SUNY") as a charter school authorizer. 

Why would Nolan want to eliminate SUNY as an authorizer? All charter schools in New York must be authorized by either the "Board of Regents" (which controls the State Education Department) or the SUNY Board of Trustees.  Members of the Board of Regents are, in effect, chosen by the leader of the Assembly Democrats, Shelly Silver.  Shelly Silver hates charter schools. Members of the SUNY Board of Trustees, on the other hand, are selected by the Governor.  Since the passage of the first charter school law, New York's governor has been a charter school supporter.  Nolan would like to eliminate SUNY as an authorizer so that all charter oversight went through the entity that Assembly Democrats control. 

In practice, bills like these are unlikely to become law.  Rather, they are introduced to create negotiating leverage and to please special interests.  For the Assembly member, they are usually costless, because voters don't have the time or interest to follow the details.  If you want to discuss this with Assemblywoman Nolan, this page has her contact info.