Charter school leaders have seized on [the Mayor’s] key vulnerability. While black and Latino residents overwhelmingly backed Mr. de Blasio in last year’s election, many also embrace the cause of charter schools, which operate primarily in low-income neighborhoods.
The article notes that “[c]harter schools and their backers represent perhaps the most formidable political threat to Mr. de Blasio’s young administration, and the mayor has taken notice,” especially after the recent Quinnipiac University poll showed that 49% of New Yorkers disapprove of the Mayor’s handling of New York City schools. (Thirty-eight percent approved.)
Also in the article, Kevin Hall, president of the Charter School Growth Fund and board member of Eva Moscowitz’s Success Academies, explains how educators and charter school advocates must “plan robust political efforts:”
“In some ways these guys have gotten pulled into being in the advocacy realm because the world kind of changed around them,” he said. “People are trying to figure out now, how do we mobilize our families and others to better tell our story than we have?”
