Reformers' secret weapon: Class-act lobbyist
Last Updated: 5:28 AM, May 5, 2010
Posted: 3:29 AM, May 5, 2010
Comments: 2
PrintALBANY -- The charter-school movement has a potent weapon in its quest to persuade the state Assembly to lift the cap on charter schools: powerhouse lobbyist Patricia Lynch.
Lynch -- the former communications director for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver -- has deep ties in the Legislature.
Her firm -- Patricia Lynch Associates -- has 175 clients and is the second-highest-paid lobbying firm in New York with $8.5 million in fees and expenses last year.
Lynch has been retained by three pro-charter-school organizations: the Harlem Success Charter School Network, Democrats for Education Reform and Teach for America.
Each outfit is paying Lynch's firm $5,000 a month -- or $15,000 combined -- to help boost charter schools.
"It's all about the children in the classroom and the opportunity that education provides," Lynch said.
Charter-school supporters will need all the help they can get to try to get a charter-school bill through the Assembly, where the teachers unions hold considerable sway.
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