Teachers union strikes back in advertising war over charter cap
Fresh off a loss in the Senate yesterday, the United Federation of Teachers is taking its battle against charter school advocates to the airwaves.
The union’s new minute-long radio spot, which will air on 13 local stations starting today, accuses the pro-charter lobby of being “more interested in making money and ducking accountability than fighting for our kids.” The ad is a response to a media blitz from the pro-charter group Education Reform Now, which has been running online, radio and television ads asking voters to “stop listening to the teachers union.”
Both sides are ramping up media efforts as the legislative debate over whether and how to raise the state’s cap on charter schools picks up steam. Yesterday, the State Senate passed a bill that would more than double the number of charter schools allowed in New York, but the legislation faces a much rockier path in the Assembly.
Listen to the radio spot:
The full script of the ad is after the jump:
The union’s new minute-long radio spot, which will air on 13 local stations starting today, accuses the pro-charter lobby of being “more interested in making money and ducking accountability than fighting for our kids.” The ad is a response to a media blitz from the pro-charter group Education Reform Now, which has been running online, radio and television ads asking voters to “stop listening to the teachers union.”
Both sides are ramping up media efforts as the legislative debate over whether and how to raise the state’s cap on charter schools picks up steam. Yesterday, the State Senate passed a bill that would more than double the number of charter schools allowed in New York, but the legislation faces a much rockier path in the Assembly.
Listen to the radio spot:
The full script of the ad is after the jump:
UFT
:60 radio
“Over” FINAL RECORDED SCRIPT
Listen to what’s happening inside our public schools.
Michigan’s first HS wins a high profile graduation guest
While states have been competing for millions in Race to the Top funds, high schools have had their own contestfor President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s attention.
Duncan announced today that Kalamazoo Central High School, a large comprehensive school in Michigan, beat out over 1,000 other high schools to have Obama as its graduation speaker this year. Schools that entered the competition had to show that their students were learning and that most, if not all of them, were going from graduation to college.
Hand picked by Obama from among three finalists, Kalamazoo’s school district runs a program called Promise that pays up to 100 percent of students’ college tuition for in-state schools.
No New York City high schools made it into the finalist round, but put your nominations of equally deserving NYC schools in the comments.