Thursday, June 24, 2010

NYC Public School Parents: Assembly member Gottfried on the pro-charter mailing sent out by ERN without his consent

NYC Public School Parents: Assembly member Gottfried on the pro-charter mailing sent out by ERN without his consent

Assembly member Gottfried on the pro-charter mailing sent out by ERN without his consent


See Assembly Member Gottfried's response to Jan Carr's email to him, about the pro-charter school flyer she received in the mail sent by the charter lobbyists Education Reform Now in his name:


I am appalled about the "Education Reform Now" mailing, because it utterly misrepresents my position.

I do not support charter schools, and have spoken out frequently against them. I support a long list of proposals to rein them in, make them treat teachers and students more fairly, provide transparency, prevent crowding out public schools, etc. etc. I voted for the charter school bill because it includes many of those important changes. For me, the part of the bill that increased the limit on the number of charter schools was a regrettable price to pay for the valuable parts of the bill. I felt we were destined to lose the fight to keep the number down anyway.

The "Education Reform Now" people supported the bill for the opposite reason. I understand they have sent out these dishonest mailings in the districts of many legislators who voted for the bill for the reasons I did.

The implication of what you wrote above is that these flyers were mailed out without his permission; AM Gottfried, is that an accurate interpretation of your statement?


Yes. I understand that the mailer was sent in the name of ERN, not in my name. The prominence of my name and photo give the