Thompson takes the parent vote!

NYC Kids PAC congratulates Bill Thompson on his strong performance this Tuesday in the mayoral elections. As the New York Times exit poll shows, parents of public school children voted overwhelmingly for change—favoring Thompson 55% to 43%.

Mayor Bloomberg assumed complete control of the schools in 2002 and declared that New Yorkers should hold him accountable with their vote. The election reveals that public school parents have done just that. Despite $80 million dollars in flyers and saturation advertising hawking the mayor’s false statistics and bogus claims of improvements in our schools, public school parents called for change.

NYC Kids PAC also congratulates John Liu, the comptroller-elect, an NYC Kids PAC endorsee. Liu was the city’s largest vote-getter with 693,330 votes—roughly 150,000 more than Bloomberg.

We celebrate the six victorious City Councilmember who also received our endorsement: Charles Barron, Robert Jackson, Ken Mitchell, Diane Reyna, Al Vann, and Councilmember-elect Mark Weprin. We supported these candidates on the basis of their education records, specifically their votes to expand the school capital plan and revise mayoral control.
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NYC Kids PAC looks forward to working with the Mayor, Speaker Quinn, the City Council, Comptroller-elect Liu, and Public Advocate-elect de Blasio to enact the policies we need for real improvements in our schools. The election results demonstrate that New Yorkers are not happy with the one-man rule that has come to dominate our schools and our city.

We call on all of New York City’s officials to recognize the mandate for change expressed by Tuesday’s vote by

—immediately replacing Joel Klein with an educator as chancellor;
—reducing class size and eliminating overcrowding;
—limiting high-stakes testing and its distorting consequences for curriculum and instruction;
—curtailing the privatization of public education;
—strengthening neighborhood schools;
—institutionalizing the parent voice in decision-making; and
—insuring transparency and accountability in finances and data analysis.

NYC Kids PAC only formed in September, and yet it helped raise over $8,000 for Bill Thompson, marshaled parents as volunteers from throughout the five boroughs, and distributed thousands of flyers educating the electorate on the issues of concern to parents. NYC Kids PAC will continue to support leaders who stand up for what we know our kids really need. For more information about our mission and our goals see www.nyckidspac.org.

CAMPAIGN TO STOP K-2 TESTING IN OUR SCHOOLS

Parents - Did you know that the DOE plans to bring standardized testing to our youngest children? If this happens, curriculum will be drastically altered because teachers will be pressured to teach to the test. There will be precious little time for art, music, science, drama, and creative play. Experts agree that testing young children is highly unreliable due to the uneven development in early childhood. Additionally, standardized tests have a long and notorious history of misrepresenting the intellectual capabilities of young children based on race, class and immigrant status. And during this period of severe budget cuts, it would be a waste of money to spend millions of dollars on such an irresponsible testing policy.

Time Out From Testing is organizing a citywide referendum to stop K-2 testing. Please go to our website at www.timeoutfromtesting.org to sign the online petition. In addition, next week are elementary school parent-teacher conferences during which you can set up a table to gather signatures of opposition. Please download the "Letter for Parents" from our website, make copies, ask parents to sign, collect all the letters and return them to us. (You will find the address at the bottom of the letter.)

Want to get more involved in this campaign? Email us at info@timeoutfromtesting.org

Many thanks! Jane Hirschmann

Business as Usual for Bloomberg

November 4, 2009 (GBN News): While publicly maintaining that “a win is a win”, Mayor Bloomberg is said to be privately furious over the poor return on his $100 million re-election campaign investment. “I didn’t become a billionaire by throwing away money,” he reportedly told associates after his unexpectedly narrow victory on Tuesday. “I paid for a 20% margin, and I expected to get a 20% margin.”

However, Mr. Bloomberg will apparently be able to recoup much of the money he spent. The Mayor is said to be billing the Thompson campaign for $50 million worth of Bloomberg ads highlighting Mr. Thompson’s picture. Though the ads had actually attacked the Democratic candidate, a spokesperson for the Mayor maintained that, “We gave him all that exposure. It’s only fair that Thompson should pay for it.”

In a related story, last minute rumors of potential trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission may have contributed to Mr. Bloomberg’s relatively poor showing in the election. The SEC is reportedly investigating the Mayor for insider trading in test score futures. Sources told GBN News that Mr. Bloomberg is suspected of using his knowledge of inflated NY State test scores to invest heavily in them. Unfortunately for the Mayor, the recent release of NAEP scores tipped off the investigators and exposed the scheme.