Zephyr Teachout for New York State Governor

The following is an email I sent to Zephyr Teachout yesterday after Cuomo's allies denied her the WFP endorsement and thereby denied the state a viable liberal alternative to Cuomoccio who has balked at every turn regarding progressive economic policy.


Subject:I implore you to run for Governor in the Dem, WFP primaries and as an Independent 

Ms. Zephyr Teachout, 

I know that a stranger emailing you to ask you to run for Governor of
New York state is quite the non-sequitur, but New Yorkers like myself
need you to be our next governor. New York state is the birthplace of
expanding civil liberties from suffragettes of Seneca Falls to LGBTQ
equality rights activists of Stonewall;  religious freedom under
Flushing Remonstrance and the freedom of the press of the Zenger case shows that New York State is home to those that challenge the conventional wisdom even before the American Revolution; Governors have a tradition of bucking the status quo and being muscular in intervening on behalf of the little guy whether it be DeWitt Clinton, Al Smith, or Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We need you as New York's next governor.

Though I admit I could be incorrect about this, you could collect 175
signatures of WFP enrolled voters and force a primary against Cuomo on
the WFP line while also running on the Democratic line after collecting
15,000 signatures. Also to assure that you appear on the November ballot collect 15,000 signatures of voters in August to run as an independent candidate.

I have included my resume that shows my extensive experience in
electoral campaigns especially here in New York. I first became aware of you as a volunteer for Howard Dean, though you are only first becoming aware of me, I have been aware of the good work you have done for more than a decade. I hope to be able to help you become the next governor of New York and look forward to hearing a response in the very near future.

Re: Charter schools are public schools

The following is a response to an opinion piece from NY Daily News regarding Harlem Success needing to be relocated.

"they are explicitly denied some funding streams, like facilities funding, made available to district schools" So the 9 out of 45 charter schools that are being relocated out of public schools were doing fundraising to pay $0 rent? What facilities funding do they need if charter schools aren't paying rent?

"They educate some of our most challenging students, the vast majority of them low-income, black and Latino. They are open to all applicants, with seats determined by random lottery." Charter schools get to filter out the most challenging students, those without family structure concerned enough to apply for the lottery.

"proof of what can happen when you smartly unleash innovation within a system that, thanks in no small part to a rigid teachers’ union contract," so the only means of succeeding is breaking the backs of unions? So the egalitarian and democratic need to have everyone educated regardless of ability to pay can't be delivered by employees as long as they have a say in their own workplace? Democracy is great, except in the workplace according to Josh Greenman.

The space that the charter schools were using as class rooms, you know the art, music, & other non-classrooms, they displaced public school children from their art and music facilities so there was significant draw back to students, just the ones that weren't in the charter schools. On second thought both are harmed by duplicating the bureaucracy of school administration and hampering art & music education of both segments of the student population.

What innovation can be transferred into the public schools system at-large? If charter schools were acting as they were intended to, as experimental educational policies that would benefit the greater school system, that previous question could be answered and the charter schools have self evident value to all students, currently they are not. When charter schools are used merely to undercut a unionized workforce, and educational benefits stem from culling students with family backgrounds that place value on education enough to enter the school lottery, then their raison d'etre is non-existent. Pointing out that there are outside funding sources for district schools just as there is for charter schools leaves me with the question: What is differentiating factor why donors contribute to charter schools instead of the public schools other than political philosophy? If someone is hellbent to privatize all functions of government, contributing to charter schools is an efficient means to get the camel's nose under the tent to an American expected government service. Charter schools should unionize, if they were creative in their contract maybe using project labor agreements (PLA) over the school year, and then deliver innovative educational solutions the so-called opponents of charter schools would either dissipate or have unfounded objections to charter schools. If in this hypothetical situation where charter schools tackle resolving both unionized workforce and policy solutions to our educational system, while receiving the same support from private sources, then my accusation that the charter school movement is entirely a stalking horse for plutocratic sycophants is unfounded; but in the case that a charter school can't raise funds for a democratic workplace then that would prove my accusation. And to avoid any benefit from prejudicing the student body of charter schools, NYC should implement a charter school draft of all non-special needs students so the students with families that do not speak English at home and are domicile and/or nutritionally insecure are included in the charter school experiment; since the leaders of these charter schools are run "remarkably well" despite being "complex and unique organizations", so I'm sure they can handled that I'm mean the public schools  in large part also are meeting the state standards and their administrators are doing it for half the cost than Eva Moskowitz.