Talk about lazy pols.
Apparently, it’s not enough that City Councilman Daniel Dromm does the bidding of the teachers union. When it comes to actually carrying out the agenda, he even leaves it to the union to do all the work.
This appears to be the story behind a letter recently sent to every charter school in the city, seeking information on their financials. The letter was signed by Dromm, who chairs the Education Committee. But it was actually mailed out by a teachers-union front group, the Alliance for Quality Education.
Dromm gave the charters until Friday to comply. Some didn’t even get the letter until then.
Here’s the kicker: Dromm has no legal authority to demand such information in the first place.
With one notable exception, this city’s charter public schools pose a threat to the union-run traditional public schools because the former generally outperform the latter.
The notable exception is the charter run by the United Federation of Teachers, which has failed so miserably the union just announced it will be closing. Because the teachers union can’t compete on performance, it opts for political harassment.
Dromm is a former union official himself, and this letter is not the first example of councilmembers effectively ceding their office to the unions. Who can forget the 2009 council hearing where lawmakers read questions straight off of cue cards the union gave them just moments before?
We’ve always known the teachers unions have politicians willing to put their names on anything the union wants.
Let’s just not pretend it has anything to do with children getting an education.