Labor groups bank on longtime ties to key legislators in budget fight over NYC charter schools
ALBANY – Labor unions are flexing their financial muscle in the fight against charter schools by showering cash on three key state lawmakers who oppose Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plans for more of the publicly funded private schools, according to a Post analysis.
The unions have given roughly $175,000 to state Senate Education Chair Shelley Mayer, state Senate New York City Education Chair John Liu and Assembly Education Chair Michael Benedetto over the years — building powerful ties that could sink Hochul’s hopes of lifting the current cap on charters in the Empire State.
“Labor unions know where their bread is buttered, and they also know when to keep the knife out,” one Albany insider explained.
Campaign finance records show powerful groups like New York State United Teachers – whose biggest subsidiary is the city’s United Federation of Teachers – and the AFL-CIO have cultivated ties through regular giving to the longtime charter foes amid a growing state budget battle on the matter.
Mayer (D-Yonkers) has over the past nine years received at least 37 donations totaling $71,000 from groups, mostly unions, who signed a March 31 memo outlining their opposition to more charters.
At least $65,000 in campaign cash from 37 similar sources has gone to Liu (D-Queens), a former city comptroller, during his various runs for state office since 2014.
Benedetto (D-Bronx), a former teacher, has likewise benefitted from 47 such gifts exceeding $30,000 since 2005.
“We support lawmakers who support public education. We routinely work with other labor unions and education groups to advocate for policies and programs that support public schools and strong communities,” NYSUT spokesman Ben Amey said Friday.
Dr. Basil Smikle Jr., a pro-charter former legislative candidate who lectures on public policy at Columbia University, said says the money to the committee chairs is about building bonds.
“It’s the longer term relationships that the unions have with elected officials … that make the dollars they donate important,” he said.
“But not as critical to the fight as some of the relationships they have developed over time.”
Such gifts add up to one more reason why Mayer, Liu and Benedetto are adding pressure on Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) to block charter changes in budget talks with Hochul.
“There is no nexus. We do our job, and we will continue to do our job,” Stewart-Cousins in late February about donations from anti-charter sources to members of her Democratic supermajority.
The embattled governor has proposed two changes to allow about 100 more charter schools – which are publicly funded but privately run – within the five boroughs.
The first idea would eliminate a regional cap that limits charters to just 275 out of 460 charters statewide.
A second proposal would allow so-called zombie charters be reissued.
“There’s no room for wiggly because there is no wiggliness necessary,” Liu told The Post on Thursday when asked if he had any “wiggle room” on allowing more charters.
Unions are hardly the only source of opposition to Hochul outside the Legislature itself.
Twenty-nine groups big and small, such as the progressive Working Families Party, the New York State School Boards Association, the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families and the NAACP signed the March 31 memo opposing Hochul’s plans.
“[The] reality is that charter schools are diverting more than $3 billion from our New York City public schools, as well as precious space badly needed to lower class size,” Leonie Haimson, executive director of the advocacy group Class Size Matters, said Friday.
Benedetto and Mayer have introduced legislation that aims to close a so-called loophole cited in the memo that allows charters to expand their grades as kids get older.
Charter supporters say an expansion of charters is justified considering how minority families in particular benefit from alternatives to traditional public schools that have underperformed in many areas of the city and state.
“We must allow parents to decide where they want to send their children and provide them with all of the options in doing so,” Ilyasah Shabazz, an author whose famous dad Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965, said at a recent pro-charter rally in the state Capitol.
With budget discussions on touchy topics like cash bail and housing seemingly at an end, the budget battle over charters is nearing its own climax.
Liu and Benedetto both said they are “proud” of the union money they have raised during their legislative careers – and what it says about their overall relationship to the labor movement.
“I have a good relationship with labor unions and I’m proud of those relationships. I’ve also received money from pro-charter groups,” Benedetto, who has received relatively few donations from pro-charter forces, said Friday. “I guess it says that both sides believe I’m a fair legislator.”
“I enjoy a very close working relationship with labor unions and I’m proud of it and supported many of the issues and points of working men and women,” Liu – one of the top recipients of NYSUT donations – said.
“Even the totality of all of these union donations pale in comparison to the offers of support from deep-pocketed, pro-charter advocates,” he added.
Mayer did not respond to a request for comment.
Charters have their own deep-pocketed supporters, including some who have previously donated to Hochul, though they have much less sway in the Assembly and state Senate judging by the handful of state lawmakers who have publicly supported Hochul’s proposal.
“That ongoing relationship gives [anti-charter forces] the voice in the Legislature that charter advocates don’t have in the same way,” Smikle said.
Anti-charter forces, including unions, have other tools for their political advocacy, he added, but campaign cash has been key to their efforts on charters considering the longtime ties they have to key committee chairs.
And while the total amounts Mayer, Liu and Benedetto have raised from anti-charter unions is just a fraction of their total fundraising, Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said it undoubtedly weighs on their minds.
“Would the professional legislative political class feel so strongly if their votes had nothing to do with campaign contributions?” Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf told The Post.
“Don’t bet on it.”
