NY charter cap battle; John Stossel is miffed

1) A good summary of what's going on in Albany right now (from the Center for Education Reform's newsletter):

I LOVE NEW YORK. A battle is raging in New York. On the side of charter schools and valuable education reform: Governor Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg, New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein and now - U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. On the side of the status quo: horribly misinformed Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and who else but the BLOB. The union is coming up with every excuse in the book to stifle the governor's push to raise the cap on charter schools in the state from 100 to 250. The latest excuse, which the union is using to create protests around New York City, is that the city doesn't have enough space for charter schools. The conventional public schools don't want to play nice and share their underutilized buildings with new charter schools. Despite all the bickering, Pataki's plan received national support last week when Secretary Spellings praised the governor's efforts. "We must stop rationing opportunity by arbitrarily limiting the number of charter schools we allow. Parents want options. And we all benefit from them. Charter schools improve education for everyone in the system, especially students. They're laboratories for new educational strategies that can eventually help raise achievement in all our public schools," Spellings said outside Greater Allen Cathedral. The Secretary also praised the governor's work to create an education tax credit for private school and tutoring. Within days of Secretary Spelling's remarks, Silver and others organized protests and stomped and hollered to prevent charter schools. Silver, however, seems confused about what a charter school is, telling the New York Times,  "There is no reason that the mayor or chancellor should be giving away these facilities to a nonpublic endeavor." Correction, please?

2) Gotta love this update (also from CER's newsletter) on John Stossel and the lame attempts to discredit his right-on-the-mark 20/20 segment, Stupid in America (again, let me know if you want me to send you a video of it):

SUBSTITUTE STOSSEL. John Stossel is miffed. After his 20/20 special "Stupid in America" aired on January 13, the teachers union protested and waved signs demanding he teach. He agreed, and many observers watched and waited for the big event. But he complained that they were sending him to one of their more unusual public schools, one that actually is selective in its admissions. Says Stossel:  "Like most of my dealings with the union, nothing was easy. It took weeks of phone calls to make any sort of progress…I prepped for my history classes. We had more meetings. The school principal had me sit in on a class with a "superstar" teacher…Finally, after I sent last week's email, they canceled. They said that it might 'set a precedent' that would open their doors to other reporters." Despite the missed opportunity, Stossel came out on top after the typical red tape produced by the union. His willingness to listen to the protesters and to meet their demands has earned him the respect of many public school teachers.