A great op-ed in yesterday's NY Sun about the potential of Gov. Paterson to be a leader in education reform (though early indications are troubling -- he stood up 1,400 Harlem parents by being a last-minute no-show at DFER's Harlem Charter Night, and it looks like he's being rolled by the unions on the legislation that would (foolishly) prevent the DOE from using student test score data as one (of many) inputs in teacher tenure decisions -- see my post at http://edreform.blogspot.com/2008/04/bill-would-bar-linking-class-test.html):

Mr. Paterson’s challenge now will be to take his support of school choice to new heights through his policy prescriptions. He can find a blueprint just across the Hudson River, where reform is gaining in the deep blue state of New Jersey.

A lifelong Democrat who runs the successful E3 school choice group in Newark, Dan Gaby, referenced the city’s pro-school choice mayor, Cory Booker, a black Democrat, in his explanation for the possible sea change.

“What’s interesting here is that there is change in the Democratic Party all over the country,” Mr. Gaby remarked. “People like Paterson and Booker are the vanguard of this change. They see the hypocrisy in consistently winning the minority constituencies who have been faithful to them for decades, and then going to bed with their oppressors, the teachers’ unions. They can no longer be duplicitous. They know that this must change.”...

Let’s hope that, in the next 33-and-a-half months, we witness Mr. Paterson’s strong support for real school reform. And, as we do, let’s hope also that he and others in his party can see charter schools, school choice, and other seemingly conservative policy principles for what they really are: vital tools through which our elected officials can empower parents and liberate the poor and minority kids unfairly trapped by our nation’s crumbling public schools.

----------------------

Paterson’s School Choice Chance

By MARCO DESENA | April 2, 2008

http://nysun.com/editorials/paterson%E2%80%99s-school-choice-chance

Behind the budget battle, Governor Paterson’s public school reform position is particularly scrutinized.

The discussion revolves around whether Mr. Paterson is pro-school choice, if he likes vouchers, and how far he will go to promote charter schools. Some national advocates are certain that he’s Friedmanesque in his school stance.

“David Paterson is a passionate advocate for expanding opportunities for disadvantaged schoolchildren through school choice, including private school options,” the former president of the Alliance for School Choice and arguably the nation’s leading educational-choice advocate, Clint Bolick, said. “He is unafraid to stand up to special-interest groups that block opportunities for children who need them.”

Others, as this paper has reported, are not so sure. Randi Weingarten said the other week that she thought choice reformers were “in some ways trying to put words in [Mr. Paterson’s] mouth.”