Whitney Tilson's School Reform Blog: City Council’s UFT charter school support raises ire, eyebrows

It's great to see the UFT getting blasted even by its own allies for its ironic and hypocritical decision to have its allies on the NY City Council award $2 million to its charter school for space (while simultaneously suing to deny space to other charter schools – as I said, ya just can't make this stuff up!):

People on both sides of the charter school fight are not happy about a hefty City Council earmark that's going to the teachers union's charter school.

The funding, sponsored by City Councilman Erik Dilan and approved last month in the council's annual capital budget allocations, gives the union $2 million to develop a plan for moving its charter school out of the two East New York buildings it shares and into space of its own.

The announcement comes as charter schools and their critics are locked in fierce debate over how the city funds and allocates space to charter schools. That dispute is central to a lawsuit, filed in May by the UFT and NAACP, that seeks to stop 16 charter schools from opening, moving, or expanding.

The lawsuit alleges that some charter schools receive disproportionate public resources, and some of its backers say the City Council earmark is another example.

Teacher activist Norm Scott called the funding "a double outrage, maybe a triple outrage."

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