Blaz: Get out, charter bigot
MAYOR DE BLASIO Friday called on Dan Loeb to resign as chairman of the Success Academy charter school board after the politically connected hedge fund manager posted racist comments about the Democratic leader of the state Senate.
“Dan Loeb’s comments are an affront to all people of color,” de Blasio tweeted. “He should immediately resign as chairman of the Success Academy board.”
Loeb in a Thursday Facebook post wrote that Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, of Yonkers, has done “more damage to people of color than anyone who has ever donned a hood.”
His statement, apparently referencing the Ku Klux Klan, also applauded Bronx state Sen. Jeff Klein, the head of a breakaway group of eight Senate Dems who are aligned in a leadership coalition with the Republicans, and others who “stand for educational choice and support Charter funding that leads to economic mobility and opportunity for poor knack kids.”
“Knack” appeared to be a typo for “black.”
After the post became public, Loeb (above) took it down and issued an apology. “I regret the language I used in expressing my passion for educational choice,” Loeb said in a statement. “I apologize to Sen. Stewart-Cousins and anyone I offended.”
That wasn’t enough for a number of Democrats and leftist groups.
“Charter schools are in fact public schools. No public school leader would get to keep their job after a comment like Loeb’s. Time to go, Dan,” the mayor wrote.
De Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, who is black, issued her own tweet. “Thanks for the apology. Now resign. Immediately,” the city’s First Lady wrote.
Gov. Cuomo — who has gotten a lot of money from Loeb — didn’t go as far. “These comments were deeply hurtful and offensive and there is no place for this type of rhetoric in any discourse — political or otherwise,” he said Friday.
Loeb could not be reached for comment, but Success Academy officials said he was not going anywhere. Success Academy founder and CEO Eva Moskowitz said that “an apology for these comments was appropriate and absolutely necessary.”
Loeb is a big donor to Cuomo, having given him $170,000 in contributions over the years. He’s also given to Senate Republicans and pro-charter school Democrats.
Fourteen liberal groups, like the Working Families Party and the national Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which are already at odds with Cuomo, called on the governor, who has nearly $27 million in his campaign coffers, to return the donations to Loeb.