Charter big rues race slam
Investor and charterschool backer Dan Loeb apologized Friday for remarks he made about a black state Democratic leader.
In a Thursday Facebook post, the Success Academy chairman blasted Andrea Stewart-Cousins for opposing charter growth.
“Meanwhile hypocrites like Stewart-Cousins who pay fealty to powerful union thugs and bosses do more damage to people of color than anyone who has ever donned a hood,” Loeb wrote in a post that was later deleted. It was seen as referring to the Ku Klux Klan.
“I regret the language I used in expressing my passion for educational choice,” Loeb said in a statement. “I apologize to Senator Stewart-Cousins and anyone I offended.”
Critics ripped Loeb Friday, with United Federation of Teachers boss Michael Mulgrew calling it “despicable.”
“An apology for these comments was appropriate and absolutely necessary,” Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz said. “While it is true that anti-charter policies hurt children of color, we must recognize there are electeds who in good faith hold differing positions on schooling.”
Dan Loeb has apologized for using overthe-top language in slamming state Senate Democratic Leader Andrea StewartCousins on Facebook and deleted the post. Yet the condemnations keep on coming — almost certainly because his critics know that what he meant to say is completely true.
Loeb, a hedge-funder and philanthropist, was commenting on a much-reported exchange: Gov. Cuomo reportedly said Independent Democratic leader Jeff Klein understands how to win votes in the suburbs, unlike many in the main Senate Democratic conference. Stewart-Cousins shot back, “You look at me, Mr. Governor, but you don’t see me. You see my black skin and a woman, but you don’t realize I am a suburban legislator.”
Loeb’s post: “Thank God for Jeff Klein and those who stand for educational choice and support Charter funding that leads to economic mobility and opportunity for poor [black] kids. Meanwhile hypocrites like Stewart-Cousins who pay fealty to powerful union thugs and bosses do more damage to people of color than anyone who has ever donned a hood.”
The “hood” bit meant the Ku Klux Klan, the murderous, racist terrorists infamous for oppression of blacks. That went far too far, as Loeb quickly admitted: “I regret the language I used. . . I apologize to Senator Stewart-Cousins and anyone I offended.”
Yet he was otherwise entirely in bounds: Stewart-Cousins and many other Democrats
are doing the bidding of teacher-union bosses as they work to crush New York’s charter schools; charters do offer underprivileged kids the chance at a good education where the regular public-school system has been failing for generations, and education is the best way to escape to a better life.
These Democrats may believe that the money and power that the unions deliver is worth more than the good that charters do. But it’s still a devil’s bargain — and Loeb was right to call them on it.