White House Begins To Strengthen Support for Education Plan

President Obama introduced his blueprint for Education Reform last Friday and Saturday detailing how his administration plans to move forward on reforming the latest incarnation of the ESEA Act, No Child Left Behind. Department of Education officials have described this as a scaling back of federal presence in good schools while applying strong intervention methods and strict mandates for the lowest performing schools in the country.

Education Secretary Arnie Duncan points out that this revision fixes the problem of dumbed down tests, an occurrence that was recorded in many states after the passage of NCLB by requiring each state to pass rigid and challenging standards.  One of the boldest moves by President Obama is a change in how Title I federal education funds is disturbed. By asking states to compete for them through grants rather than a per pupil formula the administration is ready to change “about 40 years of established formula funding and to change an accountability system that a lot of people are wedded to because it’s forced us to come to grips with the achievement gap,” said Bob Wise a former West Virginia governor who leads the Alliance for Excellent Education, a nonprofit group

Many of its detractors, especially among union leaders, have focused on changes to teacher evaluation procedures that moves away from certifying a teacher’s credentials and focusing on new systems that distinguish effective instructors by using student progress as its foundation. Both the UFT and the NEA have publicly commented that Obama’s plan will allow unnecessary micromanagement over local school district, massive teacher firings and place 100% of the accountability on teachers with little or no power to create change in the system.

While these sides fight it out take a look for yourself by downloading the President’s plan here.

John Shadegg (R-AZ) Support Public Option

Never mind his contradictory website, Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ)’s spokeswoman confirms he supports the Public Option because:

“health insurance companies should have to compete for our business as individual consumers. Forcing them to compete, even through a public option would be better than an individual mandate…”

and

the best way to pay for those with pre-existing conditions is to “spread their costs among the healthy, among the taxpayers.”

Article here.

Video:

Want to Speed Up NYC Buses? Get Bus Camera Legislation Through Albany Gridlock.

Albany hasn’t had a great record on public transit issues recently.  But state elected officials have a chance to pass legislation that would mean an easier commute for millions of transit riders: Allowing large cities to use bus lane enforcement cameras.  Like red light cameras, these would take photos or short video of license plates when a driver illegally holds up busloads of people by parking in a bus lane, and a ticket would arrive in the mail. (They’ve been used successfully in London and other cities around the world.)

2.4 million New Yorkers take the bus every day, according to MTA statistics.  But the city’s buses are also some of the slowest in the country. According to the Straphangers Campaign, the M42 crosstown bus is slower than “a five-year-old on a motorized tricycle,” traveling at 3.7 miles per hour.

New bus-only lanes, like the city is planning on First and Second Avenues in Manhattan, could give millions of commuters a faster ride and more time to spend with their friends and family.  But without real enforcement, the new lanes will probably look just like the ones NYC has now:

Governor Paterson has included a bus lane camera program in his budget.  Assemblyman Jonathan Bing of Manhattan and State Senator Martin Dilan of Brooklyn have introduced a bill that would do the same thing.  A great many NYC legislators have signed on, and the City Council passed a resolution supporting bus cameras two years ago.  But the biggest obstacle to passing the bill may be Assemblyman David Gantt of Rochester, who chairs the Assembly Transportation Committee.  He killed a similar bill in 2008 (by pressuring some of the bill’s sponsors to vote against it), citing privacy concerns — even though the New York Civil Liberties Union helped draft the language to ensure that safeguards were built in.

Want to support this bill?  Until the end of today, you can send a fax to Assemblyman Gantt through Transportation Alternatives’ website.

Monserratitus of the Queens

So…

Hiram Monserrate didn’t seem to get the message on Tuesday and is apparently looking at running for State Assembly, you know, for that recently vacated seat of the guy who left the Assembly to replace (and beat) some jerk who was expelled for roughing up his girlfriend. How long before Queens will be rid of this infection? What other offices can Hiram lose a run for?

Or is it, as many of us believe, all just a continuing ploy to raise money to pay off his legal fees?

Ousted Senator Monserrate Gunning for Assembly (Gothamist)

County Committee Executive Board Meeting 3/7/2010

In case you didn’t know, MYD ran and elected a number of young people to the exceptionally opaque County Committee last year. Now we’re bringing their information to you. Every month we’re sending a correspondent to the County Committee E-Board meeting to help you understand what’s going on under the covers of NY politics.

What follows is an account of the last County Committee E-Board meeting complete with their Congressional Candidates Forum during which all the candidates running for Congress in Manhattan made their case to this select group of electeds (and us).

Special thanks to our Executive Board Representative this month Michelle Stockwell, who wrote this amazing update.

Want to get involved or learn more? Email ben [at] gomyd [dot] com

Executive Board Meeting
The EB meeting started on time, with hot pizza and an audience comprised of district leaders, community organizers and a few members of MYD. Keith Wright delivered a brief summary of what to expect – no voting, speeches from congressional candidates and no press. He remarked on Gov. Patterson, expressing the opinion that the Gov. should serve out the rest of his term, and that the investigations being conducted around him should take their course. Keith also brought up the Yankees tickets controversy, stating that the discrepancies were not “that big of deal”, since Giuliani and Bloomberg had attended many games too. There was also concerns voiced about the state budget, it’s schedule and the elimination of such programs as homeless prevention and summer jobs. The meeting concluded with a call to think about the voting process for congressional endorsements and a minor, but curious, suggestion of providing district leaders with ID cards.

Congressional Forum
Read more

Congratulations Jose Peralta!

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, Jose Peralta beat Monserratte in a landslide!

With 94 percent of the vote counted, unofficial returns from the overwhelmingly Democratic 13th State Senate District showed Mr. Peralta with 66 percent and Mr. Monserrate with 27 percent. The Republican candidate, Robert Beltrani, an administrative law judge, came in third with 7 percent.

“Tonight we put an end to dysfunction,” Mr. Peralta told a crowd at a restaurant in East Elmhurst. “Our nightmare is over.”

Thank you to everyone who made it out to Queens to canvass, thank you to those who phone banked, and a huge thank you to the amazing MYD Media team who put together some memorable moments for our enjoyment.

Check out Ben’s video of Monserratte campaigning HERE.

Check out Chas’ in depth analysis of a stolen logo HERE.

Check out Chris’ super-villain HERE.

I’m looking forward to what we can accomplish this election season. Email Alex V (political [at] gomyd . com) for info on how to play a role in the field this fall!

Census: It’s Important… Really, REEAALLLY Important

Right-wing radio is making an issue of the fact that the Census Bureau is over budget already. They also don’t think the money spent on the Super Bowl Commercial was wisely allocated.  I’m enormously supportive of the idea of the Census being everywhere, including the Super Bowl. In modern society, you have to be completely overwhelmed with something for it to register as a big deal. The Census is certainly a big deal. So I’m glad that I saw an ad at the movie theater last night. It’s on TV, fliers litter the streets, it’s in the papers, on the radio, even on the internet: Census 2010 Website (it’s actually pretty awesome; you should check it out).

On that note, the Census has sent out its questionnaires, and if you’re even thinking about not filling it out or sending it in, read on:

You see, there is a tremendous amount riding on this year’s Census. The political wonk in me wants to wax poetic about the Census’s effects on redistricting: the process which immediately follows the Census where we reexamine each State’s allotment of Congressmembers and redraw our legislative district lines, from Congress to City Council, accordingly. NY will likely lose a congressional seat, and our State Legislature’s lines will be redrawn to either promote or prevent progressive legislation for the next 10 years, depending on the party in power when the lines are drawn.

But, that’s not even the worst consequence on not fulfilling your civic duty. Our esteemed Borough President Scott Stringer just sent me an email that sums it up pretty well:

Based on the results of the Census, the federal government distributes $400 billion in aid among the states – a significant portion of which may benefit New York City.

This funding supports vital social service programs that may affect you or someone you know, such as the Medical Assistance Program for healthcare, Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers for public housing, Federal Transit Capital Investment Grants for transportation initiatives, Title I Grants for our schools, Head Start educational programs and many more. Without these programs, thousands of families would go without public housing assistance and New York City children would lack additional educational programs to help them succeed in school. That is why every person must be counted.

The letter goes on to explain that this is a community outreach effort coordinated by Manhattan elected officials and community groups to get the word out.  They have a Facebook group. Become a fan! You can watch a video from the Census below.

Read more

Democratic Party In Manhattan

Party politics is complicated and people throw terms around like state committeeman, district leader, party club, and county committee and almost no one knows what they all mean. Over the last week or so, I’ve been working to decode the tea leaves and come to grips with all the various layers of the Democratic Party here in the city and the state.

Districts
The start of the confusion is that there are many different “districts” that every voter belongs to. Lets go through the types of districts that are important to Democratic party structure from biggest to smallest, starting with the Assembly District. As a disclaimer, I am only sure of this structure in Manhattan. The state committee is the same everywhere, but district leader can mean different things in different Boroughs, and certainly the structure does not translate well to different parts of the state which can have assembly districts spanning multiple counties, town committees, etc.

State Assembly Districts
Each voter is in an assembly district, and each assembly district (shockingly!) elects a member of the state assembly, the New York State equivalent of the House of Representatives. There are 12 assembly districts that are within New York County (a.k.a. Manhattan), numbered from 64 to 75. After the 2000 Census, each assembly district contained about 126,510 people. Obviously that has changed over time, and the districts will be redrawn soon after the upcoming census. Every assembly district is represented in the New York State Democratic Committee (the state-level governing body of the Democratic Party) by two Democratic State Committee members: one male and one female.

Executive Districts (Assembly District “Parts”)
In certain counties within New York City, each assembly district is broken down into “parts.” In these counties, each assembly district can have between two and four parts. Unlike assembly districts, these parts need not be contiguous, but are always within the same assembly district. Each part is presented by two elected District Leaders: one male and one female.  District Leaders serve on the Executive Committee of their County Democratic Committee, and are more or less the NYC analog to Democratic chairmen of cities/towns/villages outside the five boroughs. Local Clubs, which often exist within one assembly district, can represent more than one Assembly District Part.

Election Districts
Election districts (sometimes called “EDs” by people who spend time on campaigns) are the smallest and most basic district type, and they are the building blocks out of which all the larger district types are constructed. The ED is made up of all the people who are assigned to vote on a particular voting machine (certain large EDs may have two voting machines, but you get the point). A typical ED has between 400 to 800 registered voters and never more than 1,000. Each ED can be directly represented on its County Democratic Committee by two (or sometimes up to four) county committee members.

Committees
We’re represented by various Democratic committees, that correspond to each of the districts above. Let’s go through them from biggest to smallest.

Read more

LogoGate – The Final Day?

Hopefully after tonight the only place anyone we will ever see this logo again is in a trash can.

Did Someone Copyright that Logo (Ben Smith @ Politico)

MYD Meeting Tonight! New Location!

Quick reminder that tonight’s General Meeting is at a new location: