It's not often the New York Times decides to profile an individual state legislator. After all, there are 212 of them, most of whom are relatively obscure individuals, even within their own districts they represent. How many of you, for instance, can name your state senator and member of the Assembly?

Sen. Bill Perkins (D-Harlem) got the attention of the Times, which can be a big plus in terms of exposure. The article from Sunday's Times (here) by journalist, Jenny Medina, presents someone at war with many of his own constituents over his opposition to charter schools, of which more than two dozen are located in Harlem. (The article includes input from me.)

Sen. Perkins in January opposed raising the charter cap to allow more such schools, even though it weakened the state's chances of getting up to $700 million in new federal education money from the Obama administration's Race to the Top program.

Wielding Influence in a Slim Majority
Since the Senate majority Democrats have a minimum number of 32 members to constitute a majority (of 62 seats), a single senator can thwart anything he or she doesn't like - and threaten to rebel on more issues if the leadership tries to get bipartisan by securing Republican minority votes for a given issue. This is more or less how the Senate ended up negotiating a charter school bill that was worse than doing nothing, which explains Sen. Perkins' support for a sham charter cap lift in January. Fortunately, enough charter supporters among the Senate Democrats refused to go along with turning back the clock to damage charters that a stalemate resulted and no bill was passed.

"Separate but Equal" Nonsense
Strangely, Sen. Perkins has come up with all kinds of excuses to oppose charter schools, including the most inane and senseless that I've heard, to wit: charter schools represent a new "separate but equal" system that basically segregates students of color in public schools. This attack is so warped as it compares schools of choice by parents, including to the point of having thousands of students on waiting lists; to an ugly, government-sanctioned system of racial discrimination in public schools from yesteryear.

Also interesting was Perkins' status as a founding trustee of the Sisulu-Walker Charter School in Harlem, the very first to open back in August 1999. Then a city councilman, Perkins basically lent his name to the effort and, as the Times writes, never attended any meetings and soon vacated the board. Sisulu-Walker Charter School (as in Rev. Wyatt T. Walker, a former chief of staff to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.) has been a high-performing school and last fall celebrated its 10th anniversary. There is no "separate but equal" canopy there or in any other charter schools in Harlem, which are thriving, as the Wall Street Journal discussed recently. Moreover, the student body in charters, not surprisingly, resembles every other district school in Harlem.

Doing the Teacher Unions' Bidding - Against His Community
The simple reality is that Sen. Perkins opposes charters because the teacher unions oppose them. It's not complicated. He speaks from the union's cue cards. What is unusual is how publicly hostile he is to the point where his own constituents (fellow African-Americans) booed him off the stage at Charter School Advocacy Day in Albany in early February. Note: they only booed him after he told them from the podium that he opposed charters - his version of "welcome to Albany."

The United Federation of Teachers, of course, looms large in New York City. Legislators naturally do its bidding and many tread carefully on the charter school issue. For most legislators with large charter constituencies, they walk a fine line by generally supporting both means of public education. Not Sen. Perkins, hence, a case study worthy of examination.

Peter Murphy
for The Chalkboard
Twitter.com/PeterMurphy26
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