Buffalo Board of Ed Member Catherine Collins, who has never been shy about doing public bidding for the obstructionist Buffalo Teachers Federation, gave the union its money's worth this week by introducing a hastily prepared "report" on charter schools and then calling for a 2-year moratorium on district-licensed charter schools. Without giving fellow board members the courtesy of allowing them to actually read the report, Collins tried to call for an immediate vote on the moratorium, but was stonewalled, even by other charter-loathing board members who nonetheless found her actions inappropriate. For her part, Collins said she had done what she had come to the committee to do. "I'm done," the Buffalo News quoted her as saying. Fellow board member Christopher Jacobs said he was blind-sided by the one-sided report and remarked to Collins: "You should be ashamed and so should staff. You have abused your authority as chair."

Note to the good people of Buffalo: What, exactly, were you thinking when you elected her?

Note to the rest of the Buffalo Board: This would probably be a pretty groovy time to change the official motto of the Buffalo schools to something other than: "Putting children and families first to ensure high academic achievement for all."

Possible new motto???: "Putting Phil Rumore first to ensure that no grownup ever has to pay the price for a generation of Buffalo kids who can't read."

Saving grace in all of this: The school district shouldn't be trusted to handle the task of chartering schools anyway. Putting the press that comes from these attacks on charters aside, charter applicants theoretically could still create dynamic new schooling options for kids by chartering through the state. Now we just have to deal with that unconscionable cap on the number of good public charter schools in the state...