Eduwonk is wondering on one topic, and some other friends/readers are wondering about some others. I'll try to address some of these burning questions here. Keep checking back for more in the future. Again, it is important for me to reiterate that the sentiments here are my own, not the organization officially hosting this blog.

Q: What do you make of Rick Hess' piece in the Daily News, in which he throws a penalty flag on the improper political use of charter school test scores? Isn't he your friend?
A: Yeah, he's my friend. And I think he's right to point out his concerns about using single-year test score snapshots to make broad, sweeping generalizations.

Q: But what about his slapping of Bill Phillips?
A: The one thing I'd add to Eduwonk's response is that Bill is dealing with a Legislature that still regards charter schools as an unproven experiment. When they say it is unproven, what they mean is they would rather not have to take an up-or-down vote on charter schools, so calling it unproven keeps NYSUT off their tails for a little while longer, like until they move on to lobbying/PR jobs and the political pressure becomes somebody else's problem. I think it is hard to blame Bill for consistently pointing out any evidence that he finds on NY's test results. Plus, Bill is a big boy. He can handle the heat.

Q: Your answer seems as lame as Eduwonk's on this. Is that a fair statement?
A: Some might argue that point.

Q: Was there anything that surprised you about the report to the Board of Regents that prompted this whole thing?
A: Well, yeah, I thought it was interesting in those cases where the Regents documented clear-cut success at so many charter schools around the state. But I'm a little surprised the opponents of charter schools didn't seize upon some of the bad stuff that is also in there. There are a handful of charter schools that, uh, are kind of stinking up the joint. But then I saw Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's quotes from last week and I remembered that many charter opponents don't care as much about the actual performance of charter schools as they do about whether or not the teachers in those same schools are forced to fork over their dues money to Dick Ianuzzi.

Q: I thought you said the position of NYSUT was that teachers should have a choice on whether or not to organize in charter schools.
A: I was wrong. Silver let the cat out of the bag - if new charter schools aren't forced to be unionized, the Assembly (i.e. NYSUT) won't support them. This was not about letting teachers choose. Again, I read this one wrong, and I apologize. Unless, of course, Silver misspoke.

Q: What do you make of the language in the Senate bill that passed that allows the NYC chancellor to convert a public school to a charter school even if parents at the school vote against it.
A: I hate it. Parental choice should be the driving force of this stuff. Hopefully, the city will never be foolish enough to shove a charter on a school that doesn't want it. I hate the idea of setting charter schools up to fail. I'm currently working on a project about a couple of failing public schools that converted to charter schools as part of NCLB restructuring. A major part of the turnaround stems from the fact that it was parents who finally stepped in and told the unions and bureaucrats to take a hike. In one case, these extremely poor parents collected aluminum cans so they could scrape some gas money together to drive around gathering signatures on charter petitions in their communities. That, to me, seems like much more fertile ground for a major turnaround effort than a school community that is led to the charter water kicking and screaming.

Q: What do you make of the comments of vocal charter school advocate Assemblyman Darryl Towns (D-East New York) in the NY Times story that the Assembly was really, really close to passing the cap lift legislation until the Parents for Public Charter Schools started running ads targeting lawmakers who were opposed to charter schools.
A: From what I was told, Towns wussed out on speaking up for charters in the Assembly conference even before the ads started running. He was reportedly worried that NYSUT would get mad at him if he supported lifting the cap. This is not a knock on Towns, I'm just noting the reality that NYSUT scares the pants off our elected officials - even the ones who claim they support charter schools. That also is not a knock on NYSUT. The union's job isn't to play nice, it is to get results.