This is not on the specific charter issue per se, but an important piece in the ongoing battle over education reform in New York. And it is what other bloggers refer to as a "must read."

State Sen. Kevin Parker (D-Brooklyn) has penned a remarkable op-ed piece in this morning's NY Sun, looking at the decades-old alliance between Jewish and African-American communities and whether or not it is working for kids stuck in crappy schools.

Parker, who was writing on the proposed tuition tax deduction in the governor's budget, seems to be the latest elected Democrat who has had it with the counter-productive influence of the teachers unions in the public's larger attempts to tackle very real problems:

Education is the cornerstone of a free and equal society. And while in the interest of our society and economy schools have to be maintained even by those who never use them, public-school teachers shouldn't have a monopoly on setting education policy.

There is near-hysterical opposition to this simple tax-relief plan from New York's main public-school teachers unions — the statewide NYSUT and the city's UFT. The governor's proposal will cost the state treasury roughly $30 million. It's a small proportion of the state's $121 billion budget, but it represents real relief to struggling middle- and lower-income families.

NYSUT has mobilized its multimillion dollar budget for political campaign contributions and attack ads and is calling in chits with favored legislators to defeat this smart policy that helps real people. Knowing they cannot make an argument based on dollars, they instead call it a matter of principle.

It was a matter of principle to some that lunch counters stay segregated. It was a matter of principle to some that Irish need not apply. It was a matter of principle to some that quotas be placed on the number of Jews allowed into colleges and graduate schools. Should it also be a matter of principle to deny families that sacrifice to pay tuition a small measure of tax relief? Surely in the context of over $7 billion in new money being sent to New York's public schools, there can be consensus around this issue.

In the budget now being hammered out in Albany, we have an opportunity to rebuild the civil rights alliance between communities of color and Jewish communities. By joining forces to press for equitable — and constitutional — funding of Governor Spitzer's historic tuition deduction, we open the schoolhouse doors to all.