In a front page story from today's New York Post, Mayor Bloomberg lashed out at politicians who sided with the teachers unions in the recent budget battle over helping the thousands of parents who are trying to find seats in non-crappy schools:

"It is a disgrace that when you have such demand, there's anybody at any level of government who's trying to limit parents' options," Bloomberg said, vowing to single out elected officials he sees as obstacles to new charters.

"These are the same people who stand repeatedly and say, 'I'm for parents,' " the mayor said. "If they're not standing up for parents, I'm just going to point it out to everybody."

The NY Sun version of the story is here.

Also in the papers, the Sun editorial board seems to be wondering why charter school supporters are so happy about the cap lift, considering the teachers union still seems to have the power to halt or slow much-needed change. They wonder why any cap can be justified as long as demand for good public schools is so strong.

I think there is a lot to their arguments, and I've made some of them myself previously. But it is silly to ignore (something I do too often) the basic reality: 35,000 kids just got a shot at a better public education, in a state where there was zero support for creating new schools by chartering back in 1998, and where the lessons-learned from the first round of 100 charter schools leave tremendous potential for what will happen with the next 100.

Also, it would be foolish to overlook the bipartisan nature of the political support that DOES exist for charters. Dems and Republicans worked together to support the Democratic Governor's cap lift proposal and to beat back the blob's quality-killing demands.

The important thing is that this budget allowed legislators to choose sides. So once Mayor Bloomberg starts naming names, New Yorkers who care about saving public education from the union's brand of mutually-assured destruction can do what we do best.