State Senator Craig Johnson of Long Island writes on op-ed in today's New York Post (here) which discusses his reasons for opposing the state legislature's Race to the Top bill last week, while outlining his own strong bill to raise the charter cap and compete for this new federal education funding.

Sen. Johnson, along with his fellow Democratic Senate colleague, Ruben Diaz, Sr. of the Bronx, prevented a disastrous bill by the legislative leadership from securing the votes of the majority Democrats in the Senate. As one blogger put it, this was a "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Moment" in the Albany statehouse. Blocking this bad legislation also was made possible since the Senate Republicans led by Sen. Dean Skelos, also refused support.

All 32 Senate Democrats, therefore, were needed to vote in favor for this bad bill to pass. There was relentless pressure to do so. Senators Johnson and Diaz courageously held firm against.

Important legislation often times takes on a momentum, especially when there is a deadline involved. The details of this charter bill took on such negative effects, yet the momentum and consensus built that something had to be done, it had a cap lift in it, it's the best that can be done for now, it could be fixed later, now it's about the leadership, blah blah blah. It's easy for an individual legislator to fall prey to this sort of rationalizing and just go along, despite the fact that the effects of such a bill would have irreparably harmed charter schools. Many ertswhile charter supporters did go along by making such excuses and others. Thankfully, not all did.

Sen. Craig Johnson, Sen. Ruben Diaz, and the Senate Republicans saved the charter school movement in New York last week. That is not an overstatement.

Peter Murphy
for The Chalkboard
(see me on Twitter @ "PeterMurphy26")