Washington isn't the only place where charter school opponents are making fools of themselves. Via today's Ithaca Journal, the Associated Press reports these Empire State developments:

In Buffalo, the teachers' and the administrators' unions refused to participate in an annual fund-raiser for field trips and classroom supplies because charter schools would participate. The 'Carnival in the Park' had raised about $400,000 since 1999, but now faces a drop by as much as half in the number of participating schools.

The state Education Department has had to enlist the state Comptroller's Office to deduct per-pupil aid from several districts statewide that refused to transfer their state aid to charter schools, according to the state Education Department. Charter school advocates say as many as nine of the state's 700 districts may have been forced to comply with the law at least once, delaying state aid to charter school classrooms by three or more months.

In Riverhead, the school board sued the state Board of Regents' approval of a charter school. A state judge dismissed the suit in 2001 and the school district's appeal was rejected in 2003.

In Schenectady, charter school parents said district officials have called and written to them urging them to leave charter schools, even hinting that they could bump ahead children on waiting lists to the most coveted district schools.
'Now they are willing to do it,' said Nalene Vanderpoel, mother of two charter school students in Schenectady who she couldn't get into preferred district schools a year ago. 'That bothered me.'

In Albany, school administrators and teachers from around the state have held press conferences to blame charter schools as a main cause for local tax increases.

The big cause celebre recently, though, has been five black violinists from a Buffalo charter school who weren't allowed to perform at a school district concert, supposedly because they hadn't registered and were wearing the wrong shirts.
Buffalo News columnist Donn Esmonde writes:

What's next, charter school foes kicking kittens and telling young mothers that their babies are ugly? 'The...kids put a face on the issue,' said marketing expert Bob Carr. 'You can't do something that hurts kids, especially kids who are trying to achieve. That's when people start choosing sides.'

They're choosing, all right. The violinists have since performed on Channel 2 and been invited to play at the Tralf, the Botanical Gardens, a church, a school and on the radio. Superintendent Marion Canedo apologized for the mix-up. Bill Phillips, head of the state charter schools association, was on Tom Bauerle's WBEN radio show Thursday, telling thousands of listeners about charter schools.

'Charter schools got a chance to tell their story because of this incident,' Carr said. '"You can't buy that sort of opportunity.'

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at March 29, 2004 08:48 AM

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