Advocacy at Gotham Schools?

Albany/City Hall/Tweed stories have been hot the last few weeks, and especially the last few days with Bloomberg’s threat to freeze wages (if he could).

Over at Gotham Schools they’ve been covering the muck, and getting a surge in comments. Gotham Schools has a pro-charter, anti-union lean. I’ve written about it before. It deserves to be looked at more closely. And their owner? founder? backer? seems to be tied up in charter schools. So I look for the lean, and often notice it. (I also can’t help but notice some of the mistakes, but we all make those)

But open advocacy? At least two readers in the last two days have found examples so strong that they complained in the comments. Ok, one of them was me. But judge for yourself:

Yesterday GS ran a piece about “Educators 4 Excellence,” an anti-union group of young mostly-TfA teachers. And they included a fund-raising and support appeal.

Reader Tim responded:

“Hopefully any gotham school readers and or reporters who share our views will help us to continue to build an authentic voice for teachers by donating to our organization.”

Are reporters supposed to share the views of and/or make donations to advocacy groups, or was this tongue-in-cheek?

And the day before there was a piece in which GS essentially advised Bloomberg to stand tough against the UFT, and that while he can’t freeze wages directly, he could refuse to sign a contract with us. I responded:

“All Bloomberg has to do to freeze wages is not sign any contract that includes a raise.”

Did the Mayor’s Office or the Chancellor’s Office suggest to you that they would intentionally stall mediation/negotiations to effectively freeze wages?

Or is Gotham Schools now offering Bloomberg advice on negotiating with the UFT?

I understood their pro-charter, anti-union lean. But this is something else.