Republican Incarceration Strategy Exposed

The New York State Republican Party has exposed itself as favoring incarceration as a strategy for maintaining and expanding Republican political power, and all New Yorkers should be outraged by their cynical and destructive approach.

Incarceration Expands Republican Political Power

As we have discussed in the past, incarceration approaches in New York State have been designed to increase and solidify Republican political power. Nearly all incarcerated individuals are from urban parts of New York State that traditionally vote for Democrats in State Assembly and State Senate races. Nearly all prisons in New York State are in Republican areas of the state. Incarcerated individuals have traditionally been counted as residents of the community in which the prison sits rather than being considered residents of the community in which they chose to live prior to incarceration. The increased population coming from counting incarcerated individuals (who cannot vote) gives voters in Republican areas extra voting strength; their votes carry more weight, and they elect more State Senator and Assembly members than their non-prison population(who are permitted to vote) would be entitled to elect based on population size. The loss of population from urban areas such as New York City reduced the political strength of those areas and undermines urban political influence in our state.

The shift of population from urban area to Republican areas also provides those Republican areas with an unfair advantage in the battle to receive funding from the state and federal governments. Population size affects how state and federal dollars are dispersed for housing, education, transportation, and nearly every area of state and federal funding. The incarceration strategy drains funds away from the poor neighborhood where almost all incarcerated individuals come from and sends those funds to Republican areas.

The elected leaders in the Republican Party have sought to increase the number of incarcerated individuals in order to increase Republican voting power and increase funding to Republican areas.

There is a strong racial element to the incarceration strategy. More than 90% of those incarcerated in New York State on drug offenses are Black or Hispanic (80% of all incarcerated people in New York State are Black or Hispanic), even though all studies show that Black and Hispanic residents of New York State use illegal drugs less than other ethnic/racial groups. By putting large numbers of first-time, non-violent drug offenders behind bars, Republicans have gained political power and funding. They have also taken populations that have traditionally voted for Democrats and made them ineligible to vote, thereby adding to Republican voting power.

Republican Party Files Suit to Maintain Their Incarceration Advantage

During David Paterson's reign as Governor, the democratically controlled State Legislature and the Governor agreed to end the practice of counting incarcerated individuals at the location of the prison and agreed to start counting them at the place of their most recent home. It was a major change, and it signaled the latest attack on the incarceration strategy (previously, the Governor and the State Legislature agreed to end the mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent offenders).

Last week, the Republican Party sued our state to try to reverse the change in how incarcerated individuals are counted. Some of the Republican districts at the heart of the suit would not have sufficient population to remain as districts if they did not count incarcerated individuals in their population counts.

Attorney General Schneiderman will defend New York State against the attack by the Republican Party, and we should be pleased that he was successful in the 2010 election cycle. His Republican opponent and one of his rivals in the Democratic primary were supporters of the incarceration strategy. Schneiderman led the fight to end the counting of incarcerated people at the prison location, and he'll be the right person to defend the law he championed.

In some ways, it is a relief to see the Republican Party admit that incarcerating large numbers of people of color is part of their electoral agenda. Now, the debate is clear. Do we want more non-violent individuals to serve long sentences in order to aid the Republican Party? Do we want the existing incarcerated population used to boost Republican political power? The Republican Party has answered with a strong, "Yes!"

It is up to all of us (as well as Attorney General Schneiderman and the New York State courts) to defeat their efforts.

Bye Black and Enter Walcott

Cathie Black's reign as Chancellor of the New York City school system was brief and humiliating for all of us. It was less a reflection of her lack of knowledge and more a reflection of the arrogance of Mayor Bloomberg.

In a strange twist that seems to deserve explanation, Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott will become the Chancellor but will not receive the Chancellor's $250,000 salary. Oddly, Walcott is claiming that he chose not to accept the increased salary, while the Mayor insists that Walcott would not have been permitted to receive the raise. One could assume that the Mayor is being frugal in refusing to pay Walcott for the job Walcott will now undertake, but you'd wonder why he is being frugal with Walcott's paycheck when he pushed for massive retroactive raises for his staff during the height of the recession. One might wonder whether Walcott is not really the Chancellor, since he won't be paid as the Chancellor. Perhaps Bloomberg will be the Chancellor, which has always been the problem. We've had a bad Mayor for education. Our Chancellors have suffered because they worked for the wrong leader in our city. The failure of our school system (where only 28% of Black males graduate from high school) is a failure of the Mayor and not a failure of his Chancellors. Dennis Walcott cannot fix the school system until we get a Mayor in New York City who wants our schools to successfully educate our children.

Mayor Bloomberg - Not Cathie Black - Should Withdraw

New York City's problem is its Mayor - not its School Chancellor.

Mayoral Control

In 2002, the New York State Legislature agreed to Mayoral control of the New York City school system. Under Mayor Bloomberg's predecessor, there was no chance that the New York State Legislature would have permitted such a change in policy. Where Giuliani was considered a loose cannon, racist, and anti-education, Bloomberg entered the arena with a reputation as a successful, moderate businessman, a life-long Democrat who had run as a Republican out of necessity, and a non-racist leader. Of course, Bloomberg turned out to be a fraud. He ran the New York City economy into the worst condition in many generations; used racial discrimination by the police force in its law enforcement, within the fire department, within his own hiring, within his selection of gifted and talented school locations, and in his "Detroit" messaging during his campaign for a third term as Mayor; and thoroughly supported Republicans - even suggesting that Rudy Giuliani should be our state's Governor.

Bloomberg's fraud brought Mayoral control, but we are now eight years into the experiment without seeing real benefits. In fact, with only 28% of Black males graduating from high school in New York City, we are actually destroying lives, limiting our residents to reduced expectations, and undermining generations. Bloomberg is not just an unsuccessful "education Mayor." He is nearly criminal in the way he has damaged the lives of young New Yorkers by refusing to provide high quality education.

Ironically, Upper Manhattan's Congressional representative, Charlie Rangel, is facing censure in the US House for sloppy bookkeeping that everyone agrees did not enrich him and did not hurt anyone. Bloomberg asked for control of the schools and then provided a system where 72% of Black males do not receive even a high school diploma in a world where a college degree is increasingly the minimum requirement for a middle-class life. It would be far more reasonable for Bloomberg to pay a $1 billion fine and serve a few years in prison for how he is affecting the lives of young New Yorkers than it is for the US House to censure war hero Charlie Rangel for poor bookkeeping.

Bloomberg made the creation of new charter schools the centerpiece of his education agenda in New York City, but the charter schools provided a poorer education (on average) than the failing traditional schools that the Mayor has refused to improve. Charter schools have fewer poor children, fewer English language learners, and fewer special needs students, but those advantages aren't translating into better performance for students.

Mayor Bloomberg's favorite charter school used $1.3 million for marketing over two years, when it had only 900 seats to fill - more than $1,000 per seat on marketing when traditional schools only have that amount to spend each year on actual students. It was a cynical effort to have large numbers of parents apply for seats that were unavailable in order to create excuses for establishing larger numbers of charter schools.

Our problem has not been the Department of Education. The problem has been the Mayor. We have MAYORAL control - not Chancelloral control. If we have any hope of improving our city's schools, we need a new mayor.

The Opposition to Cathie Black

There is intense opposition to the appointment of Cathie Black as the next NYC school Chancellor, and some leaders in our city are suggesting that they will seek court orders to block the appointment of Cathie Black as Chancellor. We do not benefit from such an approach.

The Mayor will run the schools the way he chooses, irrespective of the Chancellor. The Mayor was elected in a legitimate election. His performance has been highly disappointing, and voters are expressing "buyers' remorse." But, Bloomberg is the Mayor.

There is value in seeking the resignation of the Mayor, but there is very little value in fighting with the Mayor over his choice for Chancellor. Such a fight will give him an excuse for his failures and undermine the concept of Mayoral control for future Mayors who may have the management talent and values to be effective leaders of our city and of our schools. In the end, the Mayor runs the schools, and the Mayor should select his/her team to run the schools.

Cathie Black's lack of credentials is a symptom of the combination of Mayoral control and the election of a poor leader as Mayor. We need to challenge ourselves to elect better leaders, but we should allow those we elect as Mayor to select an education team without lawsuit delays.

Let us remember Cathie Black as we think about who will lead our city after the 2013 elections. We have made a mistake by permitting Bloomberg to be elected three times. Let us learn from our mistakes.