Charters will be the big winner unless Wiley wins (Stringer and Morales too, but unlikely)

Finally the NYT addresses the elephant in the room- the role of charter schools in this campaign. .... Leonie Haimson

Unless Wiley or Stringer or Morales win, the charter industrial complex will be the big winners. The article doesn't mention Garcia's out and out backing for lifting the charter cap. What will happen is a massive influx of charters, co-locations and the resumption of closing down public schools to make way for charters. 

The only way they will be stopped, given the way the odds are looking, will be by the state legislature and a massive outpouring of opposition from parents and teachers. The new progressives in the state legislature and plus the possible election of DSA to city council seats will be a bulwark -- but watch how much money will be spent to sell phony "choice" with their so-called waiting lists - which I challenge them to make public - which they never will.

Who Are the Billionaires’ Picks for New York Mayor? Follow the Money.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/21/nyregion/mayor-super-pacs-money.html?referringSource=articleShare
  

half of the billionaires’ spending has benefited just three of the field’s more moderate contenders: Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president who is considered the front-runner; Andrew Yang, the 2020 presidential candidate and a top rival; and Raymond J. McGuire, a former Citigroup executive who trails in the polls.

Daniel S. Loeb, another hedge fund billionaire and an outspoken supporter of charter schools and former chairman of Success Academy Charter Schools. He donated $500,000 to Mr. Adams’s super PAC and $500,000 to Mr. Yang’s super PAC in mid-May. Three weeks later, as Mr. Adams was cementing his front-runner status, Mr. Loeb gave Mr. Adams’s super PAC another $500,000.

the president of Mr. Adams’s super PAC is Jenny Sedlis, who is on leave from a charter school advocacy group, Students First NY, and co-founded Success Academy, which has received direct financial support from Mr. Griffin.

Scott M. Stringer, the New York City comptroller, has been critical of some charter school practices, which helped earn him the endorsement of the United Federation of Teachers. NY4Kids, a teachers’ union-backed super PAC supporting Mr. Stringer, reported raising nearly $6 million, with about $4.2 million raised and spent for the mayor’s race, a spokesman said.

The billionaire with arguably the longest-standing interest in the mayor’s race, the Hudson Yards developer Stephen M. Ross, is also funding a super PAC, but is not backing a particular candidate. Rather, the Related Companies chairman is trying to sway the election toward the center by sending mailers to New Yorkers who only recently registered as Democrats — a tactic that dovetailed with another super PAC, sponsored by a Related executive’s wife, created to persuade Republicans to switch parties.