For those of you that still doubt that the Democrats care more about their special interest groups than the poors education, you need to read this. Pastor Richard Hagueare in Niagara County, New York is trying to open up a charter school to help kids in the neighborhood escape the monopoly of the failing public schools where “more than 60 percent of eighth-graders are unable to pass state English tests (including more than 70 percent of black and Hispanic students) and nearly half are unable to pass math”.

Seems harmless right? Yet the unions are doing everything they can to stop it:

The administrators of districts like Niagara Falls City and their teachers union counterparts, who have failed to educate generations of children, tend to gang up to block any competition that might threaten their cushy little monopolies.

Such is the situation in Niagara. There, the superintendent has allegedly pressured three members of the proposed school’s board of directors to resign — one was an architect who had business with the city and one was a public school teacher. The union also conducted a letter writing campaign aimed at the state’s Board of Regents, which has to approve the Niagara Charter School’s application. Furthermore, members of New York’s Democrat-controlled Assembly — owned lock, stock and barrel by the teachers union — put their own pressure on the Board of Regents.

Late last week, the Regents turned down Pastor Hague’s application, though they’ve left the door open to reconsidering it early next year.

Now for the good news.

I should have blogged about this earlier, but I was on vacation in Mexico. I apologize for the late rant.