Perkins blames opposition for sharp charter school focus

If New York State Senator Bill Perkins is reveling in his win in last Tuesday’s primary, he is not wearing it on his sleeve.

In Perkins’ office on Friday morning, it seemed like business as usual. Tenants concerned about rising rents shuffled off to meet with a member of the senator’s staff. An elderly man chatted with the receptionist about problems he was having obtaining a copy of his birth certificate.

Perkins, whose district encompasses West Harlem, emerged victorious from a heated Democratic primary race against challenger Basil Smikle, a political consultant and former member of Hillary Clinton’s Senate staff. In an interview on Friday, Perkins seemed calm, though uneager to talk about education issues—despite the central role such issues played in media coverage of the race.

In many ways, Perkins’ push to maintain his seat was portrayed both locally and nationally as a referendum on educational policy. His face-off with Smikle remained hyper-focused on the issue of charter schools. Perkins has been an outspoken opponent of the publicly funded and often privately run institutions.

But making charter schools the focal point of the race was politically motivated, Perkins said.

“The race was defined that way by the opposition. It was a threat to those of us in government that they had the muscle to make a difference in the elections if we didn’t remain silent about our concerns,” he said, referring to the throng of pro-charter senate challengers across the city who attempted to unseat incumbents. Many of these incumbents, including Perkins, have called for greater oversight of charter schools.

In the primary race, Lynn Nunes challenged Shirley Huntley of Queens, and Mark Pollard ran against Velmanette Montgomery in Brooklyn on similar pro-charter platforms. In both races, the incumbents won.

“It was a signal they were sending that you would rue the day you dared to speak up,” Perkins said. “They were telling me, ‘If you open your mouth, we will villainize you.’”

Perkins received push-back for hearings he held last April, in which he criticized what he called a lack of oversight of charter schools and their operators.

Since then, he has been much less inclined to speak out explicitly against charter schools. On Friday, he would only clarify his views by saying that he is in support of whatever system brings the best results.

He objected to the view that “the only place for success is within the charter school movement when that’s not the case,” citing P.S. 180 on 120th Street, which, he said, used to be a failing school. P.S. 180, a traditional public school, received an A on its latest New York City Department of Education progress report.

“It’s not a question of charter or traditional. It’s a question of success,” he said, adding that success in either setting deserves to be replicated.

When asked about his specific plans, Perkins said there is still room for improvement.

He also cited a host of other issues on his agenda that he felt had received insufficient attention at the expense of the debate over education, among them rent reform and environmental issues.

“I feel, frankly, ever more vigilant about public schools, both traditional ones and charter ones,” Perkins said, adding that constituent outreach to his office concerning education has increased significantly. Still, he said, “I didn’t intend to get this involved.”

ray.katz@columbiaspectator.com

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the day of the primary, which was last Tuesday. Spectator regrets the error.