By Zach Williams and Jesse O’Neill
State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s own heavily Democratic district disagrees with the powerful pol on charter schools and giving judges discretion when it comes to bail, a new Post poll shows.
Most voters in Heastie’s Bronx district support charter schools, even as their top local lawmaker moves to block a proposal to lift the cap on the publicly funded, privately run schools in New York City.
Heastie also is opposed to fellow Dem Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to give judges more leeway to set bail to curb crime — while many of his constituents disagree.
“It’s so obvious that people not only in Carl’s district, but in the whole city of New York, they are just against some of Carl’s policies,” state Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny (R-Coney Island), a former Democrat, told The Post on Tuesday.
“But again, he cares about the progressives” because he hopes to avoid a political challenge from the left, the pol said.
Charter-school expansion is opposed by the city’s powerful teacher’s union, which has donated $146,000 to Heastie and another $1.3 million to his caucus’ campaign committee since 2015.
Yet according to the McLaughlin & Associates poll commissioned by The Post in Heastie’s northern Bronx district, 62% of the 400 likely voters surveyed last week said they support charters, and 68% want to increase their numbers.
Only 16% were even aware that Heastie was blocking legislation to expand charters statewide.
Charter schools have proliferated in the South Bronx and northern Manhattan, but they are comparatively sparse in Heastie’s 83rd state Assembly district.
A total of just four charters are located in the sections of Williamsbridge, Eastchester and Wakefield, according to a map from New York Charter Schools Association.
Yet support for New York City public schools was much lower among residents of Heastie’s district — only 46% of those surveyed had a positive opinion of them.
To read the entire article please visit: https://nypost.com/2023/03/28/carl-heasties-constituents-support-charter-schools-bail-reform/
