Opinion

Dan Loeb was right about anti-charter Democrats

Dan Loeb has apologized for using over-the-top language in slamming state Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins on Facebook and deleted the post. Yet the condemnations keep on coming — almost certainly because his critics know that what he meant to say is completely true.

Loeb, a hedge-funder and philanthropist, was commenting on a much-reported exchange: Gov. Cuomo reportedly said Independent Democratic leader Jeff Klein understands how to win votes in the suburbs, unlike many in the main Senate Democratic conference. Stewart-Cousins shot back, “You look at me, Mr. Governor, but you don’t see me. You see my black skin and a woman, but you don’t realize I am a suburban legislator.”

Loeb’s post: “Thank God for Jeff Klein and those who stand for educational choice and support Charter funding that leads to economic mobility and opportunity for poor [black] kids. Meanwhile hypocrites like Stewart-Cousins who pay fealty to powerful union thugs and bosses do more damage to people of color than anyone who has ever donned a hood.”

The “hood” bit meant the Ku Klux Klan, the murderous, racist terrorists infamous for oppression of blacks. That went far too far, as Loeb quickly admitted: “I regret the language I used. . . I apologize to Senator Stewart-Cousins and anyone I offended.”

Yet he was otherwise entirely in bounds: Stewart-Cousins and many other Democrats are doing the bidding of teacher-union bosses as they work to crush New York’s charter schools; charters do offer underprivileged kids the chance at a good education where the regular public-school system has been failing for generations, and education is the best way to escape to a better life.

These Democrats may believe that the money and power that the unions deliver is worth more than the good that charters do. But it’s still a devil’s bargain — and Loeb was right to call them on it.