The Working Families Party needs to change its name ASAP — because it really doesn’t give a whit about “working families.”
That’s clear from the pressure it’s now putting on candidates seeking its backing.
As The Post’s Carl Campanile reported this week, a WFP questionnaire instructs political wannabes to state their views on charter schools and whether they’ll accept gifts from folks tied to them. It also asks if they’ll fight steps to help charters expand and ship them more state aid.
Its unmistakable message: Back charters, and the WFP won’t back you.
Yet, as Ian Rowe of Public Prep charter schools puts it, opposing charters goes against working families. He notes that, like other charters, his schools “serve almost exclusively low-income, working-class families.” What would the WFP say to the “3,000 families” on waiting lists for seats at Public Prep charters, he asks.
Sure, the party was founded by labor, for labor. Protecting union members is its top goal — and charters are not only nonunion shops generally, but they also outperform the traditional, union-run public schools.
So it’s no surprise that the WFP wants them crushed.
But why not be honest about it and call itself the Union Protection Party?
Similarly, the WFP’s demand that pols “avoid messaging that centers ‘taxpayers’ or ‘tax burdens’ ” runs counter to its name. “Messages that frame ‘taxpayers’ as an aggrieved or marginalized group promotes an anti-tax, anti-government worldview,” it asserts.
Indeed, it adds that the word “ ‘taxpayer’ has become a racially coded term designed to appeal to white individuals and reinforce the misconception that they are paying taxes to support the needs of people (often implied to be non-white) who don’t pay taxes.”
Huh? Fact is, people of every race and at almost every income level pay taxes, leaving them with less money for food, rent, transit and other personal expenses. And New York’s state- and local-tax burden is already among the highest in the nation.
“We know how the burden of taxes, certainly on middle-class, low-income New Yorkers, certainly is very difficult,” insists Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who herself has won the backing of the WFP in the past.
The party’s free to demand higher taxes, of course. But in that case, shouldn’t its name be the Screw the Taxpayer Party?
