Watch Buffalo

Buffalo, New York goes to the poll tomorrow to elect a school board. The so-called "ed reform" crowd has gotten involved in this one:

Education Reform Now has identified three candidates it believes would support its agenda, which includes increasing the number of charter schools and linking teacher compensation to performance.

The group's financial support appears likely to eclipse the money spent by the other two key players in the race, the Buffalo Teachers Federation and the Buffalo Niagara Partnership. Each of those groups estimated they would be spending about $10,000 this year, although final tallies will not be publicly disclosed for several weeks...

"It's forcing a lot of reform issues," he said. "This is the time it's got to be a really robust discussion. This may be our last chance to save public education. This is an important opportunity to try to push a progressive education agenda."

The group, which is closely tied to Democrats for Education Reform, has a number of individual backers who have asked not to be named until the group is required to disclose the information to the Internal Revenue Service, Williams said. Education Reform Now also has been active recently in Colorado, Rhode Island, New Jersey and other states.

Williams said his group selected the Buffalo candidates based largely on Internet research and recommendations from people it has worked with locally. An attorney advised the group not to contact any of the candidates, to avoid jeopardizing the spending's categorization as independent expenditures, he said.

Progressive education agenda? From donors who refused to be identified until after the election? On an ideology that does not educate all children?

Watch Buffalo.