The staunchly pro-voucher N.Y. Sun has been hounding DGF (Democratic Gubernatorial Frontrunner) Eliot Spitzer regarding his stance on Gov. Pataki's proposed $500 tax credit for parents of public (including charter) and private school students for qualified "education expenses." On Wednesday, Spitzer told the newspaper he believed there were "serious constitutional issues" with the plan. But in today's paper, Spitzer clarifies, saying his previous statement "should not be construed to imply that I believe that there are such problems in Governor Pataki's proposal, or that I am opposed to education tax credits." He added: "In fact, I support the idea of education tax credits." Spitzer echoed Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's remarks that they shouldn't be talking about tax credits until the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case is settled.

Spitzer's Democratic challenger Thomas Suozzi says he also supports the tax credits. Republican candidate John Faso also supports the credits, and accused Spitzer of having to run his official statements on the issue past UFT President Randi Weingarten before he says anything to the press.

It will be interesting to see whether all of this talk about parent empowerment and school reform will have any impact on what happens with charter schools in the pending state budget. It will also be interesting to see what this gubernatorial race will mean for charter schools (or even better, what charter schools will mean for this gubernatorial race. Please email The Chalkboard (thechalkboard@nycsa.org) any time you hear candidates on the campaign trail talking about charter school issues.

Speaking of the CFE case: Eduwonk weighs in on an interesting development here. Attorney Eric Grannis, who is on the board of Bronx Prep Charter School and a co-founder of Girls Prep Charter School, is representing a Queens PTA president who has an interesting perspective on the case. NY Post story here.

Speaking of having to run everything past the UFT: New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has officially tapped Councilman Robert Jackson (a plaintiff in the CFE case) to serve as chairman of the council's Education Committee. Even before he got the nod, Jackson faced questions from the N.Y. Times about whether he was in Randi Weingarten's pocket. (Weingarten lobbied Quinn on Jackson's behalf.)

Look for Jackson in our upcoming feature on influential New Yorkers who opt to send their kids to private schools. (In fact, if you'd like to nominate someone for the list, contact thechalkboard@nycsa.org.)