Tense Moments in de Blasio’s TV Interview

Bruised by a controversy over New York City charter schools and seeking to regain momentum on a stalled tax proposal, Mayor Bill de Blasio took to national television on Monday to argue his case for his administration’s top policy priorities.

But the appearance, a half-hour interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, turned tense at times, with Mr. de Blasio facing a barrage of pointed queries about his stance on charter schools and conceding at one point that his public-relations efforts needed to improve.

It was an uneasy beginning to a week in which the de Blasio administration had been keen to reframe a public debate on education that has been turning against the mayor of late.

But behind the scenes the mayor’s team is aggressively reaching out to more sympathetic charter groups that it believes could serve as potent allies as Mr. de Blasio attempts to beat back attacks on the issue.

Hours after facing tough questions on MSNBC, Mr. de Blasio made a surprise appearance at a meeting of a group of charter school executives who had been invited to City Hall, speaking for more than 45 minutes about his approach to education.

Though the group has generally been cooperative with the administration, there was some apprehension surrounding Mr. de Blasio’s approach to charter schools.

“I have students asking me, ‘Is the mayor going to shut our school down?’ ” said Rafiq Kalam Id-Din II, a co-founder of a charter school in Brooklyn that serves about 270 students from kindergarten to third grade.

But he called the mayor’s cameo a refreshing surprise.

“He says, ‘We’re committed to working with you,’ ” said Mr. Kalam Id-Din, a co-founder of Teaching Firms of America Professional Preparatory Charter School. “It doesn’t get any more solid than coming from the decision-maker himself.”

Rich Berlin, the executive director of Harlem R.B.I. and chairman of the Dream Charter School, said, “We were delighted that the mayor showed up and really heartened by not only his tone, but the content of what he said.”

“There was also a very clear commitment for a series of ongoing nitty-gritty meetings on policy,” he added.

The half-dozen charter school executives who attended the City Hall meeting are part of a group of charters that include one run by the Children’s Aid Society, a nonprofit led until recently by Richard Buery, now Mr. de Blasio’s deputy mayor for strategic policy initiatives. Mr. Buery was at the meeting Monday.

It is a concerted, if slightly belated, effort by a mayor whose team was taken aback by the maelstrom swirled up by charter school advocates after Mr. de Blasio decided to prohibit three charter schools from opening in public school buildings, overruling a decision by his predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg.

The topic dominated the mayor’s interview on MSNBC, which Mr. de Blasio’s team had hoped would be more focused on his continuing fight to convince Albany lawmakers to approve a tax on the wealthy that would pay for prekindergarten and after-school classes.

Instead, the mayor was pressed repeatedly by Mika Brzezinski, the co-host of “Morning Joe,” about his decision to close the three charter schools, all three of which were run by the head of the Success Academy Charter Schools, Eva S. Moskowitz, a longtime foe of Mr. de Blasio.

Ms. Brzezinski played a clip of the mayor on the campaign trail last year, speaking by a banner emblazoned with the logo of the city teachers’ union, railing against Ms. Moskowitz’s charter programs.

Asked if he was indulging in a personal vendetta, Mr. de Blasio pushed back strenuously, saying the city had approved the placement of five other charter schools to be run by Ms. Moskowitz in public school buildings, and he argued that the ones rejected by the city would have resulted in overcrowding and the displacement of some special-needs students.

But when the mayor said he had “no hostility” toward Ms. Moskowitz, one host, Joe Scarborough, interjected.

“It does look like there is —” Mr. Scarborough began.

“ ‘Looks like’ is an important word,” Mr. de Blasio replied.

The mayor said his first obligation was to “the 95 percent of kids in traditional public schools.”

He added: “Charters have something to teach us, and we have something to learn from them.”

The mayor now finds himself in a two-front battle on education policy just as the legislative fight over the prekindergarten tax is nearing its apex.

In a sign that Mr. de Blasio is positioning himself for the endgame of that fight, the mayor said in the MSNBC interview that he would be willing to forgo his tax surcharge if Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo offered a long-term commitment of $500 million a year for city prekindergarten and after-school classes.

“If we have a verifiable plan for five years at the dollar figures we need, we can accept that,” Mr. de Blasio said, one of the first times that he had publicly shown a willingness to accept a funding mechanism that did not include higher taxes on city residents who earn $500,000 or more.

The mayor said he was “absolutely open to an alternative that gets the job done,” but he added: “I’ve also said that I don’t believe, given the vagaries of Albany, that we’re going to have anything as verifiable and consistent as the tax plan I’ve put forward.”

There were further signs on Monday that the mayor was facing a tough battle.

The mayor’s team abruptly canceled a lobbying trip to Albany by the first lady, Chirlane McCray, citing an unspecified scheduling conflict. And a liberal ally, Scott M. Stringer, the city comptroller, issued a very blunt, very public assessment of Mr. de Blasio’s efforts to pass a tax on the wealthy to pay for prekindergarten classes.

“Sometimes,” Mr. Stringer told reporters at the Capitol, “dreams die hard.”

By the end of “Morning Joe,” Willie Geist, the genial MSNBC host, had restored some comity by declaring, “We are all for education here.” Ms. Brzezinski posed for a picture wearing a button promoting the mayor’s prekindergarten plan.

Still, Mr. de Blasio acknowledged that the hurdles he was facing over charter schools had just begun. Ms. Moskowitz said on Monday that she would sue the city so that her three schools could operate as planned in the fall. And the public advocate, Letitia James, is also planning a lawsuit — to block the expansion of some charter schools.

The mayor appeared aware of his predicament. “I am being sued by left and right,” Mr. de Blasio said at one point during the interview, and the laugh that followed did not contain much mirth.

A version of this article appears in print on March 11, 2014, on page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: Tense Moments in Mayor’s TV Interview.