I think everyone agrees that poverty is a bad thing. However, not every route taken to alleviate poverty is a good thing.

For example, I have a problem with charter schools because they selectively take the highest performing students and leave the students with the most needs (the ones with learning disabilities, developmental delays, etc.) to the public schools.

Robin Hood considers themselves to be "bullish" on charter schools. Based on statistics derived from standardized tests that are not particularly accurate measures of learning, that are particularly susceptible to cheating, and that also contribute to the decline in our classrooms that end up with education that teaches to the test rather than imparting useful knowledge and critical thinking.

The problem with Robin Hood is the thought that it can solve problems from the private sector, instead of meaningfully empowering the public sector to do good. Those millions donated could potentially be written off as a tax credit for almost a million dollars if certain legislation is passed in Albany. To put it another way, the rich can get a million dollars back from the state government if they donate to what are essentially private schools, depriving public resources of more funding (especially when the state is underfunding its commitments to public schools by more than 50 billion dollars).

This is just education, but it's a particularly important topic to me. And I think that celebrating Robin Hood's outrageously lavish gala isn't going to actually help solve the actual problems to education. Things like raising the minimum wage so parents can spend more time with their children at home, providing universal pre-kindergarten education to give everyone a head start, ensuring that all schools are funded with the resources that they need to provide a quality education for everyone—with public dollars that can be guaranteed in the long-term.