While technically a
lobbying entity, the CSNY shared many attributes with independent expenditure committees: it raised
large sums of money from a small number of donors to bolster the agenda of a specific politician with whom it purportedly did not coordinate, running advertisements thematically identical to those funded by the Democratic Party's campaign finance committee later in Cuomo's term.
In addition to «The Big Six,» other organizations that are presently
lobbying Connecticut legislators in favor of the charter school and «education reform» agenda include the Bronx Charter School for Excellence, the North East Charter Schools Network, Achievement First, Inc., the
large charter school chain with schools in New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island, and Families for Excellent Schools, the New York - based lobbing and political
entity that bused in charter school students and parents from as far away as New York City and Boston last year to rally in support of Malloy's efforts to hand charter schools even more public funds.