Shun charter schools or else
WFP’s pitch to ’20 pols
The left-leaning Working Families Party is pressuring state legislative candidates seeking its backing in 2020 to oppose charter schools, The Post has learned.
A questionnaire sent to the candidates reveals that the union-backed WFP will even consider whether a candidate accepts donations from anyone connected to the charter sector as a factor in its decision.
“Will you refuse all donations from corporate PACs, real estate and the charter school industry?” one question asks.
Another says, “Will you oppose increased state aid to privately run charter schools and oppose steps to facilitate the expansion of charter schools in New York City, such as requiring NYC to pay rent for new or expanding charter schools?”
Current state law requires that the city pay rent for charter schools in private space if its refuses to provide a location in a public school building.
Another question asks, “Will you oppose tax credits for donations to private schools or privately run charter schools?”
Founded by labor unions and progressive activists, the WFP is a minor party that has outsize influence in New York. The questionnaire is a key component of the party’s endorsement process.
Many students in the privately run, publicly funded charter schools outperform their traditional public-school counterparts, and some are among the top performers in New York based on state test results. But critics have complained that charters siphon money from other public schools and don’t serve the neediest students.
One charter-school operator accused the WFP of hypocrisy for turning its back on the people it claims to represent — workingclass and low-income families.
“If they’re opposing the expansion of charter schools, then they would be working against the interests of working families. That would be hypocritical,” said Ian Rowe, the CEO of Public Prep, which runs a network of single-sex charter schools.
He noted that Public Prep schools “serve almost exclusively low-income, working-class families.
“This is the third week of December, and as I speak, we have more than 3,000 families on waiting lists for our Girls Prep and Boys Prep schools in The Bronx,’’ Rowe said. “What would the Working Families Party say to these families who want to send their kids to a great tuitionfree public school? . . . It’s very disappointing.”
New WFP state Director Sochie Nnaemeka said in a statement to The Post, “We’re fighting for a public-school system that is accessible and inclusive of all our children and guarantees a high quality education for every student in every neighborhood.
“We stand in opposition to a charter-school system that pushes out students, undermines teachers rights to collectively bargain and pulls money away from a system that is meant to serve all,’’ Nnaemeka said.
“We believe in and we need fair funding for neighborhood schools in low-income communities.”