Group of Council pols want to keep cap on city charter schools
New York City Council members are adding their voice to a chorus of lawmakers to oppose lifting the regional charter school cap in the five boroughs.
Ten of the 19 members of the Council’s education committee signed onto a letter Friday to push for the rejection of Gov. Hochuls’ plan to make more than 100 charters available downstate.
“The proposed plan to expand charter schools is something that we cannot support,” read the plea to Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. Both chambers rebuffed the proposal in nonbinding budget resolutions earlier this month.
The Council signatories expressed concerns over a potential burden on district public schools required to pay rent for their charter counterparts, which last year totaled around $200 million. Officials estimate that increasing the number of charter schools would cost an additional $1 billion.
To keep those costs in check, the city will propose space in Department of Education buildings — an approach that committee members said “will hamper their growth and ability to fully meet the needs of their students,” and negatively impact the vulnerable children who attend district public schools schools. Roughly 130 charter schools currently share a space with traditional public schools.
“Fully funding our public schools and ensuring we fully meet the needs of all our kids are non-negotiable,” the letter read.
The governor’s plan would open up more than 80 charters available under the state cap to city operators, who were previously shut out by regional limits. The proposal would also throw more than 20 “zombie” charters back into play that have closed since 2015, whether the schools did not renew their programs or had them revoked. There are 275 charter schools currently in operations.
It remains a point of disagreement between Hochul and democratic lawmakers in the final week leading up to the statutory budget deadline on April 1.
The governor has previously described the proposal as a “common-sense” approach to give parents, especially Black and brown families, more choice in their children’s education.
“Governor Hochul’s Executive Budget makes transformative investments to make New York more affordable, more livable and safer,” read a statement from the governor’s office on Friday, “and she looks forward to working with the legislature on a final budget that meets the needs of all New Yorkers.”
The majority leader and speaker did not immediately return requests for comment.