The Charter Difference
Opponents of charter schools make a host of bogus arguments, when the truth is the exact opposite. They claim that these alternative public schools cherry-pick their students, don’t serve English-language learners and kids with special needs, disproportionately suspend and expel students of color and, most ludicrously, that they offer segregated schooling.
Charge No. 1 is transparently false: By law, charters must admit students via lottery. Where insiders often use connections to get their kids into regular public schools that use screening, there’s no way to game the charter admissions process.
It’s true that the charter sector enrolled relatively few kids with added challenges — disabilities or familiarity with English — in the early years. But that’s because parents of such students didn’t enter the lottery, likely because they figured the regular system was better set up to address the children’s issues.
But that’s changed as word has gotten out that most charters do fine by these kids. Indeed, children are more likely to “succeed out” of a learning disability or English-deficient designation at a good charter, because they don’t get lost in the system.
Last year, 22 percent of charter kids in grades 3-8 listed as “English Language Learners” scored proficient on the state English exams, vs. just 10 percent for the main system. On the math tests, it was 34 percent proficient for charters, vs. 18 percent for the regular schools.
A child labeled learning-disabled is twice as likely to show proficiency at a charter as at a normal public school: In English, it was 29 percent vs. 16 percent last year. In math, 34 percent vs. 15 percent.
Today, 20,847 students with disabilities make up 18.5 percent of total charter enrollment, vs. 19.4 percent in the rest of the public system. And the share of charter kids who count as English learners is up 51 percent over the last decade.
Twenty-four charters have lottery preferences for students with disabilities; 70 have them for English learners.
Oh, and four charters specialize in serving children found to be on the autism spectrum: Neighborhood Charter of Harlem 1 &2 and NY Center for Autism 1 & 2.
As for charters being in any way anti-minority: Hah! More than half their students (52 percent) are black, vs. 22.5 percent at district schools. Another 38 percent are Hispanic, against 41 percent for the regular system. And, again, every kid is there because the family has chosen a school it thinks is a better option than what the main public system offers to that child.
Since regular schools in lowincome neighborhoods tend to be awful, parents there are more likely to opt for a charter. That’s why “economically disadvantaged” kids make up 81 percent of charter enrollment, more than the 74 percent in the regular schools. New York’s neediest kids desperately need more charter schools: Last year, a record high of nearly 80,000 kids (up about 5,000 from the year before) applied for just 26,900 available slots. That’s three applicants for every available seat.
But state law sets a cap on the number of charters, so no more can open in the city. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins have a clear moral obligation to eliminate, or at least lift, the cap.