Stop Choking Charter Schools
The SUNY Charter School Committee just approved five new charters, including the innovative Nurses Middle College Charter School in Albany — but none in New York City, thanks to the cap on charters here.
Health care is a large sector in the city, so a nursing-focused secondary school would be a boon. But the Legislature’s obeisance to teachers unions keeps hope in the box.
Last spring, The Post reported on several charters that can’t open in the city, including one aimed at helping struggling students at risk of dropping out in Harlem, and one seeking to clone a successful Math Engineering and Academy Charter School in Bushwick. The cap blocks them, too.
New York City’s 242 charter schools enroll 145,000 students — about one in seven public-school pupils. (And that counts 150,000 or so kids the city Department of Education can’t find.) It would be more if the union-dictated state cap didn’t stifle charter growth.
On Aug. 30, the Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School opened its doors to 110 ninth graders. Sponsored by the Knicks great, it will introduce students to career paths in sports, such as broadcasting, journalism, law, sports medicine and management. The school got in just under the wire before the city hit the cap.
In July, the state Board of Regents rejected a plan by four K-8 city charters to open a joint high school. The plan didn’t actually require a new charter, but the (also uniondominated) Regents blamed the cap anyway.
Charters, as we’ve noted, look to be the only way to save public education in town: DOE enrollment is plummeting as parents find other options. So the charter cap is a boon to the private and parochial schools the unions can’t crush.
Last summer, a poll found that nearly 61 percent of city Democrats support lifting the cap, as well as 82 percent of New Yorkers with incomes under $20,000 and 72 percent with household incomes under $60,000.
How much longer will lawmakers hold children’s futures hostage to a special interest? It’s time to lift the cap and open the door to more excellent public schools.