Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Alarming and disturbing – two words that are not normally associated with New York City charter schools.  Two words that in no way describe the choice public schools that continually provide the most innovative options and stellar achievement for students.  In fact, a study by Caroline Hoxby shows that the longer NY students are in charter schools, the higher they achieve.

Yet, Brooklyn-based Council member Steve Levin, clearly emboldened by Bill de Blasio’s mayoral victory, has called recently for a moratorium on all new charter schools in the city.  He claims that everyone should be alarmed by the projected budget increase for charter schools across the city.  To be clear, he called the increase “a bee in his bonnet”.

The inability of Levin to A) recognize that an increase in the budgets of charter schools will improve parents’ ability to free their children from mediocre at best traditional public schools and B) deal with the bee in his bonnet presents a threat to parent power in the nation’s largest city.  New York City’s parents must be aware that the reign of charter-ally Michael Bloomberg is giving way to a hostile environment for high performing and innovative public schools of choice – and de Blasio hasn’t even been sworn in yet.

Not only are the proposals by de Blasio to charge charter schools rent, end all new charter co-locations, and now Levin’s call to halt the establishment of new charters in general threatening to the charter schools themselves, but also to parents.  The power of parents to choose and to liberate their children from dismally achieving traditional schools is being damaged.  Parents who know how great their children’s charter schools are working also know that establishing more great charters schools is necessary to spread power, choice, accountability, and achievement to other families.  The Big Apple’s new political leaders, however, don’t understand that, and are bolstered to damage parent power and choice for our kids.  That is what is truly alarming and disturbing.