Sunday, February 2, 2014

De Blasio’s team moves to slam doors on charter schools


Mayor de Blasio and his administration have hardly been silent about their intentions to shift resources away from the publicly funded, privately run charter schools that serve some 70,000 New York City kids.


Here are some of the main anti-charter moves by the new mayor and his crew:


- De Blasio’s schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, is redirecting $ 210 million from capital funding to help fulfill the mayor’s campaign promise of expanding pre-kindergarten.


Charter-school advocates are worried that de Blasio’s plan to add 2,100 new pre-K seats will come at the expense of charter schools.


“Educational homelessness for public charter-school students is now the official policy of the de Blasio administration,” fumed Bill Phillips, the president of Northeast Charter Schools Network.


- Public Advocate Letitia James in December filed a lawsuit to cancel the co-locations of dozens of schools. City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito joined the suit.


The new public advocate on Friday said she would halt her lawsuit while Fariña reviews the co-locations. But James said she is not dropping the suit — just postponing it.


- De Blasio has said he wants to begin charging some charters rent, which officials hope could raise about $ 92 million for the city. He has also said he wants to stop co-locations for charter schools.


“If the de Blasio administration takes away funding for construction along with access to vacant space in public school buildings, the cold hard reality is that tens of thousands of New York City students will be denied a chance for a better





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