An Update from City Hall on Charter Schools

 

With all of the recent discussion on charter schools in our city, I want to share with you an update from Mayor de Blasio's office on exactly what is going on.

 

The conversation around charters is a good one to have. While the vast majority of New York’s students are served by traditional public schools, we are committed making sure EVERY child in New York City can secure a quality education that prepares students for career and college. 

 

If we’re going to educate our children for the 21st century, we must not divide parents and children in this discussion. It’s time for all leaders and stakeholders to unite around common goals and a strong public policy that lifts up every student.

 

Latest on Charters & Co-Location:

• New York City made decisions based on sound public policy and what’s best for our schools and students.

• The mayor and his team inherited 45 colocations proposals for this coming September that were rushed through in the final days of the past administration.  Because of the hasty manner of these original approvals, the mayor and his team needed to act quickly to determine if these were all good ideas.

• The mayor and his team were determined to do right by all students, and we set up objective criteria to make sure children weren’t harmed because of these decisions.

• The objective criteria were simple:
  • No elementary schools opening on high school campuses.
  • No colocations that create very small schools (under 250) that cannot provide range of support needed to serve our students effectively.
  • No colocations that require heavy construction.
  • We will not reduce District 75 seats – special education.  Will not disadvantage those kids in need.

• In all, the mayor’s team approved 36 of the 45 total colocation proposals because working with school communities, those plans could be implemented responsibly.

• Nine proposals were declined because they did not meet these smart, common sense standards.

• Contrary to some of the news reports, 14 of 17 charter proposals were approved, and 5 out of 8 proposals were approved from the Success Academy network.

• Two colocations were declined because they would have put an elementary school into a high school campus. This is a bad education policy that doesn’t work for either population of kids because it doesn’t enable shared resources such as AP classes or a library.  No students were impacted by these two decisions because these schools have not had their lotteries yet.

• A third colocation that was declined at PS149 would have reduced enrollment for special education students already going to school at there — kids with serious disabilities that our system has too often let down.

We are here to serve ALL of our kids.

 

And just like we won’t approve a colocation that will hurt special needs students at a traditional public school, we won’t turn our backs on the children who were planning to attend this charter school prior to this decision. We are working to find space for the kids at Success Academy 4 because we know that every child, every student is our charge.

 

And we are working cooperatively with a number of charters right now on a range of shared priorities.

 

This administration is committed to working with all parents, educators and stakeholders to ensure that every single one of New York’s 1.1 million students receives a great education.

 

I hope that this email helps to answer some of the questions you may have on charter schools.  If not, please do not hesitate to call my office at 718-931-2620 and we will do our best to make sure that any other question you have is answered.

 

Your Assemblyman,

 

Luis R. Sepulveda