This past Thursday over one-hundred people gathered on the steps of City Hall a rally for the much unused space in public schools for new charter schools. There had been an agreement with Mayor Bill de Blasio to allow charter schools to pick up some of the open space in NYC public schools.
In a report compiled by the Manhattan Institute 192 public school buildings have three-hundred or more empty seats in all five boroughs. Also in the report was that these public school seats have been empty for over five years now. There were seventy-two public school buildings citywide with over five-hundred empty seats, with twelve Bronx public schools on that list.
Eva Moskowitz the CEO of the charter school network Success Charter Schools led the rally as there was a surprise charter school parent among those at the rally. Assemblyman Marcos crespo said that his two young children attend a Success Charter school, and that he is a supporter of charter schools. Crespo also called on the mayor to honor his word and allow the large blocks of empty seats in public schools to be used by charter schools.
The twelve Bronx public schools with over 500 empty seats as compiled by the Manhattan Institute are -
School District Number of empty seats
Stevenson H.S. 8 973
Kennedy Campus H.S. 10 762
New School for
Art & Sciences 8 750
Truman H.S. 11 693
IS 113 11 677
Taft H.S. 9 676
Clinton H.S. 10 673
Bronx Regional H.S. 12 609
IS 339 9 594
IS 192 8 564
IS 98 12 561
IS 219 9 541
Assemblyman Marcos Crespo at Thursday's Charter School Rally.
