How Come That Kid Who Lives Outside New York City Got My Seat In The Charter School?

   A little known fact was brought out last night about the two New Visions Charter High Schools that will replace the current Kennedy High School starting next school year. Since the two new charter schools are SUNY authorized the admission criteria if different than that of a regular New York City run public school. Of the seats available in each new charter school first preference is given to current students, second preference is given to siblings of those enrolled students, next comes students from the local school district, after that comes students from the entire city school district, and finally all students from any where in New York State have preference on any seats that may still be open.

   Since the application process is over for the two new charter high schools it was reported by New Visions how students were chosen for the two new schools. Since more students applied than there were seats the admission process criteria went into effect. Since this is the first year of the two new charter schools there were no returning students, and there were no siblings of enrolled students either. All district 10 students who applied were given seats, and since there was more demand than seats the remaining seats went to students from the other school districts in the Bronx and other boroughs outside of the Bronx. 

  In a particularly strange note New Visions said that several applicants for seats lived in the city of Yonkers, but because all seats were taken by New York City students the Yonkers residents were not accepted. When questioned the SUNY representative confirmed that according to New York State Charter School regulations it would be possible for out of city students (anywhere in New York State) to attend New York City charter schools.  The City of Yonkers has one charter school located on Warburton Avenue that is a K-8 school, and it could wind up that some of those graduates could find seats in the two new charter high schools that replace Kennedy High School in the future.

   As the State Education Law states that that local school districts fund local charter schools, your New York City tax dollars could wind up paying to educate students from outside of the city. Even worse is that your child may not get a seat in a New York City charter school because the sibling of a child who may live outside the city could wind up with that seat.