Metro

Parents peeved over charter school plan

Charter schools are working, and Albany is determined to stop that, outraged parents said yesterday.

The Legislature’s plan to double the number of charter schools in New York to 400 is a recipe for disaster, Mona Davids, founder of the New York Charter Parents Association, told The Post.

“If the state has sole control, that will destroy the true spirit of what charter schools are,” said Davids, whose 10-year-old daughter attends Equality Charter School in The Bronx.

“Opponents of charter schools say it is privatization of public education, but what the state is proposing — to put out business contracts for new schools — that would be privatization.”

If new charter schools cannot be established in former public-school buildings, then it will not be possible to finance them in the city, Lower East Side parent Latrina Miley said.

“Charter schools need to stand out and be something different,” Miley said. “I’m blown away that they want to dictate what schools can go where.”

The bill could also cost the state as much as $700 million in federal-grant money.

“They are working against the whole point of Barack Obama’s Race to the Top initiative,” said Valerie Babb, of the Charter Parent Advocacy Network.

“If we have a system that is working, why would we go and change that?” said Babb, whose daughter attends kindergarten at the Harlem Link Charter School.

Additional reporting by Candace Amos

jeremy.olshan@nypost.com