WASHINGTON — New York is right near the top of a nationwide score card on school choice — a status it could kiss goodbye under the policies of Mayor de Blasio.
The city scored a 73 out of 100 on a choice and competition index developed by Brookings Institution scholar Russ Whitehurst, earning an A-minus in a report being released Wednesday.
Only New Orleans, which embarked on a radical overhaul of its failing schools after Hurricane Katrina, scored higher, at 83.
The study surveyed the nation’s 100 largest school districts.
The accolades may be short-lived. De Blasio wants to end the Bloomberg administration’s policy of closing failing schools, and has proposed slowing the growth of charters by charging rent to some.
The Brookings index evaluates school systems on a range of criteria, including alternative schools, open enrollment and public- and private-school choice.
In a speech scheduled for Wednesday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) plans to lace into de Blasio for attacking charters.
“Mayor de Blasio should abandon this plan and allow New York’s charter schools to continue to flourish,” Cantor will say, according to the prepared remarks.
Before the Brookings study was released, about a dozen charter-school parents spoke out Tuesday against a lawsuit filed by Public Advocate Letitia James, City Council speaker front-runner Melissa Mark-Viverito, and others challenging 42 space-sharing arrangements among schools.