Mayor de Blasio’s war on charter schools has officially begun.
In an unexpected move late Friday, Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina said the city is redirecting $210 million in capital funding earmarked for charter schools in order to open 2,100 pre-kindergarten seats.
The move appears to confirm fears by charter school supporters that de Blasio’s mammoth plans for expanding pre-k would be used as an excuse to boot charter schools from public school buildings.
“This administration has a decision to make, and soon,” said James Merriman, CEO of the New York City Charter Schools Center.
“If they’re interested in results, they will make sure high-performing charter schools are fully included in the pre-K program, including maintaining capital funding,” he added. “Otherwise, it will be clear that their move to push pre-K is more about ideology than about helping children.”
The revised $12.8 billion capital program will likely be rubber stamped later this year by de Blasio’s allies in City Council and his appointees to the Panel for Educational Policy.
While de Blasio and his supporters have threatened action against charter school expansion, this is the first deliberate move against the privately managed, non-union schools.