Just the other day, we urged Gov. Cuomo to live up to his claim that he’s the “students’ lobbyist” by standing up to a de Blasio administration that wants to stop the growth of charter schools and help drive the existing ones — especially if they are successful — into the ground.
Here’s the good news: There’s language in state law that gives the governor an opportunity to push back.
In particular, we mean Mayor de Blasio’s vow to charge the charters something he doesn’t charge other public schools: rent. On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that officials at the State Education Department have questions about this bid. They wonder, for example, if the state should claw back some of the $1 billion in construction aid it currently provides if City Hall starts profiting from charging charter public schools rent.
Officials also wonder whether Mayor de Blasio has the legal authority to treat charters differently — charging some rent, others not, purely for political reasons.
It’s not an academic question. A just-released Manhattan Institute study finds that charging charters rent would create an average deficit of $682,000 in 71 percent of the schools, which would force nearly 600 cumulative teacher layoffs.
The children in the charters need to hear the governor’s voice on this. And if he’s interested in some detail about the human impact of the mayor’s anti-charter efforts, we recommend a chat with Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo (D-Bronx).
In her borough plans by the highly regarded Girls Prep Bronx to add grades 6 to 8 next year are now threatened by the possibility that de Blasio’s Department of Education will block it. Girls Prep students, who are happy and achieving, fear their school will be yanked out from under them.
To his credit, Cuomo has said charters should have the same opportunity to teach pre-K as traditional schools. His lieutenant governor, moreover, said on the governor’s behalf “there’s room for everybody.”
Let’s hope the governors actions live up to these words.