In 1998, New York state set out on a bold experiment to challenge the monopoly of the education establishment, introducing innovation and competition by passing legislation authorizing the establishment of charter schools.
At the time, charters were a radical idea, born of conservative policy-makers, fiercely opposed by many Democrats, teachers unions and those who today call themselves progressives. Fifteen years and almost 200 charter schools later, Republicans, mainstream Democrats and most editorial boards embrace charters as a necessary and thriving alternative to failing schools.
This is a sea change of attitude that, while welcome, has engendered some degree of complacency. As a result, the only real action since 1998 was in 2010, when the state raised the cap on charters from 200 to 460. The bottom line is that while expressions of support are nice, more action is needed.
In the city, after years of being nurtured by the Bloomberg administration, charter schools today are under attack by Mayor de Blasio.
The mayor’s decision to strip from the city budget the modest amount set aside for charters’ capital spending will reduce new classroom space. And while he has recently walked back his anti-charter rhetoric, de Blasio has actually succeeded in narrowing the conversation to a tiny subset of issues — when there are much more important ones at hand.
The public should not be fooled: It’s not enough to solve the co-location issues for a few charters when 50,000 children remain on waiting lists to get into these schools.
Sadly, half as many kids are waiting to get into a charter as are actually in charter schools. Nor is this just a city issue — it is a problem felt across the state.
No doubt it will be tough. In “Lincoln,” Steven Spielberg depicts the hand-holding, bartering and cajoling embraced by the president in 1865 to gain passage of the 13th Amendment, outlawing slavery. This wasn’t a far cry from the tactics we had to use to get the charter-school law passed back in 1998.
Even then, one issue we ultimately couldn’t come to agreement on was to provide aid for charters to actually build or rent space for the school.
Yet charters are public schools, the major difference being that if they fail, they close. It’s time Albany finally takes action to address the infrastructure needs of all charters.
Not just in New York City but across the state, charters are lacking facilities because the 1998 law never provided the resources for brick and mortar. Instead they must use operating aid (already less per-pupil than other public schools receive) to pay rent in private space.
In Buffalo, the growth of charters has come almost to a halt because they don’t have facilities funding, building aid or access to district space.
Without addressing this real capital need, lifting the cap on charters amounts to only a symbolic gesture. Our children deserve more than that.
It’s time for lawmakers in Albany to take the next step forward and finally provide charters access to building aid.
George E. Pataki was New York’s governor, 1995-2006.