This may not be apparent from its constant whining, but New York’s teachers-union cartel isn’t the only group threatened by the explosion in demand for charter schools citywide.
Speaking before the Manhattan Institute this month, Archbishop Timothy Dolan was forthright about the challenge charters pose to the city’s Catholic schools — once the sole alternative for most city kids seeking a quality education outside traditional public schools.
But Dolan seems to welcome the competition.
“We do know that in areas like Harlem, where — thanks be to God — charter schools are blossoming, we’ve seen enrollment go down,” he admitted.
And yet: “I’m confident that . . . there’s something to the religious dimension of a school that enhances the pedagogical environment. If that’s the case . . . we don’t have anything to be afraid of, and Catholic schools will continue to come across as a quality product, well worth investment and sacrifice.”
Dolan’s openness to competing for parents’ trust certainly speaks well for his new plan for reforming the archdiocese’s school system, which would close some schools while increasing principal training and scholarship funding.
It also separates him wildly from the United Federation of Teachers, which has responded to the challenge from non-union charters with brute political intimidation.
Obviously, it’s not nearly as confident in its product as Dolan is in his.
And why is that? Well, as Dolan pointed out in praising Catholic schools for competing with public ones: “We all know that a monopoly rarely works and usually becomes inefficient and very bloated.”
No kidding.