New York lawmakers will make history today when they pass a budget that ensures a future for a promising new kind of public school: charters that answer to moms and dads, not teachers unions.
This is precisely the course The Post has urged ever since Mayor de Blasio moved to strangle charters by taking advantage of their lack of guaranteed space.
“Charters,” we warned, “are fighting for their lives.” And we called on Gov. Cuomo to ride to their rescue — with a legislative fix that would not just restore the status quo but address a gap in state law. Now the governor has delivered, with help from the leaders in the state Senate.
This wasn’t what de Blasio expected when he cut $210 million in building funds for charters and killed space for three schools to be run by the city’s highest-performing charter network. No doubt, that pleased the teachers unions. But the move blew up in de Blasio’s face because it exposed the vulnerability of these schools to political machinations.
This weekend’s budget deal fixes much of the problem by guaranteeing charters space for their schools — or the money to rent or buy it. This will give charter operators the ability to plan new schools and new grades. In short, it tells them they have a vital place in this city’s future.
The biggest beneficiaries are the families desperate for a lifeline from the miserable status quo: not only those happy to be in a school where they can learn, but the tens of thousands of kids, largely black and Latino, now languishing on charter wait-lists.
It is for their sake that The Post championed the charter movement from the first. It’s also why we pushed Albany so hard. So to all those, especially the governor, who made this historic day possible, we say: Bravo!