A new state proposal would give the Board of Regents veto power over SUNY’s approval of charter schools — a move critics say will slam the brakes on the spread of charter schools statewide.
State Assembly Education Committee Chairwoman Catherine Nolan (D-Queens) — who followed state Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer’s lead in introducing the measure — said it was simply intended to streamline the charter approval process.
Currently, the state Board of Regents, SUNY, and the city’s Department of Education can authorize new charter schools — although the DOE requires secondary approval from the Board of Regents.
“This is all about weakening charter schools and it’s about having fewer of them,” Peter Murphy of the New York Charter Schools Association said. “There’s no educational or child-centered reason to advance a bill like that.”
He added that the proposal shows a growing divide between the Board of Regents — which has advocated for a diverse curriculum at schools — and SUNY, which is open to schools that emphasize math and English as a means of targeting kids who are far behind.
Between 1999 and 2007, the Regents supported about 75 percent of SUNY charter approvals.
Since June 2007, however, the Regents supported less than one-third of SUNY charter approvals, according to a SUNY memo obtained by The Post.
The memo to state legislators notes that 76 percent of SUNY-authorized charter schools outperform their local district averages in reading, while 92 percent do so in math.