Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña says charter- school students she booted from city-owned space in Harlem “are on their own” and can always go back to regular public schools.
“They’re charter schools. They’re on their own now. That is part of what they do, and that’s an independent structure, and that is how they function,” Fariña said Wednesday at Department of Education offices in lower Manhattan
She said public schools nearby — the ones students sought to avoid by enrolling in the charter — would be available.
“They have other options,” Fariña said of the Success Academy Middle School students.
Mayor de Blasio and Fariña last week cancelled the charter’s plan to co-locate at the PS 149/Sojourner Truth building in September, a move approved last year by the Bloomberg administration.
The high-achieving school is now homeless and threatened with closure because it can’t remain at its current location.
But Fariña insisted that Success Academy has other middle schools that could accommodate the roughly 200 booted students, a claim disputed by Success Academy operator Eva Moskowitz.
Told that charter parents don’t want to send their kids to Harlem district schools, Fariña said: “They have their Success Academies that have those grades that they can easily send their children . . . I am convinced that those children will have a place to go.”
Gov. Cuomo and lawmakers, including state Senate co-leader Dean Skelos, are considering proposals that would finance classroom space for charter schools abandoned by de Blasio.
“Charter schools should be treated like other public schools. They should get some capital dollars. They should be included in the state capital construction funding program,” said Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn).
There’s also the possibility charters would receive low-cost capital financing through the state Dormitory Authority to build their own facilities, sources said
Other ideas being explored include reimbursing charters for rent.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) said his top priority in the budget, however, will be helping traditional public-school students who suffer from overcrowding, not helping charter s.
“When you want to talk about school construction, there are children who are sitting in trailers for years because we don’t have the physical facilities to put them into buildings,” Silver said. “We should talk about those children first.”