As the denizens of Albany work out the final details of the state budget in their usual fashion — in secret, in their backrooms — we urge them to seize the opportunity before them to put a decent education within reach of more children. This opportunity takes the form of two measures.
The first fixes a gap in the law that makes charters the only public schools not guaranteed space or the funds to get it themselves. The second provides tax credits for donations to support either programs at public schools or scholarships giving more children the chance to attend a good private or parochial school their families otherwise could not afford.
This is not complicated. The status quo puts life-and-death decisions about charters into the hands of the same politicians and education bureaucracy that see them as a threat. If we are going to have charters — and New Yorkers want more of them — we have an obligation to ensure they have what every other public school gets: space.
The tuition-tax-credit bill is another way to help kids get an education. Maybe that’s why it’s backed by labor unions, religious groups, civil-rights advocates, not to mention legislators — black and Latino, urban and suburban, Republican and Democrat.
They understand New York is a state whose tax code offers 62 personal and business tax credits that amount to nearly $4 billion. If Jimmy Fallon deserves a tax credit, what about a poor kid in The Bronx?
The Post’s take is simple: New York needs more good schools, and more opportunities for more children to attend good schools. And Albany has no excuse for not delivering.