For Immediate Release: January 11, 2019
Contact: Abdul Sada - asada@skdknick.com
NEW YORK CITY SET TO RUN OUT OF CHARTERS AS SUNY & NYSED BEGIN REVIEWING NEW CHARTER SCHOOL APPLICATIONS
24 Applicants Compete for Last 7 Charters in NYC
Advocates Urge New York State Lawmakers to Raise the Cap on Charter Schools
(NEW YORK) – Today, the State University of New York (SUNY) and the New York State Education Department (NYSED) published 24 applications for new public charter schools in New York City – 19 for SUNY and 5 for NYSED. With only 7 charters available for New York City, under the current legislative cap, these applications far exceed the number of charters available. It is expected that New York City will have no charters available following SUNY’s anticipated approvals in March.
SUNY and NYSED’s new round of applications include a variety of proposed charter schools, including 9 new independent schools and 15 schools that are replications of currently operating, successful charter schools. Without raising or eliminating the cap in Albany this legislative session, some of these potential high quality schools will be precluded from opening and serving some of the City’s most vulnerable students.
James Merriman, CEO of the New York City Charter School Center today released the following statement on the urgent need to raise the arbitrary charter cap for New York City:
“This is the definition of crisis. As of today, no principal, no teacher, no leader, no matter how driven, talented or proven, will be able to start a new independent public school in our city. We are leaving great ideas and untold opportunity on the table while tens of thousands of children languish in schools that city leaders themselves admit are not currently up to the task of educating them. For 20 years charters have co-existed with traditional public schools to provide families with more options for their children. There is absolutely no reason to prevent new high quality, high potential schools from opening. At the end of the day, it’s up to parents to decide whether they want to send their children to these schools. They should at least be given the option.”
For more information, see the New York City Charter School Center’s Cap Fact Sheet.
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