Statement on Lifting the Charter Cap

​We are deeply troubled by Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed modification of the charter cap and what it says about her commitment to New York City and our schools. 

Charters do not need to expand—if anything, with individual charter schools experiencing significant enrollment decline of their own, they need to be saved from being cannibalized by their own industry. With over 270 schools in New York City alone, allowing charter expansion at the same time that NYC is facing its own declining enrollment not only threatens the stability of every school in The City, but threatens The City itself.

Unstable education systems are making parents leave the state entirely. Families do not want the “free market” approach to education—they want schools in their communities that meet their children’s needs, and they do not want to have to shop around or “game” a “system” to do it. In three recent high-profile cases, parents mobilized to plainly state they did not want charter expansions in their community. Black and Brown communities in The Bronx and Queens spoke loudly and clearly, and the proposals were pulled—is anyone in Albany listening? 

A revision to the cap like what Governor Hochul is proposing not only flies in the face of what parents have demonstrated they want, but it explicitly undermines it. And, with almost non-existent regulation and weak accountability measures in place, the fabric of public education is slowly destroyed, all while The City’s children suffer. 

We cannot let that stand. We are calling on all of New York City’s representatives to take a stand—to call for not only maintaining the cap, but also the creation of standards that allow poorly performing charters and bad actors to have their charter revoked and the cap reduced. It’s time to let Albany know that the experiment on our children is over.


Fast Facts on Charters in NYC: Did you know…
…that the rent for a charter school in New York City comes out of the city’s education budget? That’s right—New York City is the only municipality in New York State where the rent for charter schools comes out of the New York City Schools Education budget. In the rest of New York State, their rent is paid by the State.

…that New York City is the only municipality in New York State that does not receive supplemental aid from the State for having more than 2% of its students enrolled in charter schools? That’s right—if more than 2% of a school district’s students are enrolled in a charter, the State is supposed to send in money to the district to make up for the loss of students. For some reason, New York City is barred from receiving those funds.

…that waitlists for charter schools are never audited by any government agency to verify any claims of families “waiting for seats?” That’s right—no agency in neither New York City nor New York State can verify any claim about who is actually waiting for seats. Families in New York City Schools can apply for more than 10 schools at a time all on the same form, ranked by choice order—but that isn’t the same as a waitlist. If that’s a wait list, virtually every school in New York City has a waitlist. And even still, high numbers of students receive their first choice of schools—no wait list involved.

…that while charters boast about waitlists, they actually rarely fill the seats in the schools they have? That’s right—charters frequently talk about their proposed enrollment, but aren’t required to share their current enrollment. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll find that even as the charter sector expanded, the enrollment still dwindled.

…that the share of English language learners served by charter schools is 40% lower than the share served by public schools? That’s right—despite charters being densely packed in predominantly Black and brown communities, charters still manage to avoid having to accommodate students who require not just multilingual instruction, but multilingual resources and programming that charters often lack.

…that charter schools were able to get pandemic aid that public schools were ineligible for?  That’s right—charters skirt regulations and call themselves “public” when it is convenient for them and “private” when being public is inconvenient.  Meanwhile public schools are held to one consistent set of rules and regulations and, as public entities, could not apply for the kinds of pandemic aid that charters received.

…that even as Governor Hochul proposes increased per pupil for charter schools, there is no meaningful accounting for how much funding charters receive and spend per pupil compared with public schools, and very limited public disclosure and accounting for how they spend their funds, while public schools provide copious disclosure of every school’s budget in a real-time public interface.