Next year, 210 students at Harlem Success Academy 4 will need to find a new school.
Thanks to the policies of Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, the charter school will be closing at the end of the school year.
Harlem Success Academy 4 is one of the top performing schools in New York state. This past year, 96 percent of students passed the Common Core math exams while 55 percent passed the English exams - both scores are well above state averages. At the nearby public schools, fewer than one in ten students passed either exam.
According to a New York Daily News editorial, New York City should not be shutting down successful charter schools in the first place. But since they are, city officials have an obligation to find new schools for these students, something that has not yet happened:
De Blasio and Fariña are so blinded by their reflexive crusade against the charter school network that operates Success Academy 4 and its founder, Eva Moskowitz, that they are casting the kids into the desert without a care about doing real harm.
The mayor and chancellor must recognize that they have a duty to deliver the best for each and every child, including in charter schools. They must find a new base for Harlem Success 4 and its thriving kids.
