This year, 69,000 parents entered their children into the lotteries for admission to New York City’s charter schools. The schools only have 18,600 seats to offer, leaving many children on the wait list.
The New York Daily News explains that much of the political opposition to founding new charter schools is led by the teachers’ union:
While there’s still some legal room for founding new charters, political opposition, led by teachers unions, has capped how many can eventually open in the city.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Controller John Liu and former Controller Bill Thompson, all Democrats, oppose lifting the charter cap to give more children the opportunity to escape failing neighborhood schools, as their parents desperately want.
