Former New York City Schools Chancellor and StudentsFirstNY Board Chair Joel Klein spoke about the future of NYC charter schools and the NYC mayoral candidates in a speech delivered to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. His speech highlighted the expansion of NYC charter schools from 18 to 125 during his time as chancellor, while discussing the lack of “courage” among NYC mayoral hopefuls.
According to by WNYC’s SchoolBook, Klein said:
"The key ingredient to that work was courage. And courage to tell political special interests, 'no thanks, we’re putting the children first.'"
"For example, some of these people want to turn back the clock and take choice and opportunity away from parents by ending or freezing the charter co-location policies that proved so critical to students and families in Harlem and around New York City. They may say they support charters, but without co-location these schools have no place to go and would effectively disappear.
"I think some folks might ignore these children and their families because they don’t have political action committees or City Hall lobbyists."
