The demand for charter school seats in NYC has reached a record high, with more than 50,000 students on wait lists. Instead of explaining how they'll help meet that demand, NYC mayoral candidates are seeking to slow charter school growth.
In an opinion piece in the New York Daily News, New York City Charter School Center CEO James Merriman argues the candidates should listen to their constituency and support charter schools:
With such a strong constituency clamoring for more options, you’d think the candidates running for mayor would be jockeying to explain how they will meet demand. Every single parent of those 50,000 students wants a quality education — and they don’t have the luxury of waiting for a long-term solution that will eliminate poverty or fix all schools.
Sadly, most of the campaign rhetoric to date has been aimed at vilifying charter schools — deriding their success as somehow unfair and suggesting that their growth should be slowed or turned back, as if reducing the number of quality public school seats in the name of equity will help anyone.
