NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña issued their first serious attack on charter schools. Three thriving Success Academy charter schools will have to relocate from their current location in public-school buildings.
An editorial in the New York Daily News explains how the mayor’s decision will negatively effect the charter school students who have been performing exceptionally well:
The two leaders decreed, for example, that Success Academy 4 in Harlem, now serving fifth and sixth graders in temporary quarters that lapse this year, will be barred from moving into an elementary school building, where plans had called for expanding to seventh grade.
Success Academy 4 children are 97% black and Hispanic. More than three quarters are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Even so, a stunning 96% of the school’s kids passed the tough new state math exam. Fifty three percent passed the English exam — putting them in the top tier of all schools across the state.
They face the end of excellence. Without a rescue, they must look elsewhere for schooling.
