Petition with Nearly 30,000 Signatures Delivered to the Gov. Cuomo’s Office
(Long Island, NY) Thousands of parents, educators and taxpayers across the state tell Gov. Cuomo and the Republican-led Senate to not raise the charter cap. More than 27,000 signed a petition demanding the charter cap not be raised, regional limits be kept and laws put in place to require charter schools to educate all children, including high need students.
Today, the Alliance for Quality Education, New York State United Teachers, Strong Economy for All and the United Federation of Teachers delivered the 160-foot long petition to Gov. Cuomo’s office. These education advocates and good government groups believe the petition is vital as the prospect of expanding charter schools, which do not serve the needs of all children and are not governed by any rules of fiscal accountability or transparency, is a threat to the public schools, which has been debilitated by cuts to state aid for years. In addition, the raising of the charter cap is yet another hand-out to the Governor’s hedge fund backers who seek to invest and control these school.
The petition reads:
New York State public education is under threat from Wall Street financiers pushing to privatize education by expanding the number of charter schools. We, as parents, teachers and taxpayers, demand that our state lawmakers protect public education.
Charter schools were supposed to serve as laboratories for innovative learning methods. But those that seek to privatize public education for profit have hijacked large parts of the charter school movement for their own purposes.
Many charter schools do not serve all students and fail to abide by the same standards of fairness, student discipline and financial transparency that traditional public schools have to meet.
We ask our lawmakers to:
1. Maintain the current cap on the number of charter schools in New York State and on the number in particular geographic regions; and
2. Pass legislation that makes charters more accountable to parents and taxpayers by requiring them to:
- Use their generous private donations to pay rent
- Enroll and maintain the same percentages of high-need students as
- Follow federal regulations on student suspensions and discipline
- Disclose their donors and the donors to their lobbying and advocacy neighboring public school groups.
“Gov. Andrew Cuomo should listen to the tens of thousands who have signed the petition that New York State has to put public schools first,” said Michael Kink, Executive Director of the Strong Economy for All Coalition. “He should not be listening to the number of hedge fund billionaires who are shoveling him campaign cash.”
“It’s ridiculous to be talking about more charters schools,” said Billy Easton, Executive Director of the Alliance for Quality Education. “We should be talking about holding the charters we have to the same standards we hold our public schools. Charters should serve the same students, stop refusing to fill their empty seats and come clean with the fraud and waste that takes place behind their doors. Opening more charters should not be an option. Opening more charters should not be an option. The Governor’s effort to ram through an increaes in the number of charter schools is yet another example of serving the narrow self-interest of his billionarie hedge fund donors.”
“Talk about raising the charter cap is Albany political gamesmanship at its worst. There is no need to raise the cap. We have 2,500 empty seats now in New York City alone, and 27,000 more charter seats coming on line in the next five years. The only reason this issue is surfacing is because Gov. Cuomo and GOP-led Senate are trying to throw their hedge fund buddies a bone while still holding 2.5 million renters hostage,” said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers.
“Why would we raise the charter cap when there are still well over 100 slots remaining, and existing charters have several thousand empty seats?” asked NYSUT Executive Vice President Andrew Pallotta. “Charter schools still are not serving all students, and are not back-filling empty seats from those students who leave — or are removed — from charters. Until these issues are addressed and until charter operators are held accountable for their actions, there should be no lifting of the charter cap.”
