Albany Attacks Charter Schools, Yet Again

February 3, 2010

Right now, state lawmakers are threatening the most important thing in the world to me – my child’s education – and neither I nor the 3,000 charter school parents I went to Albany with yesterday will stand for it.

For the second year in a row, the state is planning to double-cut public charter school funding. The first cut comes through planned reductions in district school spending; charter school funding is tied to district spending levels, which means that when district spending falls, charter funding falls in proportion.

The second comes through a funding freeze that will only affect charters – which already get less public money per pupil than regular district public schools.

It’s the second year in a row the state government is doing this to charter schools and the families they serve. Last year’s freeze cost charter schools an average of $1,000 a pupil. This year’s freeze would have a similar impact.

Charters are not asking for immunity from public school funding cuts. We’re just asking not to be cut twice while everyone else is cut once.

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Do our lawmakers care about this inequity at all?

I want to repeat what many people don’t understand. Charter schools are public schools that happen to be run by nonprofit groups. They are open to anyone who wants to attend them. When there are more applicants than slots, they choose by lottery.

This kind of quiet funding assault is not fair. In fact, it is flat-out discrimination.

I entered a lottery and enrolled my child in Harlem Link Charter School because it was the best public school for my child, and the school culture matched my family’s values. I wanted my child to have the best education possible. I believe in public school options – and I don’t believe in having my child forced into a failing or overcrowded school.

Unlike many elected officials who claim they are public school advocates but do not have their children enrolled in public schools, I can’t afford private school, nor can many of the parents who choose to enroll their children in public charter schools.

There are thousands of parents like me and thousands more beating down the doors of successful charters trying to get in. Yet Albany lawmakers are tuning us out. Doing the bidding of charter opponents, our leaders are not only limiting the growth of charter schools; with these latest funding cuts, they are making it far harder for existing charter schools to thrive.

Why else would charter schools, which are successfully serving children in underserved communities in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Harlem, Albany and Rochester, be singled out?

If lawmakers actually follow through and approve this cut, they know full well what will happen. Charter schools, which are already reeling from last year’s double cut, would be put at even more serious financial risk.

Charters cannot survive when consistently starved of resources; no entity could.

Enough is enough. Public charter school parents are tired of feeling like we’ve done something wrong for seeking out a better education for our kids. We’re tired of seeing our kids treated like second-class students when it comes to funding.

We will continue to fight against the unfair treatment of children who attend charter schools. We will continue to fight to put kids first.