ALBANY — About 1,500 charter school students and parents descended on the state capital Tuesday to demand that lawmakers eliminate a cap on charters, fund them at a level comparable to other public schools and allow co-locations.
The annual Charter School Advocacy Day included visits to lawmakers offices and a rally where several elected officials spoke.
“Challenge those that don’t believe in you and do better than they expect you to do and prove that charter schools are doing the job if we simply get out of the way,” Assemblyman Marcos Crespo, (D-Bronx) told the crowd.
“This thing called a cap is real. What they’re saying is only some kids should make it out of the hood and not surprisingly it’s their kids.”
Charter schools receive about 60 cents on the dollar compared to other public schools and have waiting lists of more than 44,000.
Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan said that “people forget this: charter schools are public schools.”
“I know that there’s over 100,000 students in charter schools now and over 40,000 on waiting lists,” he said. “The fact that there are waiting lists tell me that there’s passion, dedication and people want to do better.”
Flanagan said the Senate is committed to supporting the charters.
James Merriman, CEO of the New York City Charter School Center said that Gov. Cuomo’s budget made clear he is also committed to charter schools.
“Now, it’s time for our legislators to follow his lead by eliminating the arbitrary cap on charter schools that deprives tens of thousands of students of the great public education they deserve,” he said.
Under current regulations, a maximum of 460 charters are allowed statewide.
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