Charter Schools: New York State legislators get it

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There has been a big fight going on in New York City since the recent election of Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is certainly not much of a charter school fan.

Mayor de Blasio has tried to squeeze charters out of co-locations with traditional public schools in the same building and attempting to limit the creation of new charters.

His state legislature is having none of it.

New York's legislature passed a law recently that makes it really expensive for the mayor to push a charter into other facilities.

And, the state’s charter granting authority has approved the opening of 13 more charters in the Big Apple in 2015.Mayor de Blasio has a powerful opponent besides his state’s rank and file legislators. New York State’s governor is a big charter fan, and it looks like he draws sparks with de Blasio on other education issues, as well.

And, Big Apple charters continue to outpace their traditional counterparts. The latest CREDO report on New York City charters says:

“On average, students in New York City charter schools learned significantly more than their virtual (pubic school) counterparts in reading and mathematics.” Mayor de Blasio is going to have a tough time overcoming that.