STATEMENT OF MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG AND SCHOOLS CHANCELLOR JOEL I. KLEIN ON THE ASSEMBLY PASSING LEGISLATION TO RAISE THE CAP ON CHARTER SCHOOLS "The agreement to raise the cap on charter schools in New York State from 200 to 460 is not just great news for the 40,000 plus children currently on waiting lists - it's also good news for all 1.1 million New York City students. Charter schools elevate the quality of our entire public education system by increasing competition and challenging all of our schools to do a better job for our kids, and that's the most important thing.
"This bill also accomplishes other important things. For one, it boosts our chances of getting $700 million in 'Race to the Top' federal funds. The application deadline for 'Race to the Top' is next Tuesday, and the charter cap is one reason why New York State missed out in the first round. With our schools facing big budget cuts this year, we simply can't afford to leave hundreds of millions of dollars for education sitting on the table.
"By working together, we preserved the key components of the nation's most successful system of charter schools. Both SUNY and the Regents will have 130 charters to issue under this agreement. We also preserved the City's role as a 'charter entity', maintaining the City's ability to endorse charter applications for the Regents' consideration and expanding this process to SUNY. Furthermore, these charters are open to every community in the state and City, with no insidious 'local caps'. And perhaps most important, we preserved the ability of the City to give charter students, parents and teachers that most precious of resources in New York: space.
"Raising the cap on charter schools has been a top legislative priority for our Administration. In 2002, New York City only had 17 charter schools. Today, we have 99 - by this fall we'll have 125. Charter schools have been an important part of our efforts to turn around a once broken school system and close the racial achievement gap because 90 percent of charter school students are black and Hispanic. Last year, charter school students outperformed their peers in the rest of the school system by nine percentage points on the State's Reading and Math exams.
"This legislation is the product of weeks of negotiations. It is not a perfect bill, but it is critically important that the Senate pass this legislation so we can submit the best possible 'Race to the Top' application and give parents better school choices. We want to thank the Assembly for passing this critical legislation - particularly Speaker Shelly Silver and Education Committee Chair Cathy Nolan."