Eric Adams sowing fear over cost of more NYC charter schools, advocate says
Mayor Eric Adams is trying to panic city taxpayers over the cost of creating new charter schools with City Hall’s latest budget predictions, a leading charter advocate said Tuesday.
An internal budget memo that surfaced last week estimated the Big Apple could be on the hook for $1 billion in lease payments under Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to lift the cap on new city charters.
The city Office of Management and Budget memo went so far as to call the charter cap lift an “unfunded mandate” from Albany.
But James Merriman of the nonprofit New York City Charter School Center said such a scenario won’t come to pass for at least a decade — if ever.
That’s because it takes years for city charter schools to win approval from state officials and actually open their doors to students, usually at a rate of just five to 10 annually.
“This is not a case in which they can reasonably claim that there is a $1 billion hit on their budget except in out-years down the road — and no one talks about budgets 10 years from now,” he said. “You might as well be talking about Tolkien’s ‘Middle Earth.'”
Merriman added, “The point is: this is bean-counting bananas.”
And the OMB’s dire prediction is likely to be cited by charter school opponents in Albany, where Adams will make his case for billions of dollars in additional state funding at a Wednesday budget hearing known as “Tin Cup Day.”
The controversy over the Office of Management and Budget’s dire prediction erupted as Adams, who campaigned in favor of parental school choice, was offered a way to increase th🦩e number of ch🧜arters in the city.
Under 💧state law, ♎the Big Apple is limited to a maximum of 275 charter schools, all of which have already been authorized.
But Hochul’s record $227 billion budget proposal for fiscal 2024, which begins April 1, would abolish the city cap and allow operato𝔍rs to seek approval for 85 more that now can only be opened elsewhere ✃in the state.
Hochul’s plan also includes a provision to unlock the permits for 21 since-shuttered, “zombie” charter schools across the state, which could also be located in the city.
The budget memo comes after Adams came under fire last month when Schools Chancellor David Banks scrapped a plan to “co-locate” three Success Academy charter schools in Department of Education buildings in Queens and The Bronx.
Banks cited community opposition to the proposed charters, which cost taxpayers an averag🔯e of $17,626 per student statewide for the 2022-23 school year, according to the state Education Department.
By comparison, 2019 figures f⭕rom the US Census put DOE spending at $28,004 per student.
Bronx mom Arlene Rosado — who has two kids, one in a charter school and one in a DOE school — said it was time for Adams to stand up for the city’s kids.
“I am happy that Gov. Hochul wants to lift the cap. A lot of parents are behind it. The parents want it,” she said. “I’m a little surprised the mayor is not pushing to open more charter schools.
“Mayor Adams, you should give us more options! Go for it! Take a chance!” Rosado added.
Queens dad Dave Bell, who sought to enroll his daughter in kindergarten at one of the proposed Success Academy schools that were blocked last month, called the situation “disappointing.”
“You have Hochul pushing for charter schools and Adams is backtracking,” he said. “Adams said he was open to new things. Mayor Adams: Listen to the parents.”
City Hall didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
