Hi John,
New York’s schools are expecting to get a historic school aid increase in 2023. But right now, charters are receiving a disproportionate percentage of the school aid increase — and Governor Hochul’s proposal to expand them will make that disparity even worse.
Email Governor Hochul and your State Legislators now and tell them: Don’t raise the cap, and don’t reauthorize zombie charters in the final budget!
Expanding charters will mean that even more of the Foundation Aid money will not go where it was intended to go: to public schools that have been underfunded for decades.
Stopping the expansion of charters isn’t taking away individual choice for families — in fact, it will ensure that the millions of families who are choosing their public schools today will still have that choice in the future.
Learn about how the way charter schools are funded in New York City in particular impacts the overall budget for public schools by watching the video below.
And not adding additional charters will have no impact on the schools that are already open and the students that they serve. The fact is, we don’t need new charters — with declining enrollment, there are enough schools, public and charter, to go around.
We need to shift our focus from adding more charters, to how we can improve the PUBLIC school system for ALL children. The goal — for all of us — should be how to preserve a public education system that is available to all, publicly funded, publicly run, and accountable to all of us.
Email Governor Hochul and your State Legislators now and tell them: Don’t raise the cap, and don’t reauthorize zombie charters in the final budget!
In solidarity,
Jasmine Gripper
