Thousands of cheering, chanting parents and kids jammed Foley Square in lower Manhattan Thursday for a rally in support of charter schools as the best possible alternative to the city’s failing public schools.
Clad in bright-red T-shirts emblazoned with the words, “Don’t Steal Possible,” the crowd demanded more funding for charter schools so all city children could have a chance to succeed.
One of the event’s speakers, A.U. Hogan, said his grandson was stuck in a public school and has been promoted without being ready for the next grade.
“My grandson’s future is being stolen. The New York City school system is stealing his future,” he said.
Hogan, of Jamaica, Queens, said his grandson got zeros on some exams but still was passed.
“Every year, his possible seems more and more like impossible. I am here today in solidarity with parents across the city to say to our elected leaders: Don’t steal our possible,” he said.
Other parents said they had seen the difference charters had made in their children’s lives.
Rosemary Varona, 30, said she didn’t want her kids — Iysis Sanandres, 6, and Nasir Sanandres, 3 — to go to the same Bronx public schools that failed her as a child.
“I went to the schools around my area as a child, and they’re still doing the same things that they were doing while I was there, so there was no way I was going to have my kid in the same kind of system that failed me,” she said, explaining why she chose Success Academy Bronx 2.
Ivelisse Rivera, 26, and Edwardo Torres, 25, came with their son Kelvin Torres, 6, who is enrolled at Success Academy 4.
“We started in a public school. We weren’t comfortable with the curriculum there,” Torres said.
“I mean, he wasn’t really learning much, and when he started Success Academy, his grades skyrocketed, and I’m very impressed in what he’s learning. Every day, he has certain classes like science class. Not in every school do you have science class every day. That’s great!”
Eva Moskowitz, founder and CEO of the Success Academy network, praised the crowd — estimated at 21,000 by organizers and 10,000 by cops — for turning out on the cool, cloudy morning.
“New York City parents came out in force today to demand what is possible,” she said.
“Parents refuse to be complacent about 143,000 kids trapped in failing schools. They insist on being heard. Their voices will change history.”
The pro-charter group Families for Excellence in Schools estimates 143,000 of the city’s 1.1 million public students are in “failing” schools where few students passed state English and math exams in 2013.
Students at the rally held signs reading, “Kids Can’t Wait,” and, “Great Schools Now,” as Questlove, the drummer for The Roots, acted as DJ, playing such hits as “Push It” by Salt-N-Pepa and Lil Jon’s “Turn Down for What.”
Parents danced in place as some Success Academy students busted their best moves on stage.
State Senate co-leader Jeff Klein (D-Bronx) — one of three elected officials at the rally — recalled a massive, pro-charter rally in Albany this year.
“When you came up to Albany, let me tell you something, the Legislature listened. Because of each and every one of you, kids are better off,” he said.
Klein said he’d push for more funding but conceded another key goal — expanding the cap on the number of charter schools — probably wouldn’t get through the next legislative session.
Assemblyman Robert Rodriguez (D-Harlem) said: “Enough is enough. How many generations of our children do we have to fail before we stand up for them? We must stop playing politics with the future of our children.”
Mayor de Blasio countered the rally with an e-mail to supporters earlier Thursday that included a video clip of a speech he gave at Riverside Church last March.
“We have a crisis when it comes to education. The answer is not to find an escape route that some can follow and others can’t. The answer is to fix the entire system,” he said.
Jeremiah Kitteridge, CEO of Families for Excellence in Schools, said the mayor’s plans are not succeeding.
“Turning around failing schools at this scale that the city is currently facing is going to require bold change, and the number of proposals we have seen from the de Blasio administration so far have been incremental and certainly not bold,” he told The Post.
Asked for comment, mayoral spokesman Wiley Norvell referred to de Blasio’s speech at Riverside Church.
“To paraphrase . . . we know our schools need help. We believe the answer is to fix the entire system. That includes traditional public schools, charter schools and religious schools,” he said.