Does Mayor Eric Adams back charter schools, as he claims? Because it’s starting to look like he’s doing the teachers union’s dirty work and moving to block them, especially after his lame testimony in Albany on Wednesday.
Given how well charters serve New York families — especially lower-income, minority ones — the mayor should be loudly and clearly supporting Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to allow up to 106 more to open in the city.
In the 2018-19, 62.2% of city charter kids scored proficient on statewide math tests, vs. just 45.6% at traditional schools. In reading, it was 57.3% vs. 47.4%. The gap for black students: 63.9% vs. 28.3% in math, 58.2% vs. 35% in reading.
Yet there Adams was Wednesday, claiming Hochul’s proposal would “cost us over $1 billion . . . money we do not have.”
That closely echoes the lies of the unions and their pawns in the Legislature.
And it’s a completely bogus number. For starters, City Hall admits that the full (theoretical) cost would only kick in once all 106 charters open — which likely will take a decade or more. More important, much of the supposed cost assumes the city would be leasing new space for charters, when in reality most of them use room in existing school buildings, co-locating with other public schools.
Meanwhile, falling enrollment is freeing up plenty such space, as the regular public schools now teach a fifth fewer kids than they did at their most recent peak.
On Wednesday, Adams dodged as Sen. John Liu (D-Queens and a solid teachers-union stooge) cited the bogus stat on how Hochul’s plan would “impose a severe financial burden on the city,” noted his own opposition and said “it’s good to hear that you kind of oppose it also.” The mayor’s lame response: Don’t get “the impression that I took a position on it. I’m clear on scaling up successful schools, and I’m not attached to charter, district, public, private.” Exactly: He needs to take a position.
Later, when The Post’s Bernadette Hogan and Zach Williams asked Adams if he supports removing the charter cap, he said yes — but again hedged. He wants to “scale up what works,” be they district schools or charters.
This, just days after Chancellor David Banks also failed to stand up for charters in Albany. This came after Banks nixed a planned vote by the Panel for Education Policy to bless three charter co-locations.
Adams has also mysteriously dropped his rhetoric about the rot of financial waste and scandalous results within the public school system that helped him sail into City Hall.
It’s nuts for Adams to side with the union against charters, after it tried to stop him from becoming mayor in 2021 while he campaigned in favor of them. Are you really going to turn your back on what you believe in, Mr. Mayor, rather than fight for it?