Charter school officials blasted a pair of Democratic New York state lawmakers who called to investigate a rally last week — saying the duo were working as muscle for the teachers union.
Pro-union state Sens. John Liu and Shelly Mayer — who chair influential committees that oversee Big Apple schools — urged state education officials to investigate whether a pro-charter school rally attended by 15,000 parents and students violated state law.
But charters fired back that the Sept. 18 rally, which had marchers cross the Brooklyn Bridge, was “not a partisan display.”
“It was the most fundamental expression of civic life — families demanding fairness, equity, and access to quality education,” said a letter to the senators, signed Tuesday.
Liu (D-Queens) and Mayer (D-Westchester) had raised concerns in a letter sent the day after the rally to state Education Commissioner Betty Rosa and SUNY Chancellor John King that claimed some charter schools’ strong-armed families and staff to attend the rally.
“Cancelling classes during a school day and forcing families and students to engage in a political rally is an egregious misuse of student time and state funds,” the lawmakers said.
They urged for a probe into whether the rally — which called to open more charters — broke state rules or laws. SUNY reviews and approves charter applications.
But the charter school operators said Liu and Mayer mislabeled the rally as a campaign event, when it was pro-charter school advocacy — and accused them of smearing educators and parents.
“Your letter to SUNY and SED was defamatory and dismissive of every one of us who have dedicated our lives to serving our City, but especially the many thousands of Black and Brown parents who have exercised their right to choose.”
“Instead of recognizing our extraordinary act of unity, you have accused our schools of coercion and misuse of public funds, and called for punitive investigations. That response is not only misguided, it insults the families you serve and the dedicated teachers, staff and leaders who serve them.”
There are now 286 charter schools serving more than 150,000 students or nearly 15% of the city’s publicly funded schools, according to the NYC Charter School Center.
Charters publicly funded schools managed by not-for-profit operators. They typically have a longer school day and school year than traditional public schools and most teachers are non-union.
Charter students also typically outperform their zoned neighborhood public schools on the state’s standardized math and English exams.
The charter school officials also blasted the lawmakers for not holding hearings on why so many public schools fail, instead of picking on charter schools that are demonstrating successes.
“If you truly care about equity and justice, then the solution is obvious: you would be calling for investigations into why we still have an arbitrary charter cap that denies families choice,” their letter read. “Rather than attempting to silence the voices of parents.”
The letter was signed by:
- Rafiq Kalam Id-Din II, founder and managing partner of Ember Charter Schools;
- Rev. Al Cockfield, Jr., founder & CEO, of Lamad Academy Charter Schools;
- Bishop Raymond Rivera, founder of Family Life Academy Charter Schools and
- Emily Kim, founder & CEO of Zeta Charter Schools.
Liu stood his ground Wednesday when asked about the criticism from the charter school sector.
“The letter deserves an A in English language arts for its flowery rhetoric, but doesn’t address the issue that classes, for which state funding is provided, were cancelled for the rally that took place on a school day,” Liu said.
“Moreover, evidence pointing to staff and family coercion warrants investigation,” he added.
The pro-charter rally was held just weeks before the Nov. 4 general election for mayor with Democratic nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani on record against lifting the state cap to allow expansion of the schools.
