Charter School Advocates Rally for Funding

By DESIREE JACKSON

Charter school advocates rallied at Bowling Green on Tuesday, protesting what they say is a lack of faculty and funding for charter schools in the state.

Parents, students and charter school faculty braved the brutal November cold, to argue that charters get short-changed by legislators.

The event, named Classroom without Walls, was staged by the New York City Charter School Center and the Northeast Charter School Center in conjunction with the New York City Coalition of Community Schools.

James Merriman, the CEO of the New York City Charter School Center, contended that charter students do not get their fair share of the over $118 million that was spent nationwide yearly on rent for schools.

“It’s just not fair that forty percent of schools in NYC are charter schools, and don’t get facility funding,” he said. “We’re forced to divert our funds for education and operation to pay the rent.”

Northeast Charter School Center CEO, Kyle Rosenkrans added that charter school students were not receiving the same treatment as students attending district public schools.

“Today this issue is fundamentally about equal treatment under the law, he said. “This at the end of the day is about equality. There are public school students and they deserve to be funded fairly.”

The press conference came against the backdrop of the on-going battle between Mayor Bill de Blasio and Eva Moskowitz, founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter School and de Blasio’s failed attempt to deny charters space in traditional public schools after his efforts were thwarted by Governor Andrew Cuomo and the State Legislature requiring local school districts to provide free space for charter schools.

Rosenkrans also advised parents to appeal to local lawmakers.

“They should be meeting with their state senators and assembly persons and talking to them about their schools struggle to pay facilities cost and the need to fix a flaw in this law,” he concluded.