In New York City’s five boroughs, 60,000 black children and 43,000 Hispanic children were enrolled in charter schools last year. They are in those schools because their parents believe that charters are where they have the best chance at success. Both academic research and state testing data support their faith.
Yet lawmakers in the now solidly Democratic state Legislature are silent as the city approaches the day when charter-school growth stops. Without legislative action, the cap on the number of charter schools could be reached by the end of this school year, and no applications for the creation of additional charters will be accepted.
Meanwhile, Mayor de Blasio has implied the city has enough charter schools. Hizzoner and his fellow Democrats in Albany seem prepared to deny many thousands of other families the opportunity to make the same choices that have worked so well for so many New York students over the past 20 years.
For as long as the state has allowed these schools to grow in number, families have flocked to them. Since 1999, when charter schools were first introduced, the number of students enrolled has skyrocketed to 123,000. Today, there are 48,000 more students enrolled in New York charter schools than there were only five years ago.
These schools make big gains with low-income and minority children. On the annual state English and mathematics tests, charter schools in the Big Apple outperform the average for all students in the rest of the state. For black and Hispanic students, this advantage is even more significant.
Black students in New York City’s charter schools outperform black students in the rest of the state by more than 26 percentage points in English. In math, 59 percent of black students in the city’s charter schools score at proficient or above, compared to only 25 percent of black students in all other schools in the state.
Almost a third of black students in the city’s charter schools score “extremely proficient,” the highest level on the test, in math; only 8 percent of black students and 19 percent of all students score at that level in the rest of schools in the state.
New York City’s charters are getting students to excel.
Hispanic students in the city’s charters show similar advantages, outscoring Hispanics in the rest of the state by more than 20 points in English and 26 points in math.
The standard arguments against the continued growth of charter schools are as tiresome as they are discredited. First, the growth of charter schools hasn’t harmed the city’s traditional district schools, as opponents claim. In fact, the Department of Education’s schools have steadily improved and closed the gap with schools in the rest of the state at the same time as the city’s charter schools have been growing and succeeding.
Second, charters aren’t starving district schools of funding. Since 2007, charter enrollment in the city has grown by 107,000 students. At the same time, the amount in the Department of Education’s budget for operating its own schools (after removing the amount that goes to charters) has grown by $7.5 billion, despite a 13,000 decrease in enrollment.
Charters receive less public funding per pupil than do traditional public schools in the city.
Nor are charters depriving the city’s district schools of students. Growth in the number of charter students in the city isn’t matched by a similar decline in traditional public-school enrollment. In fact, the enrollment decline in the city’s Catholic parochial schools has been greater than that in the public schools in these years.
Finally, research has documented that charter schools aren’t “cream skimming” the best students.
In a 2018 study published in Education Next, Temple University’s Sarah Cordes found “no significant changes in school demographics at district schools after charters’ entry that might explain improved student performance.” The city’s
Independent Budget Office found that student attrition from charter schools is lower than it is in neighboring district schools.
Parents understand what politicians refuse to see — that the city’s students need options, and that charter schools and traditional public schools aren’t in competition.
On the contrary, the success of charter schools seems to boost success at traditional schools. That’s what you call a win-win. Lawmakers should acknowledge that and nix the cap on charter schools in the city.
Ray Domanico is the director of education policy at the Manhattan Institute and the author of its issue brief “Lift the Cap.”
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