N.Y. School Choice Is Under Attack in State Senate

This is a big bummer!

The Republican-controlled Senate proposed a state budget yesterday that rejected Governor Pataki's marquee plans to expand school choice in New York.

The Senate wants to strip away from Mr. Pataki's executive budget his proposal to lift the cap on charter schools in the state to 250 from 100...

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N.Y. School Choice Is Under Attack in State Senate

BY JACOB GERSHMAN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
March 14, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/29057

 

ALBANY - The Republican-controlled Senate proposed a state budget yesterday that rejected Governor Pataki's marquee plans to expand school choice in New York.

The Senate wants to strip away from Mr. Pataki's executive budget his proposal to lift the cap on charter schools in the state to 250 from 100 and to turn the governor's tuition tax credit plan into a more generally applied credit offered to parents with schoolchildren.

With the Senate and the Assembly showing resistance to both tuition tax credits and to an increase in the number of charter schools, the prospect that either one of these plans will be revived during negotiations and make it into the final 2006-07 fiscal year spending plan will depend on the governor's ability and desire to extract concessions.

Mr. Pataki has indicated that charter schools and tuition tax credits are high priorities for him, and a spokesman for the governor yesterday expressed disappointment with the Senate's plan. Mr. Pataki is expected to hammer out a deal with the Democratic speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, and the Republican majority leader of the Senate, Joseph Bruno, in the next two weeks. The budget is due March 31.

"The Governor's budget recognizes that to make real progress on education you need to improve options for our kids and get parents more involved. That means you need to shake things up a little. The Senate's budget shows that it's hard to break with the status quo, especially in an election year," a spokesman for the governor, David Catalfamo, said in an e-mail.

On the issue of charter schools, Senate Republicans have showed interest in expanding the numbers in New York City, but lawmakers representing smaller school districts, where charter school students comprise a larger percentage of total public school enrollment, have faced greater pressure from the teachers unions and have sought to block the governor's plan.