Too many children left behind

Hear, hear!  Sometimes amidst all the noise, politics, etc. it's easy to forget that what matters is what's best for the CHILDREN!

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, please, look at the faces of Darshawn, Jaylin, Sydney and Kayla and try to comprehend how their hopes, and the hopes of all the rest, are being dashed because you have refused to authorize any more charter schools. Try also to imagine the frustration of parents who are only looking for decent educations for their kids...

These parents want only a good education for their kids. To deny them because some upstate school districts say they are losing too many children to charters or because teachers unions think charters should be more easily unionized would be an outrage. Shelly and Joe, can you really look at the faces of Darshawn, Jaylin, Sydney and Kayla and say no to more charters?

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Too many children left behind NY Daily News http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/402338p-340781c.html

The four children pictured here - Darshawn Wynn, Jaylin Laboy, Sydney and Kayla McLeod - were among 278 youngsters who were turned away from admission to the Harlem Success Charter School on Wednesday night because the school, which opens in the fall, had no room for them. Their parents were desperate to get Darshawn, Jaylin, Sydney and Kayla into Success Charter because they believe it will offer greater educational opportunity than other public schools in their neighborhoods. The families of the 274 other kids whose names were not drawn in the admissions lottery had been just as eager to sign up. In that respect, Darshawn, Jaylin, Sydney and Kayla stand for them all, as well as for the thousands of children who are on waiting lists for the 62 charters that have already opened in the city - virtually all of them outperforming the surrounding traditional public schools - or are on the drawing board