Not everyone agrees with me that reformers were right to accept the compromises required to get the NY charter cap lifted.  I'm convinced that this was a home run, given the political realities of Albany, but reasonable people can disagree on this:

New York's Cap Lift: The Price is Wrong

Submitted by Nelson Smith on May 28, 2010 - 7:42pm

www.publiccharters.org/node/2765

 

There are 40,000 kids on charter school waiting lists in New York City. Performance-wise, charter schools are knocking it out of the park across New York state. And lifting the state's onerous charter cap will help win the state $770 million in Race to the Top funding.

So all the New York State Assembly had to do today was to simply Lift. The. Cap.

But, no. The bill they've just approved slowly increases the number of charter schools but puts serious brakes on New York City growth; invites intrusive and redundant audits by the state comptroller; forbids for-profit operators (no matter their track record) from managing any new schools; and adds a patchwork of new provisions, grounded in specious, union-provided non-data,  requiring charter schools to resemble the demographics of surrounding districts. It's unclear what it will do to the actual chartering authority of New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, or his counterparts at SUNY's Charter Schools Institute. Stay tuned on that.

Peter Murphy of the state's charter association laments:  "Cumulatively, this bill is a big step backward and worse than doing no bill."

Remember how Sen. Perkins complained about the charter movement getting so politically active?  

It's votes like these that explain why.