Here's DFER's Director of Federal Policy, Charles Barone, with an op ed in the NY Post calling on the legislature to equitably fund charter schools:

Race to the Top is a reaction to decades of ineffective education policies that have failed to close the achievement gap and create schools that prepare children for college or a career. The premise behind the contest is simple: Instead of throwing money at programs that have proven to fail, reward only those states that can prove they're going to shake things up and put their children on a path to success. The results of this race are encouraging.

But the hard work New York has done to get this far will be wasted if the state doesn't put together a strong final presentation for the Race to the Top judges and bring home the $700 million.

The US Department of Education has let it be known that the state must credibly assure the judges that public charter schools in New York will be funded equitably. Public charters like the Harlem Success Academies and the network of public schools run by the Knowledge is Power Program are doing what had once been deemed impossible: closing the pernicious achievement gap between New York's low-income neighborhoods and affluent suburbs. Now that they've earned the privilege of expanding to accommodate the thousands of children on their waiting lists, they also deserve funding parity with every other public school.

No one should be fooled into thinking that reforming an education system as large as New York's will be easy. Reform is an uphill battle, and there will always be those interested in maintaining the failing status quo. But it's clear that the tides are turning in favor of change.

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How NY can win the 'race'

By CHARLES BARONE, NY Post Op Ed

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/how_ny_can_win_the_race_28oovj8HaKGxDRTvRZg0HK

New York deserves a (preliminary) round of applause. After months of uncertainty, the Obama administration announced yesterday that the state is a finalist in the second round of Race to the Top, a competition for federal education money where states are rewarded for ambitious and workable plans to fundamentally improve their public schools. Our state stands to receive as much as $700 million in federal education aid.