Charter schools want to grow: We could serve more kids if red tape were cut and laws were fixed

Success Charter Network's CEO, Eva Moskowitz, address precisely this issue:

 

In "Waiting for Superman," a documentary in theaters now, five students enter lotteries to attend public charter schools, including the Harlem Success Academy, which I founded.

 

These children, like others, face long odds. Last year in New York City, there were more than 50,000 applications for 11,000 spots. Parents across the city are frustrated. Why can't charter schools make room for every student who applies?

 

My answer: We're trying. For example, the Success Academies double in size every year. Literally. We had 155 students in 2006; now we have 2,500. Just this year, we opened three new schools.

 

But we can't keep up with demand. Parents want better options and our flagship school in Harlem outperforms every zoned school on the upper East and West Sides of Manhattan.

 

We'd like to meet this demand but we're stymied by bad laws and red tape.

 

For example, New York forces unionization on teachers in a charter school that admits more than 250 students in its first two years. The law even dictates which union will represent them. It's Orwellian. Surely, the right to organize includes the right not to.

 

Virtually all of our teachers used to teach in the traditional public schools. They could have stayed under a union contract if they had wanted to. They didn't because they found that tenure and rigid work rules led to dysfunctional schools that made their jobs harder, not easier

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Charter schools want to grow: We could serve more kids if red tape were cut and laws were fixed

 

By Eva Moskowitz

 

Friday, October 1st 2010, 4:00 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/10/01/2010-10-01_charter_schools_want_to_grow_we_could_serve_more_kids_if_red_tape_were_cut_and_l.html#ixzz116p3lCaa