BK District Requests Charter School Pause, Despite Charter Outcry

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — A Brooklyn school district decided to ask city and state lawmakers to stop any new charter schools from opening over the next five years, despite an outcry from charter school parents and administrators against the idea.

The resolution, proposed by District 15's council, asks New York not to increase its current cap on the number of charter schools allowed in the state, or a subcap in place in New York City, and instead proposes a five-year moratorium on new charters opening. It passed the council unanimously on Tuesday.

But just moments before the vote, nearly two dozen charter school parents and officials urged members to turn it down — so much so, that another agenda item was pushed to the next meeting to give all 21 people a chance to speak.

"We were fortunate enough to have a choice as to what school we sent our children to," said the parent of a 9-year-old at Success Academy in Cobble Hill. "Limiting charter schools means taking away that choice for another family, and I just don’t think that’s right."

Most charter school parents told members about their child's positive experience at one of Brooklyn's charter schools, with some saying they toured both city public schools and charter schools but found that the charter was the right fit. The resolution, they said, wouldn't allow other Brooklyn families to do the same for their child.

The council contended after the meeting, though, that the resolution would actually benefit existing charter schools, not harm them, as some speakers seemed to fear. Speakers seemed to misunderstand that the moratorium would only apply to future applications for charters, said Antonia Ferraro, chair of the district's Charter Committee.

"The resolution doesn’t affect existing or newly approved charter schools," Ferraro said. "In fact, excessive charter growth threatens those existing charter schools as well public schools, who will have to compete for the same resources."

The district sent out an email to the community the next day outlining the resolution and clarifying that existing schools would not be affected.

Some speakers did say they opposed the resolution because of its halt to future growth, not its affect on existing schools.

"The problem with a charter cap (is that it) enforces bureaucratic control of the school system in place of where choice should really should be: with the parents and children," one parent said.

The resolution calls for an independent evaluation of charters during the five-year moratorium. It claims that Brooklyn, the borough with the most charter schools, has become oversaturated with charters. Kings County's 97 charter schools account for 37 percent of New York City's charters, the resolution said.

Some parents, though, pointed to waitlists at existing charter schools to argue that there is still a demand for more charter seats. Brooklyn Prospect Charter School has a 7,000-family waitlist, one parent said.

Others said they opposed the idea because parents from charter schools or charter staff weren't included in writing the resolution.

"You want to represent the district? Represent all of us," one parent said.

There were some parents who agreed with the resolution, though. One Park Slope mom, Kamala Karmen, said she feared that without the pause, Brooklyn could follow New Orleans and become an all-charter school district.

"What a charter school does is create a separate schools system," Karmen said. "That’s what you’re asking for if you don’t put a cap on this run-away growth of schools that are privately managed."

A second resolution about how the district will evaluate charter school applications was moved to the next agenda and will be voted on at the council's next calendar meeting.

Photos by Anna Quinn/Patch.