New York's Children Deserve More Charter School Choices
by Howard Fuller & Johnny Ray Youngblood

Last week, hundreds of parents and students from public charter schools were in Albany armed with a simple message: these schools work, and state government needs to take steps to ensure their future viability.

There is little doubt that public charter schools have come a long way in the nine years since New York's first public charter school--Sisulu-Walker Charter School of Harlem--opened its doors in 1999. From that modest beginning, the number of operating public charter schools will grow to 118--including 79 in New York City--by September of this year.

Those numbers reflect a victory for public school parents who demand the same kind of public school choice enjoyed by their middle-class peers. But the parents who will crowd the corridors of government today aren't satisfied. Nor should they be. Not when hard data shows that public charter schools succeed far beyond their traditional public school counterparts, and waiting lists confirm that parent demand for these schools far outnumbers the available seats.

The state of New York compiles extensive data on the performance of public charter schools. By the state's own accounting, they have outperformed their traditional public schools counterparts. For the past three years, average test scores in charters have been higher, peaking in 2007 year (the last year for which data is available).

In that time period, of the 75 charter schools that took the ELA (English Language) exam, two-thirds had a higher percentage of students meeting and exceeding state performance standards than traditional schools in a shared district.

The results with math scores were similarly good, with 46 of 76 public charter schools that administered the math exam achieving a higher percentage of students meeting and exceeding standards when compared to traditional schools in the same district.

With this kind of success, it's no wonder parents are eager to enroll their children in public charter schools.

Just last month, many New York City public charter schools held their enrollment lotteries. Approximately 20,500 students applied for 3,800 available seats. As a result, over 80 percent of the children were denied a seat in their school of choice. These disappointments are typical at public charter school lotteries across the state.

There are several barriers that create this unmet demand. Among them is a lack of funding for the construction of public charter schools. Without these funds, public charter schools must restrict their enrollment numbers, lease inferior space, or share space with an existing public school. All these options deny public charter school students a commodity afforded other public school students: a publicly supported, adequate learning environment.

With demand on the rise and statistical evidence growing that charters are working, legislators are further obliged to encourage the construction of more charters for another reason; a moral one - charters are working for disadvantaged kids who need it the most. African-American and Latino children represent nine out of 10 charter school students across the state. Most of these students also come from low-income situations, with 76 percent of charter students eligible for free or reduced lunch.

These are the children who have for decades been poorly served by the traditional public school system.

Shouldn't we do everything in our power to give parents the ability to choose a school that will work best for their children? Don't we owe low-income parents the opportunity to choose a better public school, just as parents of means do for their children?

The parents visiting Albany earlier this month believe that public charter schools give them that choice. Legislators can expect to see a lot more parents in future-advocating for the same solutions--until public charter schools no longer have to turn away 80 percent of their applicants.

Howard Fuller is founder and director of Marquette University's Institute for the Transformation of Learning in Milwaukee. Reverend Johnny Ray Youngblood is the Co-Chair of the East Brooklyn Congregations - an affiliate of Metro New York Industrial Areas Foundation, which works with small district public schools and public charter schools.