Charters Are Squeezing Out New York's Public Schools

The clash between public and charter schools is heating up in New York, with the two often sharing buildings, reports the New York Times. The difference in allocation of resources is becoming increasingly apparent with teachers at Public School 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn, avoiding letting their students walk past classrooms being used by the PAVE Academy Charter School which shares the school's space — teachers fear students will envy the cleaner classrooms and computers.

This clash, becoming an increasingly physical challenge with charter schools competing for space, is likely to heat up with Mayor Bloomberg promising to make charter schools a third term priority. Two-thirds of New York city's 99 charter schools share space with charter schools and Bloomberg hopes to open 100 more over the next 4 years.

Parents in Harlem have picketed charters, and lawsuits have been successful in blocking the closure of failing elementary schools. The Village Voice suggests the New York Times is generally too generous to charters and with the Obama administration impressed by charter schools, it's increasingly difficult for parents and teachers to oppose Republicans and Democrats fighting to replace public schools with charters. There is little help from academia, with two major studies on charters schools drawing very different conclusions, reports the Washington Post. And of course, these studies continue to rely on 'test data' with the whole spectrum of what makes a quality education not being something so easily measured.

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