Wednesday, December 12

School opening news: A bumper crop of charters to open in 2008


This past spring, when the state lifted the cap on the number of allowed charter schools, you could hear prospective school operators salivating. Now some of the first charters have been granted under the new cap.

Eight schools chartered by SUNY will open in the fall; all are part of existing networks of charter schools. There will be a new Achievement First school in Brownsville, a Carl C. Icahn school in Far Rockaway, an Uncommon Schools middle school in Brooklyn, and three replicas of the Harlem Success Academy Charter School in Manhattan. That represents a 300 percent expansion of Eva Moskowitz's charter school, which opened in 2006. And of course the UFT-endorsed Green Dot charter high school, based on the model out of Los Angeles, will open somewhere in the Bronx.

And while I can't find evidence that the DOE has actually granted charters yet for next year, this summer it did invite a number of schools to submit full charter applications for the fall of 2008, and at least a few of those are now hiring. It looks like the DOE is more comfortable with home-grown charters than the state; many of the proposals it requested came from individuals or community-based organizations.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If you want the REAL deal on one of the new charter schools opening in Brooklyn, and the DOE's total scorn for a community with a high performing public school, take a look at MY blog - http://charter-free-ps15.blogspot.com. The whole situation should change at least some of your minds about being pro-charter schools. It's a local scandal that is going on all over the city, while public education is being dismantled.