With Gov. Andrew Cuomo emerging as a champion of charter schools, what does it mean for the 97 percent of students in New York who attend public schools?
Outside major cities, most people have never heard of a charter school. They are focused instead on their local public school, where the situation is often quite disturbing.
There are a lot of problems, including the botched rollout of the common core standards, but the key problem is funding. More than 90 percent of school districts now receive less operating aid from the state than they did five years ago. Some wealthy school districts are able to cope with less funding, but most districts have had to increase class size and make cuts to cuts to art, music and foreign language, as well as advanced placement and honors courses.
We now have two systems of education in New York: In prosperous communities, we have well-funded, high-performing schools; and in less prosperous communities all across the state, we have under-funded schools and struggling students.
This widening gap is the main reason New York's ranking for overall education performance has dropped from 8th in the nation when Cuomo took office to 20th today.
No one in Albany has a plan to address the funding inequality that is the root of this problem. Instead, the governor has chosen to focus on charter schools as if they were the answer to all problems.
I actually have no objection to charter schools in concept. In fact, while I served as a trustee of the State University of New York, I chaired the committee that authorized charter schools. My point is this: If Cuomo is going to be a champion of charter schools, he has a responsibility to articulate a vision for how these schools can be used to improve education. That was the original vision behind charter schools — that they would serve as incubators for innovation and improve education for all students.
But what we have now is a competition between public and charter schools for space and resources, a competition that is unfair and a hindrance to real progress. This came to a head recently when the governor challenged New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's decision not to approve all of the co-locations that were hastily adopted in the waning months of the Bloomberg administration.
The governor was viewed as getting the better of the mayor in this dispute, but the underlying questions raised by the mayor were profound: Why are the rights of charter school children more important than the rights of public school children? Why are they more deserving of space and funding?
It's important to note that children with special needs, English language learners, the children of the homeless and the incarcerated are vastly underrepresented in charter schools.
Perhaps the larger question is why Cuomo chose this moment to stir the charter pot, just as the debate over how much funding to provide public schools is being decided.
Ironically, if there was real transparency how charter schools are funded, we would find that the best charter schools are spending considerably more per pupil than public schools — proving again that funding really matters.
If Cuomo is serious about his pledge to be a true "advocate for children," he must ensure that all children receive the education they need and deserve, and this starts with adequate resources in the state budget.
Pedro Noguera is a professor of education at New York University. He served as a trustee of the State University of New York from 2008 to 2011.