Saturday, May 29th 2010
Read the Full Article at nydailynews.com

The battle for education reform in New York scored a major victory with passage of legislation that will open charter schools and the promise of higher learning to thousands of children.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver stood tall in the end – on the side of the kids rather than in league with teachers unions. He deserves – and gets – high praise for authorizing expansion of an alternative form of schooling he has long resisted.

His decision was both good politics and good policy. Charter schools – publicly funded and privately operated – have been a smashing success in New York, delivering achievement to poor and minority students and attracting applications from tens of thousands of parents.

Giving charters a go is also key to New York’s application for as much as $700 million in federal Race to the Top funding. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan unceremoniously skunked our first pitch for the cash largely because of what was then the Legislature’s anti-charter stand.

My, how things have changed for the better.

The legislation, also passed by the Senate, allows the creation of 460 charter schools statewide, up from a limit of 200. The number in the city will be able to climb from 100 to 214.

Happily, the bill placed only a few restrictions on charters. Some were worthy, such as requiring the Education Department to spruce up traditional school buildings when charters share space and make improvements. Some were needless sops to the unions, such as barring sponsors from hiring profit-making firms to run schools.