Charter School Advocates Sue New York State For More Money

What Governor Cuomo did for NYC charter schools by forcing the city to either find space for charters or pony up rent for private space?

Charter advocates want that same advantage state-wide:

A lawsuit filed by a group of charter-school supporters alleges that a chronic funding gap between charter schools and traditional public schools violates the state constitution and disproportionately hurts minority students.

The suit, filed late Monday in state Supreme Court on behalf of five families in Buffalo and Rochester, says charter students in Buffalo received around $9,800 less than their district-school counterparts in the 2011-12 school year, which they said was the largest disparity in the state. In Rochester, charter students received around $6,600 less, according to the suit. 

Charter schools outside of New York City don't receive funding for facilities, which forces them to cut back on critical amenities like libraries and science labs, the lawsuit says.

"For years charter schools have had to struggle to get by," said Kyle Rosenkrans, interim president of the Northeast Charter Schools Network, a nonprofit group that represents charter schools in New York and Connecticut and that joined the suit. "That's why we see the parents from Buffalo and Rochester really rising up to say we've had enough. The state needs to find a solution."

The suit asks the court to declare that New York's approach to charter-school funding violates the state constitution and force the defendants to remedy the situation. Defendants include the state of New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the state legislature, and the state education department.

I would imagine Governor Cuomo will be happy to do for charters in the rest of the state what he did for charters here in NYC - which means steal money from public schools and divert it to private schools:

"This lawsuit is simply another deceptive attempt for charter schools to divert even more money away from public schools," said Zakiyah Ansari, Advocacy Director for the Alliance for Quality Education, an advocacy group for public schools.

Indeed.