Business Leaders Send Governor & Legislature Letter on Charter School Cap

Dear Governor Hochul, Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, Speaker Heastie:

As business and civic leaders from across the state, we deeply appreciate your leadership as New York navigates turbulent economic waters and the difficult task you face in negotiating the final terms of the FY2024 New York State budget. Confronted with numerous economic and social policy choices to address the immediate needs of New Yorkers, we are writing to implore you to include in your final budget agreement a policy reform that is vitally important to ensuring a strong and vibrant talent pipeline to drive the state’s economy into the future.

We are asking you to: 1) Eliminate the regional cap on the number of charters that can be issued in New York City; and 2) Permanently reauthorize any revoked or closed charters that that were originally issued after January 1, 2015. These policy recommendations are supported by New Yorkers across the political spectrum.

New York state has over 170,000 charter school students, and roughly 80% live in New York City. More than 90% are students of color, and over 80% receive free or reduced lunch. Since the City’s first charter school opened 25 years ago, demand has steadily grown. In the 2019-2020 school year, there were 81,300 applicants for just 33,000 seats.

Despite the heightened demand, New York City reached its cap on charters in 2019, leaving thousands of New York families without much-needed options for their children’s education.

Charter schools continue to surpass their district schools in terms of student performance. In 2022, Black and Latino 3rd graders in charter schools outperformed their peers in district school students by 19 percentage points in ELA (55% versus 36%) and 8th graders outperformed district peers by 15 percentage points (52% versus 37%). Scores at these ages are strong predictors of high school graduation and future economic success. In Math, charter students outperformed their district peers by 25 percentage points (46% versus 21%) in 3rd grade and by 19 percentage points (42% versus 23%), in 8th grade.

Students who attend district schools located near charters also perform better, and the closer the charter school is, the better these district students perform. Students attending a co-located district school perform 0.08 standard deviations better in math and 0.06 standard deviations better in reading. Students attending school within half a mile of charter schools perform 0.02 standard deviations better in both reading and math.

For the sake of sustaining our city, helping to keep families in NYC, and cultivate the growth of future leaders of this city and the talent pool feeding our enterprises, we should be encouraging innovation and best in class education opportunities, not squashing them.

As New York’s leaders, you have the opportunity right now to achieve a compromise that rises above politics and centers the needs and desire of families and children through lifting the cap on charters and reissuing unused “zombie” charters. The State of New York’s economic competitiveness is predicated on cultivating talent in our communities and schools. These steps are needed to maximize our state’s potential.

With admiration and respect,

VICTORIA B. BJORKLUND, ESQ.
Retired
Simpson Thacher and Bartlett LLP

HEATHER BRICCETTI MULLIGAN
President & CEO
The Business Council of New York State

GEOFFREY CANADA
President
Harlem Children’s Zone

CECILY M. CARSON
President
The Carson Family Charitable Trust

GLENN DUBIN
Chairman
Dubin & Company

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN
President Emerita
Children’s Defense Fund

DOUG HAYNES
Managing Partner
Council Advisors

PAUL TUDOR JONES II
Co-Chairman, and Chief Investment Officer
Tudor Investment Corporation

PETER KIERNAN
CEO
Kiernan Ventures

PHILIP KRIM
Founder & Managing Partner
Montauk Ventures

MONTE LIPMAN

MICHAEL NOVOGRATZ
Founder and CEO
Galaxy Digital LP

JOHN OVERDECK
Co-Chair and Co-Founder
Two Sigma Investments, LP

DAVID PUTH
Senior Advisor
Circle

LARRY ROBBINS
CEO
Glenview Capital Management

DAVID SALTZMAN
Co-Founder
Atria

ALAN D. SCHWARTZ
Executive Chairman
Guggenheim Partners

MARTA TIENDA
Professor of Demographic Studies and
Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs
Princeton University

KENNETH G. TROPIN
Chairman and Founder
Graham Capital Management