Charter school advocates were some of the loudest supporters of New York State’s Race to the Top application, but a handful of charter schools mysteriously chose to sit out the competition.
Though the vast majority of New York charter schools have signed onto the state’s bid for a $700 million grant, more than a dozen opted out, making them ineligible for a share of the funds. As of last month when the state was shopping its application around, there were 164 charter schools across the state. Of those, 146 signed the state’s bid.
Unlike charter schools, district schools couldn’t individually sign onto the state’s plan. Instead, school district officials made the call, 656 of the total 700 choosing to participate. New York City was among them.
I tried asking charter school leaders who didn’t sign onto the state’s bid why they made that call, but they are likely some place tropical (it’s winter break.)
James Merriman, head of the NYC Charter School Center, said charter school leaders, unable to read the state’s full application, were wary of agreeing to more state regulation without all the details.
“My guess is that some charter schools were leery of finding themselves inadvertently brought back into the kind of regulatory structures and oversight and enmeshment with the State Education