ALBANY, N.Y. July 17, 2017 — New York State United Teachers today commended the Regents for refusing to approve the early renewals of eight Success Academy charter schools, correctly noting that it violates the spirit of the charter school law to grant early renewals to charters with questionable records of serving students or, in some cases, no real record at all.
“In returning this decision to the SUNY Trustees without their approval, the Regents did the right thing,” said NYSUT President Andy Pallotta. “Charters that take state and local tax dollars must serve all students equally and they must prove they have earned the right to educate children. The Success Academy charters seeking early renewal fail on both accounts. Now, we’ll see whether the SUNY Charter School Committee has the backbone to stand up to Success Academy and the hedge funders that support it and tell them, ‘No, this isn’t right.’”
Pallotta added, “Success Academy charters serve fewer students with special needs and English language learners than comparable district schools. Granting what would be, in reality, almost 10-year charters for some Success Academy schools with no test scores makes the charter industry’s claims that their schools are accountable and transparent simply laughable.”
Under the law, the SUNY Charter School Committee must consider the Regents’ recommendation. It can choose to resubmit the renewals with modifications; resubmit without modifications; or abandon the charters.
New York State United Teachers is a statewide union with more than 600,000 members in education, human services and health care. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.