Thousands of parents and teachers descended on Foley Square Wednesday to demand that Mayor Bill de Blasio get behind charter school proponents’ plans to increase the number of charter seats across the city to 200,000 by 2020.
More than 3,000 people gathered in lower Manhattan for the rally and urged Hizzoner to support adding charter schools, which now serve more than 100,000 students, to give more children opportunities in neighborhoods where they desperately need them.
“[De Blasio is] standing in the way of parents being able to exercise their school choice to get the best education for their children,” fumed Joe Herrera, who has two teenage sons attending the Coney Island Prep charter school. “The mayor’s kids went to high-quality schools in Park Slope. The mayor does what’s best for his children when it comes to education. I’m out here asking him to do the same for our children in New York City.”
Many people believe de Blasio is refusing to support the opening of new schools because they would be charters — and his allies in the teachers unions would not approve.
Last week, the NAACP ratified a resolution that called for a moratorium on charter school expansion. The move was blasted by the demonstrators in Foley Square on Wednesday, with many saying they would be outraged if the mayor came out and supported it.
“I definitely think if the mayor agrees with the moratorium proposed by the NAACP, it’s going in the wrong direction,” said Jacob Mnookin, executive director at Coney Island Prep. “It’s frustrating and makes me a little sad to know that there are parents who want a different option for their children and don’t have access to it.”
In an attempt to get de Blasio on board, the crowd in Foley Square on Wednesday was asked to text “PATH” to a phone number — which caused emails to be sent to the mayor’s personal email, asking him to support charter schools.
Rally officials later told The Post that more than 1,000 messages were sent to de Blasio.
“I’m writing to ask you to stop standing in the way of equal opportunity for New York City’s children, and start treating all public schools equally,” the email read.
“…if you do so, we can end education inequality in our city.”