Amid tensions with charter school groups, Chancellor Carmen Fariña attended the naming ceremony of a new Brooklyn charter Tuesday — on the eve of a planned rally for the independent schools in Prospect Park.
Fariña spoke briefly at a new downtown campus of the Brooklyn Laboratory Charter network that was awarded a $10 million grant earlier this month. Named after education professor Edmund G. Gordon, the school is slated to open next year.
Charter backers, organized by the Families for Excellent Schools advocacy group, plan to mass at the park Wednesday to push for an additional 200,000 seats to accommodate parental demand.
The gathering will feature supportive politicians, including Brooklyn Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., according to FES.
The group claims that doubling the size of the charter sector, which currently enrolls 10 percent of city students, would help to eradicate persistent achievement gaps between black and Latino kids and their white peers.
FES said it expects the march to draw representatives from more than 100 charter schools.