Charter Trend
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Mayor Bloomberg trekked to the north Bronx this week to announce the creation of 18 new charter schools. The state Legislature merits a pat on the back for lifting New York’s cap on charter schools to 200 from 100. Echoing Governor Paterson, the mayor declared that he wants the charter cap eliminated. “It is the charter schools that will get the public to demand that the rest of them come up,” Mr. Bloomberg said, according to a report in the New York Times. “It’s the charter schools that let parents vote with their feet and tell us what the parents think about …”
Choice, it seems, is empowering. Give them 18 schools and the people will ask for 100. And, we predict, it will whet the appetite more choice, via a system of private school vouchers that would allow parents truly to vote with their feet by taking their taxpayer dollars to whatever school they please.
According to a recent Gallup poll, Americans’ support for vouchers is at a high; 44% of Americans now favor vouchers, up from 38% in 2005. Opposition is also waning; 50% of Americans oppose vouchers from 54% in 2004. Meanwhile, support for charter schools is roughly the same as it had been. This may be a slow creep but an important one.
