Either the chancellor and the mayor are for competition or they’re not.” That’s the word from Eva Moskowitz, chairwoman of the City Council’s education committee, as the schools chancellor, Joel Klein, prepares to take the hot seat before her committee today. The issue is charter schools. While the Bloomberg administration has paid lip service to the expanded use of charter schools, and the concept of competition in education in general, its words have yet to be followed up by action. So now, as Mrs. Moskowitz said to us yesterday, it will be time to “see if the talk is real.”

Mr. Klein, our Kathleen Lucadamo reports in today’s New York Sun, is set to sit for the education committee today to answer questions about his reforms of curriculum, school construction, and school governance. But Mrs. Moskowitz tells us she is also likely to bring up an idea she has floated before, namely that of giving some of the school system’s unused seats over to new charter schools. Specifically, Mrs. Moskowitz recently sent a letter to Mr. Klein suggesting that a college preparatory charter school of a program called Knowledge is Power be given space in an underutilized public school in Harlem. She has yet to hear back.

The school has received its charter and has a plan of action to start in Harlem with 90 fifth graders in the 2003–2004 school year, but it still lacks a home. Unfortunately for the school, there is no money set aside in the state or city budgets for construction of charter schools — just another dodge from those opposed to any challenge to the established public school monopoly. Under her novel approach, Mrs. Moskowitz has tried to help the fledgling charter school by identifying about half a dozen traditional public schools in the community with space to house the Knowledge is Power program. It’s hard to see why the chancellor, if he is sincere in his support for charter schools, would not be fighting to help this idea to go forward.

Last October, Mr. Klein told about 300 business leaders at a breakfast meeting, “Charters can stimulate innovation in a system, and create opportunities for choice…We need to create an environment in which charter schools can be supported and thrive.” Mr. Klein now has a perfect opportunity to follow his words with action. If Mrs. Moskowitz is right that there are about 73,000 untapped seats in city public schools, her plan could mark a turning point in introducing choice and experimentation into New York City’s school system — placing dynamic charter schools right next to our stagnant public schools. The Bloomberg administration may meet stiff resistance from the local educational bureaucracy, but these are the voices of the status quo. As Mrs. Moskowitz said, “I supported mayoral control in order for someone to make these tough decisions.” People are waiting to see whether Mr. Klein is with them.