When members of the city’s teachers union head to Albany tomorrow for their annual lobbying day, they’ll have some new allies. For the first time, the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council will be riding with members of the United Federation of Teachers instead of supporting the people of New York City via the Department of Education’s own lobbying day later in the month. The reasons for the split go back a while – the trouble started with resentment over the elimination of community school boards – but has been coalescing most recently around objections to charter schools.

The chairman of the parent council, Timothy Johnson, recently appeared on NY1’s program “Inside City Hall,” where he told the host, Dominic Carter, “I think we had the expectation in a second term, free from the political bonds of having to run for election, [Mayor Bloomberg] would be freed up to do the right thing, and in the last several months, we’ve seen just the opposite. We’ve seen him talk about charter schools, which parents are against, which teachers are against, which principals are against, and frankly which the rest of New York State is against. They want these charter schools in New York City, they take resources out of our public schools, and all we ever talk about is money.”

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but facts are another matter. So it’s worth noting that charter schools are themselves public schools, even if they operate outside of normal school bureaucracies. It’s also worth noting that many parents appear to disagree with Mr. Johnson. The current waiting list of students whose parents want them to attend one of the 47 charter schools in the city is conservatively estimated at between 4,000 and 6,000, according to the Center for Charter School Excellence. According to the State University of New York, there are three applicants for every open slot statewide. By this fall, 14,000 students will be attending charter schools in the city.

The question, however, is not whether a particular parents group represents the majority of city parents. The question is why city parents should even need representatives to board a bus toward Albany to lobby for them. The real genius of charter schools and other education reforms like vouchers is that they give each parent a choice in their children’s education. As lawmakers observe the teachers and parents at the UFT’s lobbying day tomorrow, they can consider that charter schools and vouchers make every day a day of free choice for every parent.