Fourteen New York charter school leaders have directed a scathing letter to state education officials, asserting that the state is hindering the growth of publicly funded alternative schools. The letter, sent to Commissioner of Education Betty Rosa, argues that the State Education Department (SED) and the Board of Regents are undermining schools authorized by the State University of New York (SUNY), rather than supporting their achievements.
"Unfortunately, SUNY’s success has made it a target," the letter states. "Teachers unions and other opponents of charter schools cannot credibly argue with the results being produced by SUNY-authorized schools, particularly for students in underserved communities."
Under state law, both SUNY and the Board of Regents have the authority to approve charter schools. However, a procedural aspect allows the Board of Regents to review and often oppose applications already approved by the more charter-friendly SUNY Board of Trustees/Charter Schools Institute. Data presented by Success Academy Charters Schools CEO Eva Moskowitz and Zeta Charter Schools CEO Emily Kim indicated a significant performance gap, with SUNY-authorized schools outperforming Regents-authorized charter schools by 17 percentage points in English Language Arts and 21 percentage points in mathematics in recent years.
Charter school leaders expressed deep concern over the repeated second-guessing of SUNY's decisions and what they described as support for lawsuits challenging SUNY-authorized schools. These schools collectively serve over 117,000 students across New York State.
An SED spokesperson, JP O’Hare, refuted the claims, stating that education officials are simply upholding the law. O’Hare noted that while the signatories highlight strong academic outcomes, "this record is not shared equally among them." He added that academic achievement does not excuse violations such as exceeding the New York City charter cap or disregarding community opposition to new schools.
Joseph Belluck, chairman of the SUNY Charter School Committee, echoed the sentiment that SED and the Regents have become increasingly adversarial towards charter schools, opposing nearly all initiatives related to them, although SUNY maintains it adheres to the charter school cap. Several legislative attempts in recent years to strip SUNY of its charter authorization power have not succeeded.
Reports indicate that some charter school administrators who signed the letter have faced scrutiny from SED. Al Cockfield of Lamad Academy, for example, was approved through SUNY despite a prior federal felony conviction for drug conspiracy and distribution and a denied charter application by SED. Additionally, the United Federation of Teachers and its state affiliate recently filed a lawsuit against SUNY, alleging it overrode the state charter school cap to allow Success Academy to transfer a charter to a new entity founded by the CEO's husband.