Mayor Eric Adams has confirmed he backs charter schools, saying that “we should be looking at the successful schools and scale them up, duplicate them, not tear them down.”
Most of the talk now is about whether Albany lawmakers should lift the cap on the number of charters allowed in New York City.
But Adams can make good on his support without any help from Albany at all.
A crucial piece of New York’s educational system is the Learning to Work program, and with a few minor tweaks, it could give thousands of students a much-needed boost.
Learning to Work pairs community-based organizations with Department of Education transfer high schools to provide, among other things, internships and job training for over-age and under-credited students — those who are ahead in age but behind in grade level.
Since these students are at a higher risk of dropping out or “aging out” of the school system, they require additional support services.
That’s why the city established LTW programs, which give students access to paid internships, social/emotional support, in-depth job training and college and career exploration activities.
For decades, they’ve proven successful in improving outcomes. Learning to Work increases the odds a student will graduate.
One study found transfer schools with LTW had, on average, graduation rates more than 4% higher than comparison groups; non-LTW transfer schools did not.
“In 2019, after LTW funding was reduced in Young Adult Borough Centers, the dropout rate slightly increased for the first time in nearly a decade,” consultant Ali Holstein observed.
But despite the universal agreement on the need for these extra services and the program’s effectiveness, thousands of transfer-school students can’t get this support simply because the transfer high school they chose to attend is a public charter school, not a public district school.
Charter schools — alternative public schools that allow for more freedom and experimentation — also serve over-age, under-credited students.
But the de Blasio administration denied those students critical LTW services because they attended charter transfer schools and not district transfer schools.
The new mayoral administration has a golden opportunity to address this inequity and “scale up” what works.
Students should not be punished simply for having different needs. We know that a one-size-fits-all education system doesn’t work.
Meeting students where they are — and providing the needed resources for their success — is how we lift all New York students.
Mayor Adams knows denying any one group of students funding due to the school they attend is unfair. As Brooklyn borough president in 2018, he wrote a letter to then-Chancellor Carmen Farina urging her to secure “LTW grants for all of our over-age/under-credited students, regardless of what school they attend.”
He recognized that different school models work for different students, noting in the same letter that exclusion from LTW because they attend a charter school is “unfair to the hundreds of public school families who have finally found an alternative educational model that suits their unique needs.”
Borough President Adams’ letter went unanswered. But now, as Mayor Adams, he can take the action he called for in 2018 and give all the public students in his care the resources they need to grow into independent, productive members of our great city.
Adams has been a champion for students, and we know he is not done fighting.
The charter-cap battle is an important one — and we applaud him for taking it on. But there is even lower-hanging fruit.
We ask Mayor Adams to fulfill the request of Borough President Adams and give all deserving public students access to Learning to Work, regardless of the school that best fits their needs.
Sara Asmussen, Jai Nanda and Ron Tabano operate three charter transfer-high-school networks in New York City.