Currently, any charter school in NY state can expand from a single school to up to three schools by simply revising its existing charter application. No community approval is required.

Not only can this create chaos for students and educators in public school districts, it allows a charter to circumvent education law and the charter school approval process.

Let's take the example of an existing charter school that serves grades K-6. With a few keystrokes, that school can amend their original application to include eighth grade — and now can open a completely new middle school. If that charter decides it would like to open a high school, it can go through the same amendment process to include twelfth grade.

The sudden appearance of multiple new schools in existing public school districts — without requirements for approvals yet with requirements for funding — can create a situation where students and educators in traditional public schools are negatively impacted. In New York City, charters using this expansion loophole even interfere with mandates limiting class size.

Take action TODAY! Let state legislators know you strongly support passage of S.2974 (Mayer)/A.6561 (Benedetto) to close the charter school grade expansion loophole!

We simply can't continue to allow charter schools to evade requirements that ensure they comply with education law and programmatic standards, especially since charter school expansion burdens public school districts with funding requirements that cannot be evaded.

Please take action today!

In solidarity,


Melinda Person
NYSUT President