The Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendents represents the superintendents of the 78 public school districts of Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Dutchess counties — school systems that together enroll more than 225,000 students in the Hudson Valley alone. Our organization has been engaged in sustained advocacy to ensure that public school dollars support public schools within their communities, and to advocate for rigorous reforms that ensure any charter school granted under the auspices of the State University of New York adheres to the same high standards and authorization process that our public schools are required to meet. We have worked regionally and with members of the Senate and Assembly toward the legislative reforms described in this statement.
Our statewide organization, the New York State Council of School Superintendents, has issued a formal statement supporting litigation that challenges the State University of New York’s approval of charter schools in Brentwood and Central Islip. The record in that case is instructive. Community opposition was documented and overwhelming. Fiscal impact on district schools was unexamined. Enrollment targets for students with disabilities, English language learners and students qualifying for free and reduced-price lunch went unaddressed. SUNY’s Charter School Institute acknowledged the opposition in its own findings and dismissed it in a sentence.
The State Education Department determined that SUNY had failed to address the substance of that opposition anywhere in its Summary of Findings and Recommendations. The Board of Regents declined to approve the charters. New York State United Teachers joined parents of minor children in the affected districts as petitioners in the litigation. The lawsuit addresses a narrow question — whether SUNY complied with the law. The answer, supported by the record, is that it did not.
This failure extends well beyond Brentwood and Central Islip, and well beyond the children and communities directly affected. Every public school district in our state operates within a charter authorization system that, as currently structured, allows consequential decisions — decisions that redirect public funding, reshape enrollment and alter the fiscal capacity of community schools — to be made with minimal accountability to the communities affected. The 30-day default approval provision has permitted charters to advance without substantive review by the Regents. This is a structural failure, and it does not permit the Board of Regents or the Commissioner of Education the ability to fulfill their most critical obligation — to ensure that every public school student in New York State receives a sound basic education.
Earlier this year, the Lower Hudson Council advanced a proposed amendment to the education law, transmitted to members of the Legislature, that addresses these failures directly. The proposal eliminates the 30-day default approval mechanism, restoring the Board of Regents’ authority as a genuine check rather than a procedural formality. It requires meaningful, documented consultation between charter applicants and affected school districts — including superintendent-level engagement and formal input from the board of education — before any application may be deemed complete. It mandates that SUNY prepare and publish a written response to district and community comments before approving or resubmitting any charter, creating a record that is transparent and contestable. It makes the fiscal impact on affected school districts an explicit, documented consideration in the approval process.
These are the conditions under which any school serving public school children with public dollars should be authorized. They are the conditions our public schools already meet.
We join NYSCOSS and NYSUT in support of the communities and children affected — not only in Brentwood and Central Islip, but in every public school community across our state that deserves a charter authorization process equal to the responsibility of ensuring every public school student receives a sound basic education.
We implore the Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul to act with their legal and moral authority.
Louis N. Wool is president of the Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendents.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Why we must hold NYS charter schools to high standards | Opinion
Reporting by Louis N. Wool, Special to the USA TODAY Network / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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