ALBANY, N.Y. — There's a big debate going on in Albany right now about charter schools.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is proposing opening up the more than 100 charter licenses still available in the state to New York City, which reached its cap years ago. That number includes zombie licenses from schools that closed.
Governor Hochul is also proposing increasing New York City charter schools' per-pupil funding by 4.7 percent, a reminder that charter schools are publicly funded and independently operated.
A new poll commissioned by New York State United Teachers found 79 percent of 801 registered voters from across the state oppose plans to increase the number of charter schools.
"We get what we need from the state. They finally come through with foundation aid, and it comes right out the back door and goes right to the charters," says Andy Pallotta, President of New York State United Teachers.
While NYSUT opposes charter school expansion, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools advocates for it and has done its own polls.
"We found that three-quarters of parents, about 75 percent, across the country including in the State of New York, were interested in having more options in public schools, and particularly charter school expansion," Debbie Veney of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools said.
A lot of this debate centers around New York City. So, 2 On Your Side asked NYSUT what percentage of the people polled were from here. They told us 15 percent were from the Buffalo and Rochester media markets. They also said 77 percent of those people opposed the Governor's proposal.
"Right now, there's over $150 million that gets taken out of the Buffalo Public Schools to go to the charters," Pallotta said.
"Buffalo is not as restricted right now as the City of New York is where they literally have no space to grow, and during the pandemic, we saw that where there was space to grow with charter schools, families chose them," Veney said.