New Report: If Officials Look Closely, They Will Find Space for NYC Charter Schools

NEW YORK, NY – In the 2017–18 school year, there are 227 charter schools serving 114,000 students, approximately 10 percent of all New York City schoolchildren, with a wait list of 47,800 students.

The need for charter space grows, but Mayor Bill de Blasio has slowed the pace of finding locations to house these schools.

A new report from Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Charles Sahm suggests several ways the city can offer the space charter schools need.

Through a thorough analysis of the Department of Education’s “Enrollment, Capacity & Utilization Report” over the past three years, Sahm found that more charters could be accommodated in existing underutilized public school buildings, especially in those school districts and neighborhoods where the academic need is greatest.

Key findings include:

• In the last five years of the Bloomberg administration, 150 charter co-location space requests were approved, or 30 per year. In the first five years of the de Blasio administration, 59 co-locations were approved, or 12 per year.
• In the 2016–17 school year, 192 school buildings across the city had more than 300 empty classroom seats, which is the city-defined threshold for siting a school. Of these buildings, 72 had more than 500 empty classroom seats.
• This available space isn’t new: 133 buildings have had more than 300 empty seats every year since 2013–14; 63 of these buildings have had more than 500 empty seats every year since 2013–14. When you exclude high school–level buildings and buildings that already house four or more schools/programs, 81 buildings that have had at least 300 empty seats for the past three years still remain.
• In the districts where new charters plan to open in the next couple years, there are 60 buildings with at least 300 empty seats for the past three years and 26 buildings with at least 500 empty seats for the past three years.
• Not only do the charter space requests overlap with neighborhoods where it appears there is space available in public school buildings; there is also a high correlation with academic need.

Click here to read the full report.