Charter school crusader Eva Moskowitz praised Mayor de Blasio Tuesday for softening his tone on the privately run, publicly funded schools.
But she said she still wants the state to step in to make sure the sector is permanently protected.
“We can’t have mayors acting on a whim determining the fate of thousands of children and families,” Moskowitz told reporters at an academic pep rally in Washington Heights.
“I was delighted to see a change in tone and rhetoric and I think that’s very, very encouraging,” Moskowitz said of de Blasio’s comments Monday saying he would permit new charters to share space with district schools once the moratorium he has imposed has ended.
“Once we get the co-location process right, there’s going to be an opportunity for charters to continue to have new chances to grow,” the mayor said on WNYC radio Monday.
But Moskowitz, the $475,000-a-year CEO of Success Academy, a chain of 22 charters, said she wasn’t satisfied. Albany lawmakers and Gov. Cuomo must ultimately step in, she insisted.
“We really need a permanent solution to some of the challenges that the charter sector is facing,” Moskowitz said.
She said she hasn’t heard from officials about plans to provide space for a Success Academy charter that lost its planned co-location space. But the mayor insisted the city would find space for those 194 kids.
