Make New York Post a Preferred Source Nearly two-thirds of New York voters support lifting the government-imposed cap to open more charter schools in the Big Apple, according to a poll conducted by a new charter school advocacy group.
The Great Public Schools New York poll, conducted by HarrisX and SKDK, found 64% of voters in support of lifting a cap while only 22% said they were opposed and another 14% said they were unsure.
That means voters across the state who want the cap lifted outnumber opponents by a 3-to-1 margin.
Participants were asked if they support or oppose raising the cap after being told “When one charter school closes, its license to operate can’t be used by another school — so the total number of schools shrinks.”
Some 63% of voters in the suburbs and upstate support raising the cap, compared to 19% who oppose it, with the remainder unsure, according to the survey of 4,478 registered voters.
Charter schools are publicly funded but privately managed and typically have a longer school day and year than traditional public schools. Most educators in charters are not represented by a union, while traditional public schools are unionized and hold immense sway in the Democrat-dominated state and city governments.
Authorized by state law in 1998, there are now 286 charter schools serving 152,000 students in the city, about 15% of public school students. Many charter students outperform their traditional public school counterparts on the state’s standardized reading and math exams.
But in 2023, Gov. Kathy Hochul and the legislature allowed just 14 new charter schools to open in New York City, following a grueling political fight with anti-charter teachers unions.
The cap has been reached in the city, so no more charter licenses can be issued unless Albany raises or eliminates the cap.
The teachers union and its allies in the legislature oppose raising the cap, arguing that despite their popularity they divert funding from traditional public schools.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani opposed charter school expansion during his run for City Hall last year.
Yet even 72% of parents with kids in traditional public schools want to raise the cap to provide more options for families, as did 69% of blacks and Hispanic voters, 62% of whites and 57% of Asians, the new poll found.
Support for lifting the cap is broadly supported across the political spectrum, according to the survey: 59% of Democrats, 74% of Republicans and 62% of independents.
A similar question simply asked, “Based on what you know now, do you support or oppose the expansion of public charter schools in New York?”
The results were nearly the same: 63% of city voters backing an expansion, as did 54% of voters in other parts of the state.
Voters were also asked: “How important is it for families to have multiple public school options available, including charter schools?”
A whopping 77% of city voters responded that they considered a charter school option extremely or very important, as did 54% of voters in the burbs and upstate, the poll found.
The poll also presented a statement that said, “Parents should be empowered to choose the best public school for their child, whether it is a traditional or charter school.”
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A staggering 91% of city respondents agreed with the statement, as did 87% of voters in the rest of the state, according to the survey.
GPSNY’s top priorities for the 2027 Albany legislative session are to get Hochul and her Democratic colleagues in the legislature to lift the charter school cap and increase public funding.
Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, a charter school booster, is donating $1 million to launch the group’s lobbying efforts. His daughter, Emma, serves on GPSNY’s advisory board.
Charter school educators and parents said other kids should have the opportunity to attend charters.
“One of the greatest things about my son’s school is the educators here do not sit here and let you think about what your kid can’t do,” said Violet Stevens, a parent at New York City Autism Charter School in East Harlem. “The first thing they ask is, ‘What do you want your kid to accomplish?’
“I can’t imagine where my son would be, or where our family would be with my son’s diagnosis, if it weren’t for NYC Autism Charter Schools.”
Tresha Ward, CEO of Prospect Charter Schools in Brooklyn who also serves on the GPSNY advisory board, praised the group’s mission.
“For every problem in the education system, the public charter school sector has developed a solution,” Ward said. “What’s missing is the power to enact change and we believe GPSNY will help bring the New York community together to increase access to a high-quality public education.”
The survey has a margin of error of 1.5 percentage points for the full sample while larger for subgroups.
