'Few things piss me off more': Jedediah Bila shreds Bill de Blasio for war on charter schools

Union-backed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is waging a war on charter schools and a war on the city’s children. Are you wearing your shocked face?

.@BilldeBlasio lectures on inequality while gutting charter schools. 73% of students in NYC charters are low-income http://t.co/VnDZAlLyqe

— Jedediah Bila (@JedediahBila) February 28, 2014

.@BilldeBlasio's war against charters leaves 700 kids w/out a school, 1 of best schools in NYC w/out a building http://t.co/VnDZAlLyqe

— Jedediah Bila (@JedediahBila) February 28, 2014

.@BilldeBlasio guts NYC charter schools, where 93% of students are minorities, 73% low-income: http://t.co/VnDZAlLyqe #compassion

— Jedediah Bila (@JedediahBila) February 28, 2014

Via the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools:

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has told four charter schools they would lose their school buildings, leaving at least 700 children without a school this coming school year. One of the schools is already open and serving children, three were scheduled to open this fall. Among these schools is one of the top performing schools in the city, and more notably, the state.

From a statement by National Alliance for Public Charter Schools president and CEO Nina Rees:

Kicking one of the state’s top-performing schools out of its building and leaving three other schools without a building is nothing short of outrageous. At the school already serving children, Success Academy’s Harlem 4, 83 percent of the students passed the state math exam last year, putting it in the top one percent of all schools in the state. Why would anyone want to stop that kind of student achievement?

This is an unjustified attack on the city’s most vulnerable youth—93 percent of students in charter schools in NYC are minorities and 73 percent are low-income. Among the country’s 10 largest cities, all other mayors (8 of whom are Democrats) have embraced charter schools as a solution to urban education challenges. It is incomprehensible that Mayor de Blasio would intentionally force hundreds of children out of their schools. He is threatening to take away the most valuable thing we can give to our kids – a quality education.