BILL NUMBER: S6043

SPONSOR: LIU
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to repeal paragraph (e) of subdivision 3 of
section 2853 and subdivision 6-g of section 3602 of the education law,
relating to an aid rollback for charter schools

 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the education law in relation to revoking funding o
charter schools in New York City to pay rent for private facilities.

 
PURPOSE:

The bill aims to stop the use of public funds to pay for private facili-
ty space rented by charter schools in New York City.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 repeals all of paragraph (e) from subdivision 3 of section
              

2853 of the education law. The paragraph includes the following
mandates: a charter school that requests to be co-located in a New York
City public school must be offered placement in a public facility free
of charge or in a private facility to be paid for by the New York City
Department of Education; the charter school has the right to appeal the
Department of Education's offer or failure to offer a co-location
through binding arbitration; if the appeal results in favor of the
Department of Education, the charter school must accept the offer at the
school district's expense, or locate in another site at the charter
school's expense; if the appeal results in favor of the charter school,
the school district is responsible for paying the lesser of the rental
cost of an alternatively privately owned site selected by the charter
school or 30 percent of the product of the charter school's basic
tuition for the current school year and (1) for new charters, the char-
ter school's current year enrollment, or (2) for expanding charters, the
positive difference of the charter school's enrollment in the current
school year minus the charter school's enrollment in the previous school
year.

Section 2 repeals subdivision 6-g of section 3602 of the education law
that creates a charter school facilities aid to provide the New York
City Department of Education a state allocation to assist with expenses
incurred by the process described in paragraph (e) from subdivision 3 of
section 2853 of the education law.

Section 3 sets the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The New York City charter school sector has become a significant finan-
cial burden to the city and state due to legislative language that was
included in 2014-2015 state fiscal budget and then amended in the 2016-
2017 budget that in short allows charter schools to use public taxpayer
dollars to pay for private facility space.

The changes made to education law allowed for new and expanding charter
schools in New York City that submit a request to be co-located in a
public school to be either granted a space in a public school or other
public building free of charge to the charter school o r offered a
private facility that is at the expense of the school district. Charters
schools that are unhappy with the school district's co-location offer
are able to appeal through binding arbitration.  In the event that the
appeal results in favor of the charter school, then the school district,
through the use of a formula, must pay for an alternatively privately
owned site selected by the charter school.

As a result, New York City and State have seen an astronomical hike in
funding allocations made specifically to pay for privately-owned facili-
ties for charter schools. When the law first took into effect in fiscal
year 2014-2015, New York City was forced to set aside $10.2 million in
funding to pay for privately owned facility space.  However, a look at
the fiscal year 2019-2020 executive budget shows that New York City will
have to set aside a whopping $89.4 million to pay for these private
facilities. In a matter of five years, public funding to pay for private
spaces has grown $79.2million, or 776%.

Charter schools are already notoriously known for operating like public-
ly funded private schools as it relates to the lack of transparency
around their student enrollment practices and their finance.  This is
yet another example of ways charter schools abuse public dollars. This
law allows for charter schools to funnel taxpayer dollars to the hands
of landlords that own the private facilities where they operate. Land-
lords then in turn can build equity and expand their private investments
thanks to guaranteed legally mandated funding allocations.

It is time to end this nefarious practice. Our public school dollars
must be directly invested in our public schools and our public school
students, not siphoned off into the private real estate industry.