Hundred of parents of charter school students from all over the city climbed into buses bound for Albany in the pre-dawn hours this morning. Once they got there, parents and advocates are spending the day pressing legislators to change state law to allow for more charter schools and better funding and facilities access for them.
Some schools, like Harlem Success Academy and Democracy Prep, are each bringing hundreds of parents on multiple busloads. Others, like Brooklyn’s Opportunity Roots Charter School, pictured here, filled one bus, or shared a bus with other schools. All in all, 80 city charter schools sent a total of 60 buses to Albany today.
Charter school leaders, parents and advocates have organized a number of events throughout the day, including individual meetings with legislators and a large mid-day pro-charter rally that organizers expected to draw more than a thousand people. Parents also expect to attend the legislature’s joint budget hearing on education this morning, where state Education Commissioner David Steiner, New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew and a large number of other education advocates are all expected to testify.