More Success Academies and Achievement First Charter Schools for Districts 13, 15 and 17 (yuck)

I wouldn't send my child there for anything.

I would be surprised if they try to co-locate SA in the 705 building.  It's not considered underutilized by the DOE, and the charter school that is already there is supposed to expand into a middle school.

Here is the most recent list of allegedly "underutilized" public school buildings, which is the starting point for school co-locations.  http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/6D8EA76A-82FA-4740-9ED1-66BCABEE8BFB/156022/UnderutilizedSpaceMemorandum201314v03_FINAL.pdf

The enrollments listed don't account for charter or other new schools that are expanding in their spaces, like the 2 Success Academies already in West Crown Heights.  You can see that there are plenty of buildings that, at least based on the memo, might have space.  The problem is that the formulas are notoriously inaccurate and don't reflect difficulties of shared space, like lunchtimes, gym, etc. 

Also, DeBlasio's "policy," to the extent there is one, is not to co-locate with D75 schools or elementary schools with high schools.  And they won't be closing any schools in the near future.  So that means new charters will likely be co-located with current elementaries or middle schools, setting up competition for students and space especially as the charters all say they intend to grow into K-8 schools. 

In the past, Success got the district superintendents to show them around all the schools and then Success picked which schools they wanted - typically, located in gentrified areas, newer schools, schools with the most attractive exteriors...I am sure Success has its wish list already drafted, coming soon to a school near you, whether you like it or not.

Part of the blame/solution lies in getting our state senators and assembypersons to demand that the settlement that was won in 2006 (CFE; Campaign for Fiscal Equity) be forced to be distributed to NYC DOE, its rightful recipient. There are presently conservative legislators who are exhorting the other legislators not to disburse "unfunded mandates".

NYC was cheated of rightful funds for education since the 70's; CFE proved that.

Public schools work when they can be properly funded.
Charter schools don't have to deal with a truly homogenous mix of the student body; they can discard anyone who doesn't achieve close to the schools intended goals. Public schools have to educate everyone, regarding of their ability or existing level of education.

fyi All of my children are  grown and were educated in public schools.

There has been some good coverage in the media lately about how few Special Ed students and ELL (English Language Learners) are served by Charters.

Such stats should certainly go into evaluations re: how much the schools themselves are achieving.

It is pretty easy to generate different outputs when you have different inputs.