From Champ to Chump: Eric Adams’ Bumpy Ride on the Charter School Rollercoaster

New York Mayor Eric Adams sure has managed to flip the script on his education policies faster than you can say “charter school.” During his campaign, he proudly wore the charter school cape, raking in support from pro-charter groups and promising to lift restrictions on their expansion. Fast forward to today, and he’s more like a villain in a cheesy high school drama, backpedaling from those promises and cozying up to critics of school choice. It’s like he entered a political time machine and came back a different man!

The shift couldn’t be more startling, especially given that charter schools, particularly the kid-magnet Success Academy, consistently outperform their traditional public school counterparts. While 96 percent of Success Academy students passed the state math exam, only 53 percent of public school students could manage the same feat. Now, as Adams runs for reelection, he’s playing the fiscal crisis card, arguing that adding more charters would cost the city over a billion dollars. But those numbers? They’ve raised eyebrows, and for good reason, since the costs are usually spread out, taking years to hit the budget.

Currently, the cap on charter schools in NYC has reached its limit, leaving around 50,000 eager students on waitlists, many from the underserved communities Adams once vowed to uplift. You can’t help but feel for those families caught in the chaos. If Adams isn’t careful, he might be the one who gets schooled in a lesson about political promises. How do you think families are coping with this situation? Are they feeling betrayed or just rolling with the punches?

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