'Lift the cap' plea PROUD:
Charter kid wants to share success
A standout student at a charter high school in Brooklyn says it’s time for state lawmakers to listen to kids and parents — and pass a law to allow more charter schools.
“It’s unfair to limit opportunities to other students. I really think the Legislature should lift the cap on charter schools,” Genesis Ramos, 17, told The Post.
Ramos is a senior at the Math Engineering and Science Academy, or MESA, in Bushwick — which can’t replicate its success because the state Legislature has refused to allow the more charter schools to open in New York.
Earlier this month, the Democratic-controlled Senate and Assembly refused to amend the law to ease the limit as part of the state budget.
A scandal-weakened Gov. Cuomo couldn’t get traction for even a much more modest proposal: reauthorizing 20 “zombie” licenses — those surrendered by schools that closed — to new charterschool applicants.
The state’s powerful teachers union opposes adding more charter schools, which are privately managed, publicly funded alternatives to traditional public schools.
Ramos, who will head to college this fall, said it’s a shame more students are not being afforded the learning opportunities she has received at MESA. She was accepted to CUNY’s prestigious Macaulay Honors program at Hunter and Baruch colleges.
“Being a MESA student provided me with a lot of opportunities,” Ramos said. “My experience was amazing because of the staff. The teachers are also advisers, coaches and club leaders. The teachers care a lot about the students.”
Ramos said her favorite classes are Advanced Placement calculus and government and economics.
The educational rigor at MESA was a startling contrast from Ramos’ regular public middle school, IS 377, which she said didn’t offer advanced Regents courses.
“If the politicians actually understood how amazing MESA is, they wouldn’t have a limit on charter schools,” Ramos said. “It’s a good opportunity for any student in any borough.”
MESA offers about 20 percent more instructional time for students than a typical high school, according to its executive director, Arthur Samuels.
MESA has received state approval to open a second school in Central Brooklyn, but without a license, it’s in expansion limbo.
“It’s frustrating to see how the political dynamics in Albany is preventing quality schools from opening,” Samuels told The Post. “Parents want a quality choice.”
The charter-school cap is set at 460 statewide, with 290 set aside for New York City, which has already hit that limit.
There are 92 unused charters left for the rest of the state, but they can’t be used in the Big Apple — where the demand is — without a change in state law.
The Mission Society, an anti-poverty group in Harlem, and Urban Dove, which runs “second chance” transfer high schools aimed at helping struggling students in danger of dropping out, have slammed lawmakers for blocking their bids to open new charter schools.