New York’s Charter Schools Live Up to Their Promise

Success Academy in the Bronx has a 90% poverty rate yet has reached a 96% proficiency rate in reading

By Jason L. Riley. Excerpts:

"we know from decades of empirical research that public charter schools often outperform their traditional counterparts. The problem is that the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and other opponents of school choice see charters as a threat—not to kids but to unions."

"the decline in the quality of public education in the U.S. predates the advent of charters in the 1990s. Charter schools are being blamed for a pre-existing trend"

"A study of reading outcomes in New York state public schools that serve high concentrations of economically disadvantaged children found a disproportionate number of charter schools winning the highest marks. Charters were 9.5% of the study’s sample but “earned 38.5% of the spots on our list of exemplars.”" 

"The 10 highest-scoring schools were located in New York City, and seven of those were charter schools in the Bronx, which is home to some of the poorest ZIP Codes in the country. “All serve a high concentration of low-income students, with 66% to 92% of children qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch,” the report noted. “And yet, 90% to 97% of their third graders were proficient readers in 2024, the year of our analysis. In comparison, the proficiency rate for all third graders across the state was just 43%.”"

"The top-scoring school was a Success Academy charter school in the Bronx, where the student-body poverty rate is 90% and 94% of students scored proficient in third-grade reading in 2024."

"A wait list in New York City runs to 163,000 students, yet lawmakers have placed an arbitrary limit on the number of charters"