#Anti-poverty group flunks pols for blocking Harlem charter school

The head of New York City’s oldest children’s anti-poverty group accused state lawmakers of hurting poor Harlem kids by blocking the opening of a new charter school in the neighborhood — calling their inaction “criminal.”

Founded in 1812, the Harlem-based Mission Society received preliminary state approval to open a charter school in its headquarters at Malcolm X. Blvd. and 142nd Street — the original site of the prohibition-era Cotton Club.

But the planned Minisink charter school can’t open because New York has hit the cap to open more charter schools, and lawmakers rejected pleas to allow an expansion as part of the recently passed state budget.

“It’s a crying shame that we couldn’t get anywhere in Albany to authorize more charter schools. We don’t have a slot. We ran up against the cap,” said Mission Society CEO Elsie McCabe-Thompson.

“It is a crushing loss for the Harlem community. Parents, minority parents, do like charter schools. There was no one who would stand up for us. It’s criminal,” she continued.

“We have to start voting against people who would prevent any charter schools from opening.”

McCabe-Thompson said the Mission Society proposed spending $5 million over five years to help subsidize lower class sizes, and it had already bought a science lab for the K-5 school.

The Mission — which currently provides after school and summer programs to students and sponsors courses to help kids in danger of dropping out — had promised to serve the neediest and most challenging students.

Majoyin Onijala, an East Harlem parent of two young boys who agreed to serve on Minisink’s advisory board and volunteer her services, said, “I’d like to get the option of charter schools. It’s something parents talk about on a daily basis. We need good schools. We’re not going to stop fighting and pushing for a great education for our children.”

She said she was attracted to the planned school when she heard there would be small classes, as low as 12 per teacher.

Onijala said New York City leaders last year were consumed with responding to the COVID-19 outbreak, but now must plan for the future — including wooing parents to stay in the city.

“You have to look ahead. You have to look at the big picture beyond COVID,” she said.

“We need good schools. We’re not going to stop fighting and pushing for a great education for our children.”

Assemblywoman Inez Dickens, who represents Harlem, said she backed the Mission’s planned charter school — but was outnumbered by Democratic lawmakers who don’t want to increase the charter school sector’s footprint in the city.

“I was very supportive of Minisink charter school. I advocated for it. They wouldn’t do it,” said of the Democratic-run Assembly.

“Parents should have an option. A lot of families have kids in charter schools.”

She said other lawmakers object to charter schools because most of the staffers are non-union, unlike traditional public schools that are unionized. The United Federation of Teachers opposes charter schools, which are privately managed but publicly funded and compete for students.

Assembly Education Committee Chairman Michael Benedetto (D-Bronx) said last week that union opposition is certainly a factor in putting a halt to charter school expansion. He also has complained that charter schools don’t face the same oversight as zoned public schools.

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.

Instead, a scandal-weakened Gov. Andrew Cuomo sought a much more modest proposal: reauthorizing 20 so-called “zombie” licenses — those surrendered by schools that closed — to new charter school applicants.

But lawmakers rejected even that minor change to allow planned charter schools like the Mission Society’s Minisink to open.

Charter schools typically have a longer school day and school year and students often perform better on the state’s standardize math and English exams than kids in traditional public schools.