#Assemblyman Ramos charters are a cure, not a virus

In a bizarre tirade likening charter schools to COVID, Assemblyman Phil Ramos exposed himself and like-minded Democratic lawmakers as beyond ignorant.

“Charter schools have kind of taken on the characteristics of coronavirus. We create a vaccine, and they morph into something else,” like the Delta and Omicron variants, Ramos (D-Central Islip) charged.

Oh, and since it was an NAACP-sponsored forum, he threw in the claim that charters impose “a discriminatory system on our people.” He also called the charter movement a bunch of “poverty pimps.”

His actual gripe, it turns out, is that a second charter school just got OK’d to open in his area, offering families a chance to escape from the 7,500-student Central Islip school district, where (per State Education Department data) just 39% of black and 40% of white third-graders test as proficient in English, and only 29% of Hispanics. The math scores are terrible, too.

Charters, in short, offer hope for the kids, but trouble for the schools that Ramos’ teacher-union pals control. He only sees someone stealing the students as if the regular system owns them and the taxpayer funds that are supposed to support their education.

Families see liberation, but Ramos & Co. only see someone taking their control away.