The Fight for Control Over NY’s Charter Schools Is Escalating

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The Fight for Control Over New York’s Charter Schools Is Escalating

A governor-appointed board has approved dozens of charter schools over objections from state education officials. Proponents say that’s a good thing.

Melissa Manno · July 23, 2026

The state teachers union is suing to block a charter school proposed by advocates, saying it violates the state law that limits the number of charter schools statewide. | Photo: Sasha P / Pexels | Edited by New York Focus

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This September, a new elementary school is set to open in the South Bronx that will operate year-round, seven days a week, and 12 hours a day to accommodate working parents. But the state teachers union is suing to block it.<br>Strive Charter School was proposed by Eva Moskowitz, CEO of Success Academy, the state’s largest charter school network, and her husband Eric Grannis. The union contends that opening it would violate a state law that limits the number of charter schools statewide; Moskowitz and Grannis argue it would instead be transforming an existing charter school.

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The dispute is the latest salvo in a long-running battle in Albany over who should approve and regulate charter schools: the legislature-elected Board of Regents, which is housed under the state education agency, or the governor-appointed State University of New York trustees.<br>State law allows both bodies to approve new charter schools, but it also gives SUNY the power to overrule objections by the Board of Regents — as it did with Strive.<br>SUNY approved the Bronx school even though state education officials warned it could violate state law and recommended abandoning the project. A New York Focus analysis of state charter school decisions found that since 2017, the Board of Regents has rejected 58 SUNY-approved charter actions. In at least 51 of those cases, SUNY resubmitted the application without making any modifications, permitting dozens of charter schools to open, expand, relocate, merge, or receive early renewal against the guidance of the state’s top education policymaking body.<br>To advocates for traditional public schools, including teachers unions, that discrepancy indicates that SUNY simply rubber-stamps charter school proposals, even those that the state education officials find lacking.<br>Charter school proponents say the system is working as intended. “It’s a feature, not a bug,” wrote Grannis, Strive’s executive director, in an op-ed for the New York Post about the lawsuit.

Charter schools, funded with tax dollars but run by independent organizations, have been the source of fierce debate since New York enacted its first charter school law in 1998.<br>New York law requires school districts to pay charter schools for every local student enrolled — on average, about $16,600 per student — which decreases the budget available for traditional schools. Public school districts also pay for charter school transportation, along with health and welfare services. This past school year, for example, Buffalo Public Schools budgeted $195 million for payments to 22 area charter schools educating over 10,000 local students.<br>State law limits the number of charters to maintain quality control, to manage the financial burden on local school districts, and to allow public school administrators to have some predictability in their budgets.<br>Proponents see charter schools as a free, high-quality alternative to low-performing schools, particularly in low-income neighborhoods. But opponents say they drain resources from traditional public schools without the same level of oversight and accountability as public schools.

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Teachers unions have traditionally opposed charter schools because they are not typically unionized and receive public funding while operating under different rules than traditional public school districts, with greater autonomy over staffing and governance. In New York, the teachers union has opposed efforts to lift the state’s charter cap, while pushing for bills to tighten oversight, increase transparency, require community engagement, and ultimately eliminate SUNY’s charter-authorizing power.<br>The conflict between SUNY and the Board of Regents is an extension of that debate. Under state law, proposals for charter schools may be submitted to either the Board of Regents or SUNY. The Board of Regents must review charter proposals submitted to SUNY, but SUNY has the final word on whether they are approved. Of the roughly 352 operating charter schools statewide, 220 were authorized by SUNY, while 92 were authorized by the Board...