Where do the 2025 NYC Mayoral Candidates Stand on Charter Schools?

And why you should care.

K12 education is not the hot button issue of the 2025 mayoral race– candidates will instead be building their platforms on housing affordability, public safety, and access to childcare. So why should you care about candidates’ positions on charter schools?

Why do we care about candidates’ positions on charter schools?

2025 will not be the year of the Republican (in NYC anyway). The Democratic primary next summer will decide our mayor. Shades of blue will determine the outcome.

Charters are one of the issues that separate Democrats– taking a stance is a signal to voters of “how far left are you?” “how aligned are you with the teachers union?” “do you care about academic outcomes and parent choice?”. 

Progressive Dems decry charter schools for privatizing education, while centrist Dems tout charter schools’ superior academic outcomes.

What are charter schools again?

• They’re public schools– they receive public funds to operate.

• They are independent from traditional district schools and governed by their own board of trustees– which means they have more autonomy over how they operate.

• Most of the time, their staff are not unionized. 

• There are 274 charter schools in NYC that educate 146,200 students, which is 15% of NYC  public school students.

• They serve mostly low-income kids of color– 82% of NYC charter school students are economically disadvantaged, 89% are Black or Latino.

• NYC charter schools outperform district schools on average:

  • 63% of charter school students are proficient in math compared to 50% of district students

  • 59% of charter school students are proficient in Language Arts compared to 52% of district students

My personal take: I’ve organized alongside parents in a traditional school system– the kind where your kid gets assigned to a school, and if that school has bad academics and unsafe classrooms, or just isn’t a good fit for your kid, you’re out of luck. I think parents deserve a choice. And the data shows that choice creates incentives for schools to perform better. 

So where do the candidates stand? Let’s start with the incumbent:

Eric Adams is pro charter schools, but tepid.

Eric Adams is pro successful schools, which includes charter schools. In his 2021 run for mayor, he said he was for scaling up successful charter networks, but against increasing the number of charter schools. He courted donors who explicitly aligned with him on his two key priorities (taxation/budget control, tough-on-crime policing), who also happen to care deeply about expanding access to charter schools. 

While mayor, his record has occasionally come under fire from charter school advocates and from the NY Post. For example, in 2023 he was giving testimony to state lawmakers and basically said that he was for more charter schools in NYC, but only if the state provided more funding.

Scott Stringer is the most anti charter school candidate.

Scott Stringer was endorsed by the teachers union when he ran for mayor in 2021. He has a long history of support from the union, which endorsed him in 2006 when he ran against former City Council member Eva Moskowitz, now the head of Success Academy Charter Schools, for Manhattan borough president. The union also endorsed Stringer in his 2013 run for city comptroller. 

In their 2021 Stringer endorsement, the union stated: “The next mayor needs to support an education agenda that recognizes the importance of funding, the benefits of lower class size, and the threat of charter schools… Scott has been a consistent critic of charter schools.” 

Brad Lander hasn’t been loud about his stance, but he seems to be anti charter schools. 

While Scott Stringer published splashy press releases about leading charter school audits as comptroller, Brad Lander hasn’t focused on the topic while comptroller. Landers’s website outlines his positions on other education issues, but no mention of charter schools. 

The most I could find was that In 2014 when Lander was on city council, his office voiced their opposition to opening new charter schools in their neighborhood. 

Zellnor Myrie hasn’t taken a stance on charter schools, but co-sponsored a creative compromise solution.

Zellnor Myrie does not have a position re: charter schools on his website. When he ran for State senate in 2018, his education platform did not mention charter schools. 

While in the State Senate, he’s co-sponsored two bills related to charter schools. One is a nod to the teachers union– protecting staff organizing and making it harder to convert a public school to a charter school. Senate Bill 1095 would prevent a school from converting to a charter if they previously violated employees’ right to organize. 

He also co-sponsored a bill that would allow more charter schools in NYC, as long as they are run by people of historically underrepresented communities. Senate Bill 9225 would allow 336 more charter schools, raising the state limit from 460 to 796. In order to qualify, new charter schools would have to have 51% of their leadership or their governing boards composed of people of color. The legislation also attempted to address the shortage of minority teachers by exempting them from paying state and local income taxes, as well as providing college loan forgiveness and allowing charter schools to offer alternative licensing. 

This bill is a smart political compromise:

• It’s a creative way to bring progressive electeds to the table who care about empowering leaders of color and being responsive to communities of color.

• The union will never be in favor of more charter schools, but maybe they’d at least sit on the sidelines and not directly oppose the bill, if it includes loan forgiveness and tax sweeteners for their members.

So Eric Adams is the most pro charter school candidate. For now. 

But it’s early. 

Lander or Myrie could take a pro charter stance if they find they need those donors and voters to win. 

It takes a diverse coalition of voters to win a high profile citywide race.

And your perspective matters. It’s not hard to get a mayoral candidate’s ear right now. They all need as much money as possible as quickly as possible to make them look viable against Adams. So the fundraising events are fast and frequent. I went to a Myrie fundraiser on Wednesday and since there were 15-20 people there, we each got 1:1 time with him. 

Go to a fundraiser. Host a fundraiser. Send an email. Hit me up if you don’t know where to start.