The New York City Parents Union filed a law suit yesterday against the Department of Education and a host of co-located charter schools in New York City to force charter schools to pay for their space and services in public school buildings.

United Federation of Teacher representatives and parents from at least three public schools in Bedford-Stuyvesant—including P.S. 308, Clara Cardwell School—have been at battle with the planned co-location of charter schools in their buildings.

Following a series of public hearings earlier this year in February, all three charter co-locations were approved. At P.S. 308, a charter from Teaching Firms of America was approved to move in this month at the start of the 2011 school year. Teaching Firms of America was amongst the more than 20 charter school organizations named in the suit.

The New York City Parents Union says the suit follows a New York State education law (Article 56, Section 2853, Part 4(c)), that states, a charter school may contract with a school district or the governing body for the use of a school building, but the contract must provide such services or facilities at cost.

In other words, the parents group is demanding the DOE charge charter schools rent and that charter schools begin to pay up. The group says Mayor Bloomberg’s control over the DOE does not give him the authority to violate state law. 

The press conference was followed by court hearings presided over by Judge Feinman in the State Supreme Court.

Leonie Haimson, a public school parent and executive director of Class Size Matters—another plaintiff named in the case—says that co-located charter schools receive an illegal subsidy from the DOE in the form of free services and space that amount to more than $100 million.   

“This means that co-located charter schools receive about $2,000 dollars more per student in public funding,” said Haimson. She added, the additional funding allows the charter schools to provide smaller classes, a better student/teacher ratio, more tutoring and, overall, give more attention to their students.

However, the City’s legal department denies the group’s claims that the DOE is breaking any law. "We do not believe the law requires charter schools to pay rent, and the plaintiffs' claim that they do lacks merit," said Deputy Communications Director Connie Pankratz at NYC Law Department.

NYC Law says the plaintiff's claim is based on a misreading of Education Law § 2853(4)(c). That statute provides that a charter school "may" contract with a school district or the governing body of a public college or university for the use of a school building and grounds, the operation and maintenance thereof. Any such contract shall provide such services or facilities at cost.

This provision is designed to protect public charter schools by setting a ceiling on the amount that a school district can charge them for space in a contract, should the district decide to enter into a contract.

Additionally, the defendants in the case argue that a temporary injunction to close existing charter school co-locations would devastate public charter schools. Many would have to go out of business immediately and others would have to drastically cut their services, disrupting the education of thousands of public charter school students in the middle of a school year.

But Mariama Sanoh, a public school parent and vice president of the New York City Parents Union, says the mayor's actions already have harmed many of the current public school students.

Sanoh said, the mayor is slashing school budgets, laying off school staff and cutting childcare programs. And while he refuses to support a millionaire's tax, he is "giving freebies to friends who operate privately-managed charter schools on the backs of our children, using our tax dollars.”

“In Mayor Bloomberg's bizarro world, it's okay to cheat our school children of a quality education and layoff their parents while hiring unqualified millionaire friends like Cathie Black and giving away $100 million dollars in city revenue to charter schools managed by his millionaire friends."