The city’s teachers union launched a new attack Monday on charter schools, saying it will push the state Legislature to force charters to accept the same percentage of “high need” students as regular public schools.
United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew described the proposed legislation as one of the union’s “main legislative priorities” in Albany.
But the union’s own figures show charters have been making strides in adding students who are disabled or have difficulties learning because English isn’t their first language.
In the 2007-08 school year, 3.3% of charter students were English language learners.
By 2014-15, the percentage nearly doubled doubled to 6.5%.
In traditional public schools, the percentage of English language learners actually declined from 16.4 to 14.5 percent over the seven year-period.
Similarly, the number of charter students with disabilities jumped from 10.2 percent in 2007-08 to 14.3 percent in the 2014-15 school year.
