Success in Harlem

The lottery where one of Harlem's largest networks of charter schools will determine which of its applicants are accepted is tonight, at the Harlem Armory Center, the ports complex on Fort Washington Avenue. The armory was not the lottery's original venue. Just two and a half weeks ago, the charter school network, called the Success Academy, was directing applicants to go to the Mt. Olivet Church, capacity 3,000, to find out whether they had been admitted. Then the applications started to roll in. As of yesterday, the school had counted 3,600, meaning as many as 5,000 parents, children, and supporters could show up, all fighting for a meager 580 spots. The figures suggest 40% of age-eligible children in central Harlem have applied for kindergarten at the network, run by a former City Council member, Eva Moskowitz. The Armory was the only place they could find, short of Radio City Music Hall, to hold that many desperate parents.

New York City parents' desire for choices beyond the public schools is becoming impossible to ignore. Today the group Education Reform Now, a nonprofit with ties to the lobbying group Democrats for Education Reform, plans to release a poll of Harlem voters finding that 75% believe the New York City public schools are either fair or poor. Asked whether they thought it would be good for parents to "be able to send their kids to a public or charter school other than their assigned school," 81% of voters said yes. The sense that parents in Harlem want more options is so strong that even those who have shied away from charter schools seem to be coming around. The other day, State Senator Bill Perkins told our Elizabeth Green, "Folks are fleeing the public school system, and in fleeing they're looking for any alternative," including charter and parochial schools.

There is a lesson here for both local and national politicians. Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein were right to raise the cap on charter schools. The teachers' union was wrong to try to block them, even as it opened its own charter school. Senator Obama was right when he told the editorial board at the Journal-Sentinel in Milwaukee, Wis. that he would keep an open mind on school vouchers and wrong when he buckled to the teachers' unions and said he wouldn't. All these figures are lagging the parents, who by the thousands, in this city and around the country, are recognizing that their interests, and the interests of their children, lie in school systems of charters and vouchers and maximized parental choice. The 3,000 children who will depart without a spot tonight deserve to have their choices as well.