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Queens Charter School Parents, Advocates Push for More State Funding

 A group of Queens parents and advocates rallied Monday calling on the state to change the way it funds charter schools.
A group of Queens parents and advocates rallied Monday calling on the state to change the way it funds charter schools.
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DNAinfo/Jeanmarie Evelly

LONG ISLAND CITY — A group of Queens parents and advocates rallied Monday calling on the state to change the way it funds charter schools — arguing that the current system leaves charter kids "shortchanged" compared to their peers in district schools.

The rally was held at Growing Up Green Charter School in Dutch Kills and organized by the pro-charter group Families for Excellent Schools, which is pushing for lawmakers in Albany to include more equitable funding for charters in this year's budget.

The group says the amount of money per student that's doled out to the city's public schools has increased six times more than that of charter schools since 2010, when the state put a "freeze" on its funding formula for city charters that's still in place today.

"Charter school students are being shortchanged," Growing Up Green principal Matthew Greenberg said outside his school on Thursday.

"Growing Up Green students receive thousands of dollars less than students sitting in a traditional public school right down the street," he added. "We are forced to do more with less."

Families for Excellent Schools says that since 2010, funding for the city's public schools has increased by $2,113 per student, compared to a $350 growth per kid at charters.

In his executive budget plan for fiscal year 2017, Gov. Andrew Cuomo included a provision to unfreeze the city's charter school funding formula — a move that would allow it to grow in proportion to that of public schools — as has the State Senate, while the Assembly's budget proposal does not.

"We're really calling on the Assembly to really include this in their budget," said Joe Herrera, an organizer with Families for Excellent Schools who has two sons at Brooklyn charter school Coney Island Prep. "We want to make sure that every child is funded equally."

A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie declined to comment.

Charter schools have generated controversy in many New York City neighborhoods, particularly in instances where they've been forced to share building space with traditional public schools.

Some critics of charters argue that they divert resources from district schools, and that they don't do enough to serve special needs students.

But Erin Acosta, the parent coordinator at Growing Up Green who has two sons at the school, said that has been far from her experience there — a school she described as inclusive and diverse.

"I know what this school means to Long Island City and the surrounding neighborhood," she said, adding that she's watched other families flee the city because they couldn't find the right school for their child.

"School choice is a right that all New York City parents deserve," she said. "It ensured that my family could remain in Queens and this community we call home."