New York legislative leaders and Gov. David Paterson have agreed to raise the cap on charter schools as part of steps to meet a federal deadline for getting up to $700 million in additional aid to schools.
They made the announcement in a hastily called leaders meeting after closed-door negotiations that appeared stalled today. The grant deadline is Tuesday.
At issue was boosting the maximum number of charter schools in New York from the current cap of 200. Paterson had said the federal program required eliminating the cap, but now says federal officials tell him a maximum of 454 would make New York well qualified.
That would mean one potential charter school for every 10 traditional public schools in the state.
There are just six available charters left.
On Thursday, Paterson announced the release of as much as $750 million in aid to schools and other services that he delayed in December to keep the state from running out of money.
{9WSYR.com/Noam Amdurski-Matzav.com Newscenter}
