Bloomberg Pushes State To Lift Limit On Charter Schools

New York, NY —

Mayor Bloomberg is calling on the state to lift its limit on charter schools so the city can open a hundred more. That would double the number of children attending charters in New York City.

BLOOMBERG: Anybody that wants to look the parents of those 40,000 kids in the eye and say 'I'm not gonna give you the opportunity to let your kids go to the kind of schools that you want them to go to', I just don't get it.

REPORTER: They mayor's calling for two new children's zones, with family support services and charters modeled after the non-profit Harlem Children's Zone, for Central Brooklyn and the South Bronx. And he proposes creating a real estate task force and letting charters work with the city's Housing Authority to come up with more space.

The president of the teachers union says he's troubled that the mayor's proposals are aimed only at charters and not regular public schools.