The governor and the mayor face off over education

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The relationship between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City’s new mayor, Bill de Blasio, continues to be shaky as they go head to head over education.

The battle between the two men began over funding of universal pre-kindergarten. De Blasio proposed a tax increase of 1 percent on those New Yorkers who make $500,000 or more per year. The newest battle is over charter schools, and whether they can or should share space — “co-locate” — with public schools.

With universal pre-K, the argument wasn’t over the value of the schooling itself, but over funding. Now, with charter schools, it’s about accessibility. The most important thing in either debate, above all else, should be the education of our children. Let’s not forget how important a quality education is as we hash out the issues.

To his credit, Cuomo tried to work with de Blasio on the issue of universal pre-K, and countered the mayor’s proposal with one that would fund the program not only in New York City but across the state. His idea did not require de Blasio’s proposed income tax increase.

I applaud the governor for his support of universal pre-K throughout New York. De Blasio, too, deserves credit for raising the issue, but needs to abandon his plan to tax the wealthy. Those are the people we need to keep in our state.

De Blasio rejected the governor’s offer, so the plan has stalled. Instead of trying to continue negotiations, de Blasio has decided to take on the governor again. He has repeatedly pledged to slow the growth of charter schools in New York City, and recently announced that he would block three of the schools from using space inside public school buildings in the city. De Blasio made it clear that he would flat-out deny future requests for co-location, and he believes charter schools should be charged rent.

This is a direct reversal of the pro-charter policies of the Bloomberg administration. Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, charter schools flourished. Currently in New York City, 183 of the schools are servicing 70,000 students. There are 49 proposals for co-location that were approved by Bloomberg. De Blasio hinted that those projects have a bleak future, saying that Bloomberg rushed to make those decisions.

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