Thousands of charter school leaders, students, parents and staff marched across the Brooklyn Bridge on Thursday amid a highly contentious mayoral election in which frontrunner Zohran Mamdani has leveled criticism at the charter movement.
Organizers insisted the timing was a coincidence and the rally was not about electoral politics. But the political undertones — and parallels to another massive demonstration more than a decade ago — were hard to ignore.
In 2013, an army of charter advocates took to the same bridge after then mayoral front-runner Bill de Blasio drew the sector’s ire for his unapologetic criticism of the schools.
Mamdani’s campaign has said charter networks “siphon resources away from public education, often without real accountability or oversight.” Charter schools are publicly funded but operated independently of the local school system.
One charter school leader’s comments seemed squarely aimed at Mamdani.
“You cannot be for the affordability agenda,” said ​Bishop Raymond Rivera, founder of Family Life Academy Charter Schools. “You can’t be for affordable housing. You can’t be for universal daycare. You can’t be for subsidized food — and not be for charter schools.”
“Because the best thing — I’m gonna put on my preacher’s voice — the best thing that you can do for children of color is give them access to quality education. Again, it’s an oxymoron to say that you’re not for that, and to say that you’re for affordability.”
Mamdani has made affordability the centerpiece of his campaign, with proposals that include freezing the rent, free child care, and city-owned grocery stores. His campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.
Rivera said his clergy network met with the Democratic nominee on Saturday, where he raised the issue of charter schools, and the candidate seemed open to dialogue. About 150,500 city students — or 15% of public school kids — attend charter schools, according to the New York City Charter School Center.
On Wednesday night, Gothamist reported Eva Moskowitz, the CEO of Success Academy, admonished staffers for not taking seriously an “existential threat” to charter schools. Asked to clarify the threat at the rally, she said she was worried about facilities, funding, and freedom from bureaucracy.
Asked if she was worried about Mamdani, Moskowitz said: “I’m worried about every elected official.”
During a June questionnaire in the Staten Island Advance, Mamdani laid out his position on charter schools, which included his opposition to any expansion in New York City. Only the governor and state legislature can lift a cap on the number of charter schools, not the mayor.
But while mayors may lack direct power over the size of the charter sector, they do have the weight of the bully pulpit, which Mamdani has already indicated he intends to use. So far, he’s already promised to audit charter schools, including state funding received and “overcharged rent.”
Organizers estimated more than 15,000 charter school supporters from 200 schools converged in the morning on Cadman Plaza, on the Brooklyn side of the bridge to Manhattan. They wore purple and yellow shirts that said: “Excellence is a civil right,” while speakers and performers, including the rapper Common, took turns on stage for close to three hours.
Republican nominee and charter supporter Curtis Sliwa made an appearance, over the objections of organizers who on Wednesday night asked that candidates not come.
When it came time to march, the demonstrators — the littlest ones in strollers — chanted “Access is Equity” and other slogans as they crossed the river toward City Hall. Some carried blow-horns, hula hoops, and signs referencing the school choice movement, which has gained traction during the second Trump administration, including: “Choice is Power” and “Respect Our Choice.”
While Mayor Adams has not made charter schools a central component of his education agenda, he’s supported them in quieter ways during his tenure.
During his first year in office, he launched a summer program with former Mayor Michael Bloomberg for 25,000 elementary and middle charter school kids. And last winter, he signed into law new funding for safety agents at charter schools in their own buildings.
Charter leaders fear Mamdani, who was endorsed by charter detractor the United Federation of Teachers, will be far less accommodating.
“Public schools welcome and embrace all children and are determined to help all students thrive. Zohran Mamdani understands this,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who had the backing of pro-charter donors during the primary and championed the sector as governor, wants to replace some under-performing public schools with charters.
“We’re here to send a message to everybody, both current and future elected people,” Rafiq Kalam Id-Din, founder of Ember Charter School and chair of the Black, Latinx, Asian Charter Collaborate (BLACC), told the Daily News.