Dive Brief:

• Mayor Bill De Blasio’s trip to Albany to lobby for his universal pre-kindergarten program was eclipsed by a pro-charter school rally attended by Governor Andrew Cuomo.
• The governor is bringing attention to charter schools after De Blasio revoked the co-location agreements of three charter schools last month.
• The state budget is due in two weeks. In an appearance on the “Brian Lehrer Show” Friday morning, Cuomo said he viewed the charter debate as one of the most necessary discussions at the moment and one that must be resolved in the upcoming state budget negotiations with legislature.  

Dive Insight:

While healthy debate is important, it is also important to keep the facts in perspective. When Mayor Bill De Blasio revoked the co-location agreements of the three charter schools, it was not because he was on a rampage to disassemble charter schools. De Blasio was reviewing 45 co-location plans that had been approved by the Bloomberg administration – the majority of which were traditional public schools co-locating with each other. Upon his review, De Blasio revoked 9 agreements, only three of which were charter schools. Cuomo’s decision to shift the conversation feels calculated — an attempt to both shift attention from De Blasio’s universal Pre-Kindergarten agenda, and to rile up charter school supporters.