Parents and public school advocates staged a dramatic protest outside the New York City Department of Educationon Tuesday against a bid, backed by Governor Andrew Cuomo and financed by Wall Street lobbyists, to evict special needs students in order to make room for charter school expansion.

The demonstration is the most recent development in the battle against corporate education reform in the city, where “strong-arm” tactics by Cuomo and the charter school lobby have overriden an attempt by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to curb the growth of privately-funded charters.

Calling out Eva Moskowitz, CEO of the Success Academy charter chain, the demonstrators blasted her for “strong arming” the expansion of her charter schools, adding that she is “stealing classrooms from 102 special needs students.”

On March 31, New York legislators approved a budget deal that provides New York City charter schools with “some of the most sweeping protections in the nation,” the New York Times reported last week. Among other provisions, the deal forces public schools to offer co-locations, or rent-free building space, to charter schools.

At the rally, outraged parents and supporters of the Mickey Mantle School P.S. 811—a special needs education program that shares space with P.S. 149 in Harlem—railed against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for pushing the charter-friendly budget, overriding a move by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to block the expansion of three of Moskowitz’s Success Academy schools.

Tweets about “#saveps811”

“Governor Cuomo is brokering a deal for charter schools that will have a huge negative impact on students in Harlem with special needs,” said Julian Vinocur, NYC Campaigns & Communications Director for the Alliance for Quality Education, which supported the protest. Vinocur told Common Dreams that the proposed co-location in P.S. 811 will close three classrooms, a speech room, and an occupational and physical therapy room, forcing those key resources to be moved to a “hallway or other classroom.”

“Governor Cuomo is brokering a deal for charter schools that will have a huge negative impact on students in Harlem with special needs.” 
—Julian Vinocur, Alliance for Quality Education

“It is as outrageous as it sounds,” he added. “Following a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign funded by wealthy charter school backers, the Governor and State majority recklessly pushed these co-locations forward.”