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Tag: New Covenant Charter School

New Covenant Charter School in Albany Closing

By Upstate Blue, Section News
Posted on Tue May 22, 2007 at 09:11:18 PM EST

News just broke from The Times Union Local Politics blog that the long controversial New Covenant Charter School in Albany will be closing at the end of the current academic year. New Covenant, like many other charter schools across the state, has long dealt with severe academic and financial performance issues.

There was a good article on the failures of New Covenant last summer in the Times-Union:

"New Covenant has been plagued with academic performance and accounting problems. This spring, the State University of New York board of trustees placed New Covenant on probation for being chronically tardy with annual audits of its finances.
It was the latest in a line of problems for the school. In 2004, the state forced the school to close its seventh and eighth grades, citing poor test scores and chaotic classrooms. SUNY trustees also placed New Covenant on probation between 2000 and 2002 because of concern over finances. That probation limited the school to 400 students."

And remember who signed the legislation allowing for Charter Schools back in 1998? Our "wonderful" ex-Governor George Pataki.

Here's an excerpt from Journal News, January 8, 2006:

"Pataki also praised an educational "innovation'' under his tenure that many, including us, believe drain needed resources from public schools. "Our charter schools,'' he said, "have been a great success -- competition works.'' We're not sure where that assessment is coming from. Many charter schools have closed statewide, and new ones have a difficult time getting on their feet."

All in all, it looks like Charter Schools are just one more enormous failure of the Pataki Administration...

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