By Andrew Ujifusa
Former New York City mayor and one-time presidential candidate Michael R. Bloomberg has announced a $750 million effort to expand student enrollment in charter schools, pay for new charter facilities, and train teachers and principals who work in charters.
The five-year plan, announced by Bloomberg on Wednesday, aims to increase charter enrollment by 150,000 students, and will focus on 20 metro areas, including New York City. The initiative will also support research into charter schools, and prioritize help for educators of color “so charter school leadership can accurately reflect the diversity of their students.”
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed describing his strategy, which will be overseen by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Bloomberg said he wants his initiative to counter COVID-19’s effects on students and fill the gap left by what he describes as traditional public schools’ failures since the pandemic began.
