Opinion: Protect our public schools
The Sunset Park community for decades has been a strong supporter of our truly public schools, with a rich history of advocacy for them. It was community organizing and student protests against Mayor Bloomberg that brought about our first high school, Sunset Park High School, in 2009. The community pushed for more public schools in the 2010s to alleviate school overcrowding. That push united families across ethnic and racial backgrounds in Sunset Park and was highly successful. Within several years, Sunset Park built and converted spaces into six new neighborhood schools. Our public schools are critical institutions that represent our community’s cultures and history. Unfortunately, the fruits of that community labor and advocacy are being threatened by recent proposals to expand two charter schools in Sunset Park.
Brooklyn RISE recently started construction on a new four-story building to house a grade school and a middle school on 40th Street and Fourth Avenue, across the street from or in extremely close proximity to several public schools, while Brooklyn Prospect plans to expand its existing location on 39th Street by adding over 1,000 seats. These two proposed expansions of relatively small charters into large charters would have a dramatic impact on the Sunset Park school landscape. The timing of adding so many more charter school seats could not be worse, as many of our public schools are seeing low enrollment due to many factors, including the affordability crisis. Since 2018, Sunset Park public schools have seen enrollment decline by 5 percent each year, according to District 15 data. It’s bitterly ironic -- after fighting for years to build new schools, now we are dealing with an under-enrollment issue.
Do charter schools really offer more than our public schools?
Charter schools advertise themselves as offering “choice” and various programs not offered by local public schools. For Sunset Park public schools, this is not the case at all. Sunset Park now has a plethora of public school options that cater to our diverse student population’s needs, from multiple schools with ICT classes, dual-language programs and 12:1:1 smaller class sizes for students whose IEPs require that setting. Brooklyn RISE and Brooklyn Prospect do not offer dual-language programs or 12:1:1 learning. Brooklyn RISE’s student data says 40 percent of its student population was English language learners, yet during a Community Board 7 meeting, the principal of Brooklyn RISE admitted that there are no licensed ELL teachers at the school. We must ask who these charters will be serving in our diverse immigrant community. Brooklyn RISE already has a student population that’s 50 percent outside of Sunset Park. It’s hard to justify the school’s relocation back to Sunset Park, especially in light of the harm it could cause surrounding public schools.
How do charter schools hurt public schools?
The answer revolves around enrollment and how the New York Department of Education funds schools. Each school is allotted a certain amount of money per student. Fewer students equals less budget for the school. The two charter expansions threaten to make enrollment issues worse and take away resources from our truly public schools. Some Sunset Park schools have already started to see serious repercussions. One Sunset Park school had to convert the dedicated science teacher who taught all grades into a primary classroom teacher. Now the students are getting fewer science lessons and science classes are not taught in the designated STEAM room. Teachers in the school have done a valiant job making up for the unfortunate situation, but the best solution is to get enrollment up and restore the funding.
One other entity that will also be taking money away from Sunset Park public schools is the developer of the Brooklyn RISE building: Barone Management. Barone Management operates mainly as a charter school developer and uses a troubling model of “crowdfunding” from wealthy investors. It’s essentially a private equity model using our public school dollars for guaranteed returns for wealthy investors. Barone Management exploits the loophole of DOE paying 30 percent of each student’s funds toward rent, so more charter students equals higher rent paid, sending more public school money into the pockets of landlords. According to a 2025 City Council budget report, private landlords receive over a million dollars annually for Brooklyn Prospect’s lease on 39th Street, and almost $2 million annually for Brooklyn RISE’s current lease in Downtown Brooklyn. Think of how your local public school could use this money instead.
Ultimately our opposition to the expansion of Brooklyn Prospect and the creation of a new building for Brooklyn RISE is rooted in our deep desire to preserve and protect our cherished public schools. It’s a source of pride in the community to see our kids go to brand-new, local public schools with good resources for our students. Our public schools are a reflection of the work of the community and also truly reflect our values as a community. We want to see our public schools thrive and continue to serve Sunset Park’s diverse community. When something as vital to our community as our public schools is threatened, we must speak out and stand up for our truly public schools.