Petition Started To Stop Charter School Opening In Wash Heights Church

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — A petition to stop a charter school from opening in a Washington Heights church has received hundreds of signatures as of Tuesday morning.

The petition looks to halt an unspecified charter school from opening in the Fort Washington Collegiate Church at 729 W. 181st St.

The "Stop Charter School from opening on 181st St & Fort Washington Ave before it is too late" petition has been signed by 367 people. It has a goal of 500 signatures.

"The opening of the charter school at this location will have a negative fiscal impact on at least five nearby elementary schools that serve predominantly immigrant, English language learners, and moderate to low-income families," reads the petition. "At a time when our public schools are struggling with budget cuts while taking in the influx of migrant families in our neighborhood, we can not allow charter schools to undermine their ability to provide all students with a quality education."

Charter schools are free for students, publicly funded, and independently run alternatives to public schools that can be managed drastically different from school to school and state to state.

People against charter schools argue that they take money from already under resourced public schools, while people that are pro-charter school argue that they can offer a strong alternative in areas with under performing public schools.

The petition also goes on to argue that a new charter school will lead to a "traffic nightmare" near the already crowded 181st Street intersection. In its reasoning, the petition blames the Success Academy charter school at 701 Fort Washington Ave. (West 191st Street) for "severe traffic issues" in that area.

The petition specifies Civic Builders, an organization that "builds charter school buildings for students in neighborhoods where the need is greatest" as the force behind the attempted opening of a school at the Fort Washington Collegiate Church.

Civic Builders did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment.

Multiple people that signed the petition pointed to the fact that there are many charter schools in Upper Manhattan already, including multiple KIPP charter school locations, a Zeta charter school, Success Academy and more.

"This community does not need another charter school," one person who signed the petition wrote. "It needs fully funded truly public education. The church space could serve a more needed function in the community."