In the last few years, charter schools and autonomous schools have been shown to be especially effective in reaching educational goals for quality and excellence; successfully increasing education levels in many parts of the country.
New York is a noteworthy example of this success; the city, under the leadership and encouragement of their mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has witnessed how these schools have contributed to notable improvements in the education levels of students.
Charter schools are an essential part of the success that we’ve seen in the New York educational system in recent years. Resoundingly positive academic results have made it possible for Michael Bloomberg to push through the creation of more than 60 autonomous schools during his term as Mayor so far and in the 2009 school year alone New York has opened 20 new schools.
In order to confirm the effectiveness of this type of schools in New York, we can look at some facts. 4th grade students enrolled in charter schools surpassed their peers in the rest of the city by 7 percentage points in the state exams for mathematics and 8th grade students surpassed their peers by 16 percentage points. These numbers talk, and they only have good things to say about this new educational system based on the principles of adaptation, personal focus, effort and independent planning to set and reach important goals.

But why is this method and the support of this method by leaders like Michael Bloomberg so important? It is important because in education a permanent and constant priority must be finding innovative ways to offer children a quality education that really schools them in a well-rounded way as human beings, and individuals, using competitive standards, teaching them and opening their minds so that they may become citizens with a world of options and possibilities at their fingertips. Charter schools, be they in the hands of individuals, foundations, or institutions, have placed a competitive option in the market. These schools, in their pursuit of excellence and their very distinct way of pursuing said excellence, are an option that can provide extraordinary results for students and neighborhoods that have been neglected in the past. Focused on and dedicated to the future of his city, Michael Bloomberg has had the vision and the knowledge necessary to strengthen and establish these schools in New York, working shoulder to shoulder with those individuals who are achieving excellence in education, people like Shirley Rodríguez Remeneski, the founder of the Bronx’s Global Learning Institute for Girls; a bilingual charter school in south Bronx, that offers girls in kindergarten and first grade a quality education in a technologically advanced environment and includes a wide variety of extracurricular activities.
Bloomberg’s educational plans aim to increase the number of charter schools in New York to more than 100 for fall 2010; a change that would propel the NYC educational system to continue improving and advancing, and achieving significant academic results. Apart from generally improved standardized test scores obtained by students enrolled in charter schools, these results provide an important point of reference and model for more traditional schools.
In New York, Mayor Bloomberg has revitalized the educational system by encouraging new charter and autonomous schools, contributing to a 20.2 percentage point increase in graduation rates for the last four years in the Bronx’s secondary schools, not to mention improvements in standardized test scores. In the Bronx, the reading level for 8th graders has gone up 24.7 percentage points and for 8th grade mathematics, the level has gone up 45.3 percentage points. This initiative by the mayor has reduced the disparity in academics between Caucasians and Hispanics, thanks to an increased graduation rate for Hispanics enrolled in these programs.
Additionally, this alternative expansion of this educational system in the city has created 66,000 additional openings for students in schools as well as the construction of the Sunset Park High School and the Gregorio Luperon High School in Washington Heights; schools that opened their doors to host students of predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods where schools were already crowded.

Through his initiatives in favor of charter and autonomous schools, Michael Bloomberg actively demonstrates his commitment to education in New York, and contributes to its improvement in a real and effective way. If politics is truly about doing good works and working for the public, then New York’s mayor is doing a brilliant job, at least as it concerns the city’s educational system, creating opportunities and options for the general population and especially for those who need these opportunities the most. In the long run, and in general, these individuals, if given a chance, have a huge capacity for hard work and professional excellence; these students are the future of not only New York City and state, but the entire country.