Bloomberg Education Plan to 'Promote Charter Schools'

Presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg’s "education plan will absolutely promote charter schools," his campaign told the New York Post on Monday.

"Mike’s education plan will absolutely promote charter schools," said Stu Loeser, a spokesperson for the former New York City mayor’s campaign.

“The record number of charter schools opened under Mayor Bloomberg is clear. That isn’t changing,” he added. “Few if any people in the country have opened more charter schools than Mike Bloomberg.”

The Queens Chronicle reported in 2013 that 175 charter schools opened in New York City after Bloomberg first took office.

"Mike Bloomberg was probably the premier champion of charter schools in the country," Ian Rowe, the CEO of charter school network Public Prep, told the Post.

"None of the other candidates seem to be listening to the low-income families who want great, tuition-free public schools for their children, including charter schools," he said.

Although Bloomberg and two of his fellow candidates, Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Michael Bennet, D-Col., have supported charter schools in the past, most candidates for the Democratic Party’s nomination have distanced themselves from them. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., released a plan that would eliminate the federal Charter School Program, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., would ban for-profit charter schools under his education plan.

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