More charter schools may be coming to the city under a plan proposed Wednesday by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Speaking at a 10th anniversary celebration of charter schools at the Sisulu-Walker Charter school in Harlem, the mayor said if reelected, he would fight to abolish the cap put on charter schools by Albany.

Bloomberg’s plan would double the amount of charter schools in the city to 200. He is proposing that by 2013, almost 10 percent, or 100,000 public school seats will be charter.

“Charter schools like Sisulu have succeeded because they empower teachers and principals to set high expectations,” said Bloomberg. “They encourage innovation in the classroom. They create competition among schools for students. But most importantly, they give parents more options in deciding what’s best for their children.”

In addition, he pledged to raise $100 million in private funds for charter school facilities.

He is also pushing to use part of President Barack Obama’s “Promise Neighborhoods” funds for the creation of two new Children’s Zones, one in Brooklyn and one in the South Bronx.

Bloomberg said he would like to also see mayoral control extended to charter schools, with the schools chancellor gaining independent chartering authority. Currently the Board of Regents has final approval of charters.

His opponent in the mayor’s race, William Thompson, the city comptroller, says that while he favors increasing the number of charter schools, he disagrees with the mayor’s plan to lift the cap.

“I’ve talked about increasing the number of charter schools, but not lifting the cap. I still think it needs to go through the larger approval process,” Thompson said. “And I also I heard, I guess, they’re talking about having one board having multiple schools. That wasn’t the intention of charter schools. It isn’t to create little charter school corporations run by a board of directors. It’s to involve parents directly.”

Currently, there are 40,000 students on charter school wait lists.

Source: NY1