NEW YORK'S NOVEL WAY TO KILL CHARTER SCHOOLS

Ten years ago, New York joined the charter school revolution by passing a law to allow these innovative public schools to open; but now, thanks to the state's Department of Labor and a labor-friendly state judge, building a new charter school just got a lot harder and a lot more expensive.

• Last fall, as a sop to labor unions, Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith ordered charter schools to adhere to state "prevailing wage" requirements, which mandate paying union wages for construction projects and which typically add 30 percent or more to the cost of a project.
• Although charter schools have always been exempt from this state law, state trial judge Michael Lynch erroneously applied labor law to charter schools, contrary to anything intended by the legislature or precedent.

This ruling is an egregious example of the withering autonomy of charter schools. Charters successfully educate students on 70 percent of the funding spent by district school competitors. But the state's education bureaucracy, legislature and now the courts are all piling on regulatory burdens.

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