In Los Angeles and New York, Fights Escalate Over Sharing Schools with Charters

Actions in the nation’s two largest school districts are testing the idea that charter and traditional schools can exist under one roof. 

In Los Angeles, the school board is expected to vote this fall on a measure that could significantly limit the practice, known as co-location. 

And in New York, the United Federation of Teachers plans to appeal a judge’s Aug. 11 decision that allowed Success Academy, a large and high-performing charter network, to open new schools in two district facilities.

“In both New York City and L.A., the general relationship between traditional public and charter schools is not great, so asking schools from these two different sectors to share a building could be contentious,” Sarah Cordes, an associate professor at Temple University who has studied co-location, told The 74. “If schools view each other as competitors rather than collaborators, it will make co-location challenging.”

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