High-ranking NYC officials will reportedly sue to block more charter schools

Feb. 10, 2014: New York Mayor Bill de Blasio delivers his State of the City address at LaGuardia Community College in the Queens borough of New York. (ap)

New York City's Public Advocate and City Council Speaker are suing to block charter schools from opening inside city public school buildings -- despite most of the plans being approved by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The New York Post reports that Public Advocate Letitia James and Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito are moving ahead with their lawsuit, with James holding an emergency meeting with parents in Brooklyn on Saturday to discuss the decision to proceed. James succeeded de Blasio as Public Advocate when the latter was sworn in as Mayor at the start of the year.

De Blasio is already facing a firestorm of criticism for cancelling space in city school building for three of nemesis Eva Moskowitz Success Academy charter schools that were approved last year by the Bloomberg administration.

But de Blasio actually gave the green light to 14 out of 17 charter schools — the overwhelming majority — to open as planned in facilities to be shared with traditional public schools.

The Post reports that opponents of co-locations were surprised –and infuriated — that de Blasio approved so many of the space sharing arrangements.

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