NEW YORK – Last week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the pending evictions of 700 students from three high-achieving charter schools that were set to share space with several of the city’s traditional public schools in the fall.

Many believe the move is designed to appease officials with the United Federation of Teachers, the city’s teachers union, who despise non-union charter schools that are making a mockery of the dismal traditional public schools.

De Blasio was elected with the UFT’s massive political and financial backing.

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De Blasio’s decision to reverse the previously approved co-locations in underutilized public school buildings has ignited a fire within the city’s charter community, and it’s clear charter parents, officials and teachers are not going to simply accept their fate without a fight.

“On Tuesday, March 4, we will be joining charter parents and charter leaders across the city and state for a RALLY IN ALBANY, hosted by Families for Excellent Schools,” Eva Moskowitz, founder of Success Academy Charter Schools, wrote to the charter network’s parents. “This is a critical moment for our schools, and it would be great to have you with us as we fight for every child’s right to a high-quality education.”

Moskowitz’ Success Academies are among the top performing charter schools in the state, and are the main target for de Blasio’s anti-charter crusade. His rejection of the co-location of three Success Academies means about 700 students could be returned to their failing local schools.

Townhall pointed to the mayor’s comments at a forum last June in the New Yorker:

“There is no way in hell that Eva Moskowitz should get free rent, O.K.?” de Blasio said in response to a question about charter schools co-locating with traditional public schools.

De Blasio, like his union benefactors, contend New York City’s charter schools should not be allowed to use space in underutilized public school buildings, but the fact is the rent-free co-location arrangements are the only way charter schools can afford to do business in the city’s sky-high real estate market.

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De Blasio has yet to provide a clear reason for the co-location rejections. Statistics clearly suggest that the charter schools are very good for the students of New York, particularly those who come from poor neighborhoods with miserable schools.

“At Harlem 5, a ’22 Success’ (Moskowitz) charter school located in Harlem, 88 percent of the student body passed the state math exam. At PS 123, which shares the same building as Success, only 5 percent passed the same state exam,” Townhall reports. “But yeah … The obvious problem here is rent.”

De Blasio, the UFT, and the city’s progressive Democrats who support the mayor often argue they represent the city’s underprivileged, a claim which obviously conflicts with de Blasio’s recent co-location denials.

The contradiction, according to Townhall, raises an important question:

“If the betterment of the underprivileged is the goal, why is the city not doing everything it can to expand the footprint of ’22 Success’ (Moskowitz’ charter schools) and their educational progress?

“Well … The obvious answer is that a nine-year-old child from a one parent home, north of 115^th Street, simply doesn’t donate as much to the progressive cause as the United Federation of Teachers. Unions, after all, are unlikely to be ecstatic about a non-union school option that outperforms in such a phenomenal fashion.

“Parents, by the way, are overwhelmingly supportive of alternatives to the city’s abysmal public ed system. Last year, a Harlem charter program (soon to be shut down by de Blasio) received 2,665 applications for a mere 125 open positions.”

Shea Reeder, mother of a fifth-grader at Harlem Success Academy 4 – one of the schools denied co-location by de Blasio – recently wrote in to the New York Post to explain what the new mayor is throwing away.

“ … (C)onsider these scores: At my son’s middle school, 96 percent of students passed the math test, compared with 20 percent in the school district where I live. Fifty-three percent passed English, compared with 18 percent in my district.

“Parents need more options. To evict one of the best schools in New York City is crazy. And the city hasn’t given my family and other affected families any good alternatives. We’re on our own,” Reeder wrote.

De Blasio’s co-location rejections directly conflict with a promise he made to the city’s charter parents that the city will support successful charter schools. Instead, the city is forcing Reeder’s son to attend a crappy school next year, dimming his prospects for college and life.

“That is why we are going to do everything we can to fight this,” Reeder wrote. “We’re not going to let the city take our children’s future away from us. Today is just the beginning, because families like mine won’t stand for this.”

In other words, Mr. Mayor, this means war.