IT'S A UNION PROBLEM, NOT A PUBLIC VS. PRIVATE ONE:

What the unions hate (NY Post, June 26, 2010)

State test scores this week showed 100 percent of eighth-graders in the Harlem Village Academies achieved proficiency in science and social studies.

By contrast, in Harlem's traditional public schools, only 35 percent of eighth-graders made the grade in science, and 22 percent in social studies.

This continues a trend: New York charters -- public schools that operate free of union work rules and bureaucratic mandates -- are wildly outperforming their traditional counterparts in student test scores, graduation rates, college acceptances and other measures.

Not every charter in New York produces results on a par with the Harlem Village Academies.

But most are giving kids what too few traditional public schools are providing -- a real chance at an academic future.