Struggles Of Opening Charter School

Tom Vander Ark’s New York-Area Charter Schools Falter

Tom Vander Ark, the former executive director of education for the Gates Foundation, says a weak economy hurt efforts by City Prep Academies to start schools in New York and New Jersey. Enlarge This Image Mr. Vander Ark, the foundation’s former executive director of education and a national leader in the online learning movement, was granted charters in 2010 to open a high school in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and two others in Newark. The New York school, Brooklyn City Prep, also got space in a public school building — a precious and controversial commodity — hired a principal, and welcomed applications from 150 eighth graders this spring.