The school district of Rochester, N.Y., claims a budget shortfall of more than $50 million while spending about $36,000 per student, by our analysis. Rochester’s charter schools operate on budgets of less than $17,000 per student, including federal grants, yet have double the percentage of students achieving at or above grade level. That’s double the performance for about half the cost.

One-third of all K-12 students in Rochester now attend charter schools, and thousands more are on waitlists. Taxpayers could save more than $400 million and students would do better if all the schools were charter schools. We are close to the day when urban voters will catch on.

Bryan Hickman

Vice president, EDceptional Inc.

Rochester, N.Y.

By ignoring clear data showing that New York City charter schools outperform district schools in reading, writing and math, Mayor Zohran Mamdani—who has snubbed charter school leaders—is acting irresponsibly.

Allow me to draw a comparison to the field of medicine. If this were a clinical trial and one cohort clearly outperformed another in measurable outcomes, it would be wrong to disregard the data. It would be unethical to withhold access to the successful “treatment” from the failing cohort. Yet this is precisely what Mr. Mamdani appears to be doing. His refusal to engage with charter-school leaders suggests that political alliances matter more than outcomes for the New York families he claims to champion.

In any other data-driven field, such deliberate disregard of evidence would be indefensible.

Valerie Schadlow van Beek, M.D.

Ridgefield, Conn.