Robert Bellafiore, president of the Charter Schools Institute of the State University of New York (SUNY) and a former public affairs staffer with The Business Council, will discuss the status of New York's public charter schools at the Sept. 19 meeting of The Council's Government Affairs Council (GAC).

Charter schools are public schools that operate independently of school-district bureaucracies. In exchange for this greater flexibility, they are held to a higher level of accountability. Charter schools operate under five-year licenses granted by SUNY and the state Board of Regents.

In 1998, lawmakers authorized creation of up to 50 public charter schools. Governor Pataki proposed that law, and The Business Council strongly supported it.

New York will have more than two dozen new public charter schools this September, as well as another six district public schools that have converted to charter status to take advantage of regulatory flexibility and autonomy provided under the charter school law.

Public charter schools are intended to create choice about schools for people who cannot afford private school, as well as competition for the existing public school system. One key goal is to move public education from a rules-based to a performance-based system, Bellafiore said.

Bellafiore was Governor Pataki's press secretary and then director of special projects from 1995 until September 1999, when he became executive director of the Charter Schools Institute. He became the Institute's president in September 2000.

Bellafiore is a founding member of the board of directors of the National Charter School Authorizers Association, an association that seeks to advance quality charter schools nationally.

Before joining the Pataki administration, he oversaw public relations activities for The Council.