There is a lot of debate going on in New York City about what “parents” want. Joe Williams rounds it up at Chalkboard for you.
Two thoughts (plus a bonus thought). First, it’s important to disentangle professional parents groups, which, not to put too fine of a point on it, are often shills for the teachers’ unions from average parents.* See, for instance, here and here. Second, the “parent groups” in New York City have now decided they oppose public charter schools there. This is probably tied into larger disagreements that these groups have with Bloomberg-Klein. But, considering the popularity of existing charter schools in New York City and the waiting lists, it is sort of ludicrous to say that “parents” oppose them. (Disc. I’m on the board of NYSCA).
*What’s also unfortunate here for Eduwonk’s money is that UFT head Randi Weingarten’s charter initiative is pretty forward looking though very controversial within the AFT. This will just complicate that.