When former City Council member Eva Moskowitz started in the charter school industry, her goals were clear: she planned to open schools in Harlem to save poor black and Hispanic children. She called her chain Harlem Success Academy and it was branded HSA. She said early on that her goal was to open 40 schools.
Now she is opening schools in some of the most affluent neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and the name of her chain has changed. It is no longer Harlem Success Academy. It is simply Success Academy. And about that goal of 40 schools? That’s gone too. She is up to 18 schools, but she says she’s flexible about the goal. It might be 30 or 40 or 50. Whatever.
Having just gotten the endorsement from the State University of New York to double her administrative fee to 15% per student (about $2000 per student), it is lucrative to keep expanding. And since she has some major Wall Street hedge fund managers on her board, the future is golden for Success.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I live in the neighborhood where Moskowitz has invaded. My 4th grader attends the local public school where the budget has been slashed every year since he’s been there. So it is galling to read that Charter Schools have not have the same austere measures imposed on them: Charter Schools Housed in the City’s School Buildings Get More Public Funding per Student than Traditional Public Schools http://ibo.nyc.ny.us/cgi-park/?p=272
Indeed, it seems as if Success Academy has money to burn. Over the course of this last academic year we have received monthly a glossy vibrant colored double-sided, three-page brochure touting the virtues of the school, begging us to apply. This is in addition to the full poster ads plastered at bus stops all over the neighborhood. I remember reading somewhere that she spent $800,000 on advertising. What a luxury.
Some parents are beginning to take notice but others still are not sure that it has anything to do with them as long as their children are doing fine. Fortunately for our school, we are able to patch the holes in the budget with aggressive fund raising, but this will not save us from overcrowding. Four new residential buildings zoned for our school have been built in recent years with a brand new one breaking ground right across the street. Yet the budget at our school continues to be slashed. Do you think Eva Moskowitz was aware of the real estate situation and that’s why she chose Cobble Hill?
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“Having just gotten the endorsement from the State University of New York to double her administrative fee to 15% per student (about $2000 per student), it is lucrative to keep expanding.”
What? Wait. How many NY public school teachers are SUNY graduates? Is SUNY leading to the demise of its own product? Isn’t this a huge conflict of interest?
I feel totally sold out. I earned three SUNY degrees in education, and now my alma mater supports a movement bent on making trained educators (me!), and the schools in which they serve, obsolete.
SUNY admission offices better wake up, as well as SUNY alumni organizations.Can’t wait to get the next phone call asking for my monetary contribution.
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The SUNY charter authorizing board is extremely charter-friendly.
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As is NYSED, sadly.
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