Sadly, Governor Andrew Cuomo was unable to give the keynote speech at the fund-raising dinner for Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charter chain because he was leading a trade delegation to Cuba, but the charter chain still raised $9.3 million from her supporters in the hedge-fund community.
Education activist Leonie Haimson reports a story that appears behind a paywall at capitalnewyork.com. Be sure the read the report embedded at the end of the story below, about the hedge-fund managers and conservatives who support Success Academy. The report was compiled by the “HedgeClippers,” a group that calls itself “dark money’s newest nightmare.” The report lists the 50 hedge fund managers, spouses, and allies who contribute to Success Academy.
by Jessica Bakeman, Eliza Shapiro and Conor Skelding
SUCCESS ACADEMY’S $9.3 M. NIGHT—Capital’s Eliza Shapiro and Conor Skelding: “The Success Academy charter school network raised $9.3 million at its third annual spring benefit on Monday night, according to an attendee, up from $7.7 million at last year’s benefit. The figure was announced by Dan Loeb, a hedge fund manager who serves as the chairman of Success’ board of directors. The event was held at Cipriani in midtown Manhattan. Congressman Hakeem Jeffries delivered the keynote address at the benefit, in lieu of Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was slated to give the keynote before his trade visit to Cuba was planned for the same day.
“Jeffries, who represents parts of Brooklyn and Queens, is a longtime supporter of charter schools. ‘I stand here because I unequivocally support quality public education and that’s what Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy provide,’ Jeffries said during his speech, according to a quote posted on Success’ Twitter account. ‘It’s easier to raise strong children than it is to repair broken men,’ he also said.
“Television host Katie Couric, Weekly Standard founder William Kristol, California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Gregory Meeks of Queens and former Department of Education chancellor Joel Klein also attended the benefit, according to the attendee and Twitter posts. Loeb, philanthropist Eli Broad, and Campbell Brown, the television anchor turned education reformer, spoke. Brown sits on Success’ board of directors. Success’ controversial founder and C.E.O. Eva Moskowitz addressed the crowd, asking audience members to ‘visit our schools and become an ambassador for education reform,’ according to Success’ Twitter feed.” [PRO] http://capi.tl/1E4tvFR
—Meanwhile, “an advocacy group affiliated with the Alliance for Quality Education, a teachers’ union-backed organization, has released a report on the donors and board members of the Success Academy charter school network. The report, released by the group HedgeClippers, details the well-documented support the controversial network has received from hedge fund managers in particular. HedgeClippers describes itself as ‘dark money’s newest nightmare’ and is backed by the Strong Economy for all Coalition, which is, in turn, partially funded by teachers’ unions, including the United Federation of Teachers and New York State United Teachers.
“The report argues that ‘many of Success Academy’s hedge fund board members contribute to political causes that harm the population that Success claims to serve’ by supporting various conservative causes. … Success C.E.O. Eva Moskowitz has responded to criticism about the network’s donors by pointing to the long history of philanthropic giving to education causes, and noting that hedge fund managers also give to organizations that support parks, museums and domestic violence centers.” Capital’s Eliza Shapiro: http://capi.tl/1DEfnBQ
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Egads … this shows WHO they truly are. No morals, no love … just GREED and grab for power. It’s so colonist. Remember what these kind of people did to the Hawaiian Kingdom and for their profits no less. Think about the Native Americans, too, and what was done to them disguised as for their own good. Sick. Does anyone remember HISTORY?
LikeLike
This comes to about $930 per enrolled Success student, which is in the same ballpark as the PTA “ask” at wealthy neighborhood schools like PS 321, PS 41, PS 199, etc: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/nyregion/at-wealthy-schools-ptas-help-fill-budget-holes.html
LikeLike
Tim, if you actually had kids in public school, you would understand that the PTAs only ask for a donation of as much as a parent is willing and able to give — even at those schools. They may have suggested donations, but it is nonsense to think that any amount is presented as anything other than a suggestion. More to the point — NO ONE knows who donated what, except for one or two people who are not allowed to talk about it. If any parents feels pressure to donate, it is only internal. The principal does not know. Your child’s teacher does not know. But what’s sad is that at the wealthiest public schools, parents’ contributions do make up a small amount of what Success Academy gets through donations, government grants (they get huge largesse from the federal government) and free rent and maintenance.
Funny how you mention $930 per student. Let’s calculate the total rent that Eva Moskowitz has forced public school children to pay for her new middle school in Harlem. How many millions does it cost THIS YEAR for the handful of students there? Oh yes, I forgot we can’t know that, because she also spent some of her well-earned money to hire lawyers to sue to prevent any audits.
How about if Eva Moskowitz uses some of that $9 million to reinstate lottery preference for low-income students zoned for failing public schools? How about if she reinstates the ELL priority? Nope? Enough said.
LikeLike
How many times do we need to go through the “if you really had kids in public school” routine?
LikeLike
As many times as Tim makes the error of implying that every parent at PS 321 and PS 199 is “asked” to donate $930. I’m sorry that I assumed his error was because he did not have kids in a public school, since any parent would understand that there is absolutely no obligation to contribute a penny and no one knows if you did. Are you saying that he already knew this and was just implying the opposite in order to pretend that every school would not be helped by an additional $9 million? Oh gosh, it’s so hard for the Success Academy people to decide if money helps or is not at all necessary. They always claim that more money doesn’t help failing schools, but of course, it helps their schools!
LikeLike
In the context of fundraising, the “ask” is the suggested donation amount. The two public schools my kids attend each have “asks,” and they are higher than $930. Do I understand that I am not obligated to meet the ask? Yes. Do I nonetheless feel pressure to meet the ask? Yes.
LikeLike
The funny thing is that up until you wrote this very post, I never gave it a second thought whether *you* were an actual New York City public school parent. Now I’m not so sure.
Because there is enormous pressure at many schools to donate; who has and hasn’t donated, and how much, is absolutely known and discussed, sometimes very widely; and PTA leaders and even principals will threaten cuts to services if funding levels aren’t reached.
I didn’t think it was possible not to know this.
LikeLike
Tim, you are just plain wrong. You claim that parents know and discuss who has and hasn’t donated — even FLERP! isn’t going to pretend that is true, I’d guess. You seem to be more than willing to state as categorically true things that are demonstrably false! I was giving you the benefit of the doubt by thinking you just didn’t know because you didn’t have a child in a public school, but it seems you just were wrong on purpose.
FLERP, you may feel “pressure”, but I doubt very much if even half the parents in your school donate that much. I doubt if even 1/4 donate that much. So if the majority of parents aren’t donating that so-called ask, I doubt that pressure is very strong. Are you really claiming most parents donate that much?
LikeLike
You are living in a fantasy land, or maybe your experiences are with a school that has very modest expectations for its PTA budget (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
LikeLike
I don’t know how the donation stats break down. I think a lot of parents donate above the ask, sometimes significantly above, and a lot of parents donate below the ask or don’t donate at all.
Before this mini-trial gets away from us, I would note that I *think* that the only point Tim was initially making was that the money raised at this SA fundraiser is comparable to the money raised by the more affluent public schools in the city. You could challenge that assertion or debate its implications, but I don’t see how any of this hinges on whether donations at these schools are coerced, voluntary, or something in between.
LikeLike
Tim, how are you so knowledgeable about public schools that you think I am “living in a fantasyland”? You still want to insist that it is public knowledge who does and does not donate?
Perhaps things are different at charter schools, but you might be surprised to know that the only people raising funds are parents who volunteer their time to serve on a committee that sends out a letter asking for money. If you really think that those parents have time to track each of the 700+ parents at the school to figure out who does and does not give, and then gossips about the ones who don’t, then you are either terribly misinformed or purposely lying. What public school do you think does this? If you can’t come up with an answer, then you are obviously making this up as you go along. Why?
LikeLike
By the way, FLERP obviously attends one of those schools that you think do NOT have “modest budgets”. I wonder if FLERP will be willing to go on record stating that everyone gossips and who does and doesn’t donate to the annual fund. I would venture to bet that FLERP has no idea whether and how much half the parents in his own child’s class donated. But I don’t know if FLERP is ever willing to contradict you, Tim, so let’s see.
LikeLike
I don’t want to sound sexist, but this is a question that my wife could answer better than I can. She’s been on the PTAs and has been involved with fundraising. It is my impression that there is gossip that emanates from the inner circle. I know who the biggest doners are. Anything more detailed than that goes in my one ear and out the other, because I barely know any other parents and I have zero attention span for stories about strangers. I could ask my wife, although that might risk reminding her of what a terrible listener I am.
LikeLike
Excuse me for dialing in late here, but am I reading this correctly: In NYC parents are asked to give donations to the public schools and there are suggested amounts by the PTA?
LikeLike
Yes! Here is a fairly run-of-the-mill “ask” letter from a zoned school on the Upper East Side: http://www.ps290.org/www/02m290/site/hosting/PTA%20Annual%20Appeal%202014-2015/Donation%20Form%202014-2015.pdf
LikeLike
FLERP, why is it impossible for you to call out Tim when he posts something so blatantly incorrect? Instead you are convoluting yourself (and ignoring what he said in plain English) to pretend that he didn’t lie. Here it is again: “Because there is enormous pressure at many schools to donate; who has and hasn’t donated, and how much, is absolutely known and discussed, sometimes very widely..”
If you and Tim weren’t connected in some way, you’d have no need to defend such a blatant lie and try so hard to change the subject. And while some parents HAPPILY donate more than the suggested amount, even MORE of them donate less or not at all! I think you are agreeing with me that most parents don’t feel that pressure since most aren’t donating! But with you, it is always hard to tell. You are far too busy defending the silly things that Tim says — how about just telling him to try to keep the debate honest? (And if you don’t want to do it here, just do it privately!)
LikeLike
This is a “blatant lie”?
“Because there is enormous pressure at many schools to donate; who has and hasn’t donated, and how much, is absolutely known and discussed, sometimes very widely.”
There is pressure to donate, I agree with that. Is it “enormous”? I don’t know, compared to what? How about we say “a lot” of pressure?
Does this pressure exist at “many schools”? This seems reasonable to me, based on what I’ve read and heard, although it’s true that I can’t quantify the pressure felt by each parent at every school.
Do people “know and discuss . . . who has and hasn’t donated, and how much”? Yes, I think so. Does everyone do it? Probably not. Is it discussed “widely”? Arguably yes, and depending on how wide “widely” means. How often is it discussed “widely”? Tim asserts “sometimes,” which seems like a reasonable estimate.
Tim is more than capable of defending his own arguments. But yes, I do like Tim. He writes well, he’s insightful, and his perspective and voice strike me as authentic. I identify with him. I’ve exchanged comments with him online for years now (a sobering thought), and even though I don’t actually know who he is, I consider him a friend. But I don’t want to get all sentimental.
Because I like Tim, and because I would generally prefer to hear his voice more rather than less, I do refrain from picking fights with him over tangential points. You might want to step back and ask yourself if your dislike of Tim has any impact on your own comments.
LikeLike
Flerp, I hope that my mother’s boyfriend has gotten caught up on his payments and had his internet restored so she can read your wonderful comment.
LikeLike
FLERP, it’s funny because I find that your reply is so truthful, but also explains the reason we disagree so frequently. You don’t seem to mind if people offer misleading or incorrect information to support their point of view, as long as their point of view agrees with yours. It’s as if you feel as if you can’t defend Success Academy on its merits, so you always have to distort the argument with incorrect facts, or support those who do. Why?
If Success Academy is doing the right thing, it should be able to be defended with truthful statements. This discussion was about the enormous amount of money — over $9 million — that Success Academy raised in a single evening. I don’t understand why Tim had to pretend it wasn’t really much money because rich public schools get that from their parents all the time. You and I both know that no public school gets an average of $930/student in direct donations from parents. (Check with your wife on that.) So why does Tim have to insist that we do? And if you ask your wife, I’m sure she will also tell you that while a big donor might be SO unusual that there is some quiet gossip, there is never gossip about who does NOT donate or who donates a small amount. Why pretend otherwise? Why did Tim need to pretend otherwise? That is what I don’t understand.
The fact that you can’t (nicely) point out when someone who is pro-charter blithely insists that something is true when it is not speaks volumes. If you had ignored it, I would have assumed you didn’t notice it. But to defend it without saying to Tim, “hey buddy, let’s try to be truthful here because these kinds of wrong statements just make us look bad”? Why are you contorting yourself into NOT pointing out a lie? Perhaps YOU will re-read what you wrote and think about that.
By the way, FLERP, you said your wife helps fundraise for your school’s PTA. Ask her how much “pressure” there is to donate. I think you will be surprised at her answer. My guess it that it is “almost none”.
LikeLike
“You and I both know that no public school gets an average of $930/student in direct donations from parents. (Check with your wife on that.) So why does Tim have to insist that we do? ”
Before I type anymore, would it matter to you if you learned that there are some public schools that get an average of $930 in direct donations from parents?
LikeLike
FLERP!, that is a very fair question. In fact, after I posted that I tried to find out if I posted too hastily and if you know of schools that do average that much (only in Direct Appeal), please post here. While I could not find any PTA budgets posted, a school like Anderson, because they have few students and some very wealthy parents, may surpass that average. That NY Times article was a bit misleading because it referred to all income, including from after school programs — which some school’s PTA’s run – as if that money was direct donations from wealthy parents and not fees that is offset to a large degree by the expenses of running the after school program. The relevant line in the budget is money from the Direct Appeal, or Annual Appeal, which usually has relatively little expense associated with it. There may be a few schools averaging nearly $1,000 per student in a direct contribution from parents, but even among wealthy schools, that is quite unusual as far as I know. Perhaps your school is different, but if there is a public school getting almost all the parents yo donate at least the ask, I would like to know their secret!
I do think the PS 290 donation letter that Tim posted speaks for itself. There is no pressure to donate anything beyond (perhaps) a token $50. The reason those higher amounts are mentioned, believe it or not, is because some public school families are embarrassed to donate large amounts because they don’t want to seem to be showing off. Contrary to your belief that people are talking, most public school parents who help the PTA fundraise understand that the last thing most parents want is to be the subject of gossip for a large donation. That’s a way to discourage them from donating next year! But by listing a high amount in the letter (along with other much smaller amounts) that parent will feel comfortable donating it if they do have the means.
If you know that PS 321 — which has over 1400 students — is raising over $1.4 million in their direct appeal (not total income), I would be quite surprised. But I was wrong to post as if I knew it for a fact. Feel free to correct me! (But, you should also feel free to correct Tim, too – why shouldn’t we all try to be truthful and if we make a factual error, admit it?)
LikeLike
“direct donations from parents”… Do Campbell Brown, Katie Couric, Eli Broad and Dan Loeb have children enrolled in Success Academy or, is their involvement a political statement, unlike that of parents spending for the education of their own children?
Altruism, as a cover for union busting, concentration of wealth, privatization of public services, driving down wages and benefits, segregation, pay inequality, pension gutting?
LikeLike
Linda,
I am willing to bet $100 that Katie Couric, Dan Loeb, and Campbell Brown do not send their own children to Eva’s schools. In 2010, when my book “The Death and Life of the Great American School System” was published, Katie Couric taped an interview with me for 30 minutes. It never aired. Now I know why.
LikeLike
Diane,
Years ago, after watching a Today show program, hosted by Couric, a family member described her as cunningly manipulative.
While interviewing you, Couric probably recognized she had failed to achieve a hatchet job, an objective, linked to her career advancement.
Thank you for your willingness to sit across from people who pretend at humanity .
LikeLike
@twenty-nine years Yes, NYC parents of means contribute to their children’s schools and many schools have set “asks.” Somehow there is $100 million dollars to pay Success Academy rents, but parents have to cough up money for their children’s art, music, gym teachers, and librarians. You may have guessed that in lower income areas the children go without these things, because their parents can’t pay.
LikeLike
Or, it comes to about $2.54 per public school student in the state of NY..
There are 2,654,700 of public school students in NY according to the National Bureau of Education Statistics.
Of these, EVA serves how many?
What is her value-added?
LikeLike
Huh, I guess when you put it that way, $9.3 million isn’t a significant amount of money at all.
LikeLike
FLERP!, maybe this will help.
Let’s take an average public school, with 120 students per grade (not particularly big). Let’s give them the $930 per student that certain commentators insist parents donate directly to the school. Wow! That school just raised nearly $670,000! Nope, that won’t make a difference at all. I mean, who needs an extra teacher per grade to keep class size down? Let them eat cake!
LikeLike
FLERP!,
If you could please get ahold of that insignificant amount and forward it to me I’d appreciate it!
Thanks in advance!!
Duane
LikeLike
How about we reframe the argument. Success Academy is not hurting the public schools that are in high rent districts (much anyway) is my guess. The schools that are hurt by the diversion of funds are those that serve low income populations that are never going to be able to raise $930/student from PTA functions. We already know that public school funding is not equitable. So what is the rationale for diverting funds from schools that are already treated unfairly for an organization that can raise $9.3 million in one night at what I am guessing was a ritzy affair that cost much more than most PTAs raise in a year and probably several years.
LikeLike
Well, for one thing, those public schools you cite aren’t trying to pretend that they have some sort of secret sauce or that they serve the same kids with the same amount of money, so if other schools can’t get their results, they must be “failing”….
LikeLike
The “secret sauce” here is actually “juice,” as in the shake-down business.
You know, stuff that RICO was put together to take care of…
LikeLike
I don’t care if they raise twice that amount or more. But either play by the same rules as public schools (transparency of finances for starters), or get off the dole and become a private school.
LikeLike
Tim, is that letter from PS 290 your example of “high pressure tactics”? Really? Sometimes I can’t tell if you are just ignorant or just acting that way in order to deceive. When you retract your statement that parents feel pressure to donate, or that they gossip about who does NOT donate, I will start to have a smidgeon of respect for you.
LikeLike
As usual, Tim’s logic is flawed, in service of misdirecting attention away from the issue at hand, fabricating straw men, and painting charters in a more favorable light.
The hedge funders are donating additional money to SA, which also receives public funds that are diverted from the public schools.
Affluent public school parents who donate to their school’s PTA, Tim’s fantasies about sinister “pressures” notwithstanding, take no resources from other public schools. While it may be evidence of inequality in an unequal society – made more so by the rapid metastasis of charter schools, by the way – it harms no one, unlike Moskowitz’s efforts to displace special education and other students from the public school buildings she seeks to take over.
False analogy, false argument.
LikeLike
Maybe Cuomo will attend the SECOND Success Academy Spring Benefit next Monday (4/27) at Cipriani. Only $15,000 a table. He owes them an explanation regarding the charter cap delay.
LikeLike
Please ignore. NO second benefit. My mistake.
LikeLike
Some day I will learn to read all the comments before deciding whether to respond. More often than not, someone else like you, Michael, has already said what I wanted to add. (The only problem with not sticking my two cents in is that I don’t get the follow-up comments.)
LikeLike
The mere existence of the non-integrated school — its zone lines carefully drawn and viciously protected — is harmful to other children. Particularly when we understand the history behind how zones got (and stay) that way. Allowing parents living within those privileged zones to then massively supplement their child’s education without so much as offering a small tribute to the school a couple of blocks over? Also harmful!
Your railing about a diversion of funding is an attempt to hide a fundamental truth: it costs the DOE much less to educate a kid in a charter than it does in a district school. When kids leave an individual school, whether it is to move to a suburb or another state, to go to a private or religious school, or to go to a charter, then that individual school is going to lose some funding. Whether or not that funding eventually ends up back in another traditional public school is irrelevant unless your very top priority is the employment count in traditional public schools.
LikeLike
Tim, Success Academy is guilty of using those “Zones” you claim are so harmful to guarantee that some schools will have mostly affluent students and not too many low-income ones.
Remember when Success Academy opened one of its first schools in very wealthy District 15? They immediately DROPPED lottery priority for kids zoned for failing schools! Why? Because they didn’t want THOSE kids to get priority over the kids who lived in that very wealthy district!
Then, Success Academy opened schools in even wealthier District 2, Manhattan! Again, no priority for any student except those in the district. And guess what? EMPTY SEAT! They preferred to have empty seats rather than to let those poor kids from out of district get in.
Finally, when Success Academy insisted they need a 3rd school in wealthy District 2 — where ONLY parents who could afford to live in District 2 got priority — their true intentions were quite evident. Apparently, despite nonexistent wait lists in wealthy District 2 (and long ones in very poor districts in the Bronx), they needed yet another school where District 2 kids got priority! Hmmm……
It does seem rather crazy that hedge funders are donating to schools like UWSA and SA Union Square where most of the students are very well off! Does Eva Moskowitz make sure that most of that $9 million goes to her schools that serve mostly poor students? Or does a “fair share” go to the growing number of Success Academy schools that ONLY allow students who live in the very wealthy districts where they are located to attend?
Why isn’t Tim criticizing Success Academy for their segregated (by income) schools? Success had the power to change that, but instead, they used the school zones to insure high income schools and low-income schools. Shameful. And are they sending the high income students from UWSA (in District 3) to middle school in District 2, while the low-income students in the other District 3 SA schools go to a different middle school? Wow, just wow. Tim, we are going to judge Success Academy on what it DOES. Because actions speak much louder than words, don’t you agree?
LikeLike
The most segregated public schools in NYC are less segregated than charters, and the hidden costs of charters – collocations, transportation, etc. – don’t figure into the numbers you cite.
Another fail.
LikeLike
For Utah, “only” $930 per student is one seventh of the money that each Utah student gets per year (about $6100 per student). I know it’s way more expensive in New York, but nearly $1000 per child is no small chunk of change.
And that’s the point. These hedge fund managers wouldn’t put one dime into true public schools, but they put MILLIONS into charter schools. What if they put that money into the schools that 90% of students attend? It would spread out to fewer dollars per student, but schools are good at spreading the money thin.
And I’ve never heard of PTAs asking for money like this. Is this maybe just an NYC thing? We can barely get parents to pay the $5.00 yearly dues. The closest we get to PTA funding is the occasional dances the PTA puts on for $1.00 per student.
LikeLike
The $9.3 million donated in one night at the Spring Benefit is just a fraction of the annual private donations made by SA beneficiaries.
In 2013 SA received $77 million in public funds and $22 million in private donations.
They should consider spending some of that moola on diapers or depends so their “scholars” can wet themselves in relative comfort.
http://www.businessinsider.com/students-wetting-pants-success-academy-charter-schools-2015-4
LikeLike
“We can barely get parents to pay the $5.00 yearly dues. The closest we get to PTA funding is the occasional dances the PTA puts on for $1.00 per student.”
I suspect that a lot of NYC public schools, perhaps most, are like this. NYC is an odd, messed-up place. It’s probably unfortunate that so much of the discourse on education policy comes out of NYC, given how the gulf between how schools work here and how they work in most of the rest of the country.
LikeLike
Certainly a lot of the FAILING schools in NYC don’t get those kinds of dollars. And if Success Academy subsidizes its’ students’ education to the tune of $77 million in public funds and $22 million in private donations, it is quite unconscionable for Eva Moskowitz to go around the country claiming that class size doesn’t matter, those failing schools don’t need more money, Success Academy students are exactly like the ones at failing public schools and we educate every child who wins our lottery and it costs LESS money than public schools get.
Can you imagine if a PTA President at a school that raises $1,000 per student went around bashing poor public schools that don’t raise any money and criticizing them for not getting the good state test results that their school gets? Because that is what Eva Moskowitz seems to be doing, and it is, frankly, unseemly. And I would say that to a PTA President who did such a thing, even if it was the PTA president at my child’s public school.
LikeLike
@Tim Except that at those schools the contributions are being made by parents of actual students, as opposed to this benefit where the donors are not parents.
LikeLike
From the posting:
[start]
“Jeffries, who represents parts of Brooklyn and Queens, is a longtime supporter of charter schools. ‘I stand here because I unequivocally support quality public education and that’s what Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy provide,’ Jeffries said during his speech, according to a quote posted on Success’ Twitter account. ‘It’s easier to raise strong children than it is to repair broken men,’ he also said.
[end]
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” [Frederick Douglass]
Any wonder why I call the words and deeds of the “thought leaders” and heavyweights of the “education reform” movement as being excellent examples of smash-and-grab?
Also, a reminder that the promoters and advocates of charters constantly remind us that they are just like “public schools.”
¿And the numerous instances of public schools holding similar fundraisers?
😎
LikeLiked by 1 person
The 1%ers strike again!
LikeLike
This story reminds me so very much of the book: Almer Gantry. A distinct parallel exists. The hypocrite raises a lot of money while those really doing the work struggle.
LikeLike
$9.3 million in one night?
Now that’s what I call “$ucce$$”
LikeLike
Yep,
$ucce$$ Ackademy!
They don’t play Slim Whitman there.
LikeLike
Calling EVAlue magic. It should attract a bunch of corporate hedge-fund managers investing in her Slave Academy–or a giant gorilla cookie factory.
LikeLike
FWIW, 9 Million dollars would run our district here in Northern NY for about 5 months.
LikeLike
How many students are there in your district?
LikeLike
850
LikeLike
There are 10,000 kids currently enrolled in Success schools. They start out with about $14,000 in state and local funding per child.
LikeLike
And my rural district in Missouri spends about $8,000 per student.
LikeLike
Maybe we can get Eva to fundraise for us.
LikeLike
Schools in my district (ring suburb of Chicago) spend a little over $6,000 per student.
LikeLike
Let me know how that plan pans out Duane.
LikeLike
Duane
The idea to having fund raising done for your school is not a bad one.
Locate a fundraiser near your school. St. Louis will have some. Let he or she talk about the wonderful faculty and what they have achieved without funding, all your strong points. Then have he or she (oh, just them!) hit up all the corporations in the state, put banners up throughout the schools neighborhood, invite the CEO to an award dinner. Can’t hurt to try!!
LikeLike
Tim, there are 700 students in my kid’s elementary school. Does my elementary school have a $9.8 million budget? Just for teaching staff and materials, since rent and maintenance is obviously free? That seems like far more than our public school has to spend each year, even with the high teacher salaries, but is that what you believe?
LikeLike
The DOE is spending way, way more than 9.3 million per 700 children this year. How much of it actually reaches your child’s school is another matter, but that is a topic that a lot of people don’t want to explore.
LikeLike
It’s a topic that’s been explored a lot on this blog – how much is wasted with technology, testing, consultants, professional development and other sorts of contracts.
LikeLike
I am happy to explore it. Why not? Some of it is spent on charter schools, too, but that never gets allocated to them! What about pension payments to retired teachers? A student in a public school is charged for them and not the charter school? Why should that be the case? How about all those consultants Bloomberg hired? All charged to public school students and not charter schools? Who pays Pearson for the state tests? Is that a DOE expense that gets charged to public and not charter schools? How about the grading of them? Public school students again?
I am ALL for transparency! In charter schools and public schools. I think Success Academy schools and the entire network should be audited, and I think that the DOE should be audited as well. Agree?
LikeLike
Tim
Can you list all of the unfunded state mandates that SA charters must pay for?
LikeLike
Sound like Eva…Peron. Waiting for one of you more clever readers to come up w/a parody of “Don’t Cry for Me New York City” (or New York state, for that matter).
LikeLike
Can someone explain exactly how Wall Street types are being enriched or benefiting through their voluntary support of charter schools? Does an already wealthy person become wealthier by helping kids in poor neighborhoods get a quality education? If so then maybe we need more of this type of avarice! Criticisms of this sort in NYC are hypocritical as all members of the public benefit enormously from the generosity of the philanthropists for the museums, libraries and parks – so why not for the elementary schools? The unions and their defenders will really say anything to deflect attention from the real scandal – the current separate and unequal public elementary school structure their failed approaches have created. Thousands of children and families have no options except terrible schools – and millions are being expended each year in taxpayer dollars to support these failing schools. The successful charters schools are being so viciously attacked because they can offer a first rate education to the same students using the same resources. Taxpayers should be demanding that all the failing schools be handed over to them.
LikeLike
“Thousands of children and families have no options except terrible schools – and millions are being expended each year in taxpayer dollars to support these failing schools.”
A school is a direct reflection of the children and families it serves. If you want to point fingers, try pointing to parental neglect and family dysfunction as the number one reason that students fail. No school or teacher denies opportunities to their students. Teachers in these troubled schools are faced with chronic absenteeism, uncooperative, unprepared, apathetic, uncivilized, defiant, rude, and unruly students. Explain to me why teachers are to blame for being unable to fix such unworkable behaviors. This description does not sound very politically correct, but it is, unfortunately, factually accurate.
LikeLike
OK, let’s not blame the teachers, then. If what you describe is the case then I am doing my son a disservice not sending him to Success Academy, Upper West, where he and his friends are having a very good experience and he is learning critical thinking and reading comprehension and history and chess as well as getting test prep. The place isn’t perfect and the day is too long, but he is getting an excellent education from teachers who are very dedicated and attentive in a disciplined environment that makes it possible for them to do their work.
LikeLike
No one is telling you not to send your child to Success Academy Upper West, where LESS than 1/3 of the students are low-income. But you kept insisting that Success Academy educated the same students for the same money. Are you now saying you were wrong? Or are you afraid to acknowledge the truth because your child will be punished if you post anything but the Success Academy corporate line.
Your child’s wealthy Success Academy school only suspends 4% of the affluent students in their school. But at Success Academy Harlem 5, 13% of the students were given out of school suspensions when it ONLY had K – 3rd graders. And 14% of the students were given out of school suspensions when it only served K and 1st graders!! Maybe it’s because 87% of their students are poor and so you think low-income 6 and 7 year olds deserve being told not to come to school as their regular punishment? And if it just a “coincidence” that the 106 students in 2nd grade somehow became 76 students in 4th grade? That is 28% of that class missing in TWO YEARS. Please don’t pretend that’s okay, since somehow at Success Academy Upper West, the classes — primarily upper middle class students — got BIGGER! I suppose it is easier to accommodate the children of parents like you, and get rid of the children of parents who are low-income and I realize your child benefits. But why can’t parents at Success Academy Upper West care about OTHER students? Is your child’s ability to remain at that school dependent on you posting lies to support that?
My child’s public school is great, but I ALSO don’t have a problem admitting it is because most of the students are not poor. I believe that failing public schools need MORE money and MORE resources, and every time I hear Eva Moskowitz claiming that they don’t — that class size doesn’t matter, that is is not MORE expensive to educate the 28% of the kids — mostly at-risk student — that disappear from Success Academy every 2 years, I am disgusted. And parents like you – who benefit – should be disgusted, too. You shouldn’t have to lie in order to keep your child in Success Academy Upper West. Because your lies steal money from the students who truly need them and who your beloved Success Academy will NOT touch with a ten-foot pole and you know it. Suspending 14% of Kindergarten and first graders??? Shame on you for pretending that is anything but an attempt to get those MOSTLY POOR kids the heck out of their school. Back to the public schools which Eva Moskowitz will continue to claim don’t need any more money because her rich hedge funders who donate that $9 million might have to pay a bit more in taxes. If parents who benefitted from Success Academy Upper West could be honest about why their schools work, those failing public schools would be given more than the lip service Eva Moskowitz gives them when she pretends she cares about them while all the while setting up new schools where those students will NEVER be able to attend. Do the right thing. Be a mensch. Care about other kids who are not yours. I’m not asking Success Academy to shut down their schools. I’m asking them to be 100% HONEST. And that’s something that seems impossible for them to be. Doesn’t that bother you in the least?
LikeLike
So is it hypocritical to donate a million dollars to a charter school chain whose CEO will go around the country and say that public schools don’t need any more money? (And of course, that means, no need for the wealthy to pay higher taxes to support them). Is it hypocritical for a “caring” person to donate money to a school for very low-income students while at the same time donating money to political candidates who make laws taking away all the public services — Medicaid, public housing, food stamps, etc — that would have a huge impact on that child’s life outside of school? And here is what a PRO-CHARTER writer says to counter your nonsense that “successful charters schools are being so viciously attacked because they can offer a first rate education to the same students using the same resources. ”
From Educationnext.org:
“For now, the backfill debate represents the charter movement’s rhetorical chickens coming home to roost. If you say long enough that you’re public schools succeeding with the same kids, sooner or later you’re going to be forced to play by the same rules. If you replicate the conditions of underperforming traditional districts, you should also expect to replicate their results. The push for backfill can only hasten the day when charter schools offer a distinction without a difference; a second flavor of bad. Perhaps it would be better to acknowledge that traditional public schools who complain that they work with the hardest to teach are correct, praise them mightily, and reward them handsomely when they do it well.
“We can be who we in fact are and be upfront about it. We can change what we are to be like traditional district schools,” concludes my charter source. “We cannot be who we are and pretend to be something else.”
Eric Kreitzer – you seem to be doing exactly what these HONEST charter folks are saying will not work – pretending charter schools are something they are not. And that, in the long run, is why public school parents don’t trust you.
LikeLike
At the end of the day, my only choices were one good charter school and one mediocre gen-ed program. Which would you choose?
LikeLike
What I am not pretending is that the one charter school my son got in to was a good one and the one district program he got in to was a bad one.
LikeLike
Eric Kreitzer, by any chance does the “good” charter school your son goes to have fewer than 50% low income students? Fewer than 40%? Fewer than 30%? If it is a high-income charter school, is it part of a charter network that suspends a high % of very young students at its low-income schools?
Do some students at this “mediocre” gen ed public school you don’t like do well? Do you think your child will be irreparably harmed if he or she attends an elementary school where nearly everyone isn’t “above average”?
Do only gifted and talented programs meet your high standards, or do any gen ed programs? Would it surprise you that most students at Stuy and Bronx Science went to regular old neighborhood public schools for elementary school?
So will you be honest and acknowledge that the students in the charter school you chose for your son are not the same as students in failing public schools? Do you honestly believe that the charter schools that get $9 million in donations and lose up to half their entering cohort of at-risk students are educating “the same kids for the same money”?
I know many people who choose charter schools for their kids, but they are not charter schools run by people who go around the country claiming failing public schools with nearly 100% at-risk students need LESS money. They aren’t underwritten by billionaire funders who are also responsible for the election of right wing politicians who are cutting medicaid, food stamps, school funding, and money for every other program that benefits at-risk families because it’s more important that taxes on the .01% remain low. And they don’t have suspension rates and attrition rates that lead to far too many at-risk students disappearing from their school.
Think about it.
LikeLike
There are plenty of kids in his grade from the NYCHA projects. Far more economically and ethnically diverse than the local G&T program.
LikeLike
And it is my responsibility to get my children the best education I can give them.
LikeLike
It is your responsibility to be a mensch while getting your children the best education you can for them. It is your responsibility to be honest, especially once you realize that your dishonesty justifies cutting money from public school budgets because Eva Moskowitz has “proved” you can educate the same kids for the same money (as you so obediently parroted here). Do what you want, but don’t deny — even to yourself– that every time you repeat that lie you are being used to justify cutting money from public schools that serve at-risk students. Maybe to you, lying about that is fine because your kids get a good education and to heck with the other kids in failing public schools that we keep hearing about in million dollar advertising budgets. But if parents like you actually had ethics and did the right thing, those kids would be far better off.
LikeLike
Eric Kreitzer,
The so called philanthropists get tax write offs for their largesse. Personally, I would prefer they paid their fair share of taxes. The effect of charter schools on public schools is similar to blood suckers. Schools like mine are primary populated with students not favored by charter schools; expensive to educate Special Ed kids, ELLs and assorted behavior problems.
LikeLike
Googe “New Market Tax Credits”. Guaranteed 7% ROI per year. This is not altruism.
BTW, when you’re new on a blog, it helps to read past posts to see if your point has been discussed before. Your point has, in fact, been discussed a great deal on this blog. If you would do your homework first, your “triumph” wouldn’t look so foolish.
LikeLike
Success schools are mostly located in NYC DOE facilities. A couple are located in decommissioned Catholic schools that the DOE leases on their behalf. They don’t own any of their buildings. They haven’t issued any bonds or other funding vehicles. There are no New Market Tax Credits to be had through the Success Academy network or any of its schools. Success donors get the same personal income tax deduction that parents at wealthy, non-integrated NYC DOE public schools get for their $1,400 annual donation toward little Milo’s or Mathilda’s assistant teachers and iPads.
When you are scolding someone for not doing their research, it is a good idea to have a solid handle on the facts yourself.
LikeLike
Oh Tim, you are such a hypocrite. “there is enormous pressure at many schools to donate; who has and hasn’t donated, and how much, is absolutely known and discussed, sometimes very widely”
When you are scolding someone for not doing their research, it is a good idea to have a solid handle on the facts yourself.
LikeLike
Eric Kreitzer,
Vanity Fair described Dan Loeb in an April 2013 article. Whatever Loeb peddles, the vulnerable should avoid.
Speaking of…are you aware of John Arnold, former Enron trader and hedge fund guy? His villainthropy’s goal is to gut middle class pensions.
Philanthropy Roundtable published an article with the quote, “There’s a shortage of good ideas to soak up philanthropic money.” America would be better off if, instead of their “largesse”, the 0.2% stopped rigging the system to avoid paying taxes.
LikeLike
First, from what I understand about Success Academy it offers nothing that a good DOE public school does not offer. I do not consider the school “first rate” and did not consider it for either of my children. “First rate” is an opinion and not a fact.
Second, you talk about the chess class that your child takes, which of course you don’t pay for. How is that fair to families at DOE schools where parents must pay for their child’s chess class? It isn’t.
Third, the reason the Upper West Side became such a great place to live is that parents advocated for better public schools, whether it was turning around existing schools or creating new ones. The problem I have with Success Academy parents is that you are not interested in advocating for better public schools, yet you have no problems taking tax dollars, taking space in public school buildings, and complaining about “failing” schools. What hypocrites!! If you aren’t going to send your child to a public school, then you should pay for your child’s school. I think the Success Academy network should either be shut down or completely privatized.
LikeLike
Here’s my parody of The Graduate for today’s climate — I present “The TFA Graduate”
Movie Pitch — The TFA Graduate by Terry A. Ward
tagline: This is Benjamin. He’s a little worried about the future of public education.
Synopsis: Benjamin Braddock, a recent Ivy League graduate returns home and is unsure about his future. He meets a family friend, Eva Moskowitz, and soon enters the exciting world as a TFA teacher in a charter school..
Sample dialogue 1:
A friend of Braddock’s father (Arne Duncan) counsels young Benjamin on his future:
Mr. Duncan: I just want to say two words to you. Just two words.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. Duncan: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. Duncan: Charter schools.
Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean?
Sample dialogue 2:
Mrs. Moskowitz has Benjamin alone and is trying to get him to commit to her school system:
Benjamin: I mean, you didn’t really think I’d do something like that.
Mrs. Moskowitz: Like what?
Benjamin: What do you think?
Mrs. Moskowitz: Well, I don’t know. Teach?
Benjamin: For god’s sake, Mrs. Moskowitz. Here we are. You got me into your office. You give me a tour. You… put on a Powerpoint presentation. Now you start telling me the state education agencies won’t ever be visiting.
Mrs. Robinson: So?
Benjamin: Mrs. Moskowitz, you’re trying to recruit me.
Mrs. Moskowitz: [laughs] Huh?
Benjamin: Aren’t you?
LikeLike
Maybe Saint Eva will give herself a raise? Or expand her digs? Or….start paying rent to the public schools she scabs from? Betcha if the pubic schools did this, she’d have something derogatory to say about it.
LikeLike
And SA does a repeat performance next Monday (4/27). $ame place, $ame time, $ame donations?. $ee the link to the Masterplanner $chedule:
http://masterplanneronline.com/newyork/organization/Success_Academy_Charter_Schools_49912
LikeLike
Look at your link more carefully.
LikeLike
My bad.
LikeLike
Hedge Clippers and UnKochmyCampus.org…… trumping evil.
LikeLike
UnKochmyCampus.org. Love it.
LikeLike
NY Teacher, you may have mixed up because there IS a 2nd benefit. Only this one is May 11, and Eva Moskowitz is the honoree. And instead of raising funds for Success Academy, this one will raise funds for the right wing, pro-charter Manhattan Institute — Ms. Moskowitz’ fans in the hedge fund industry can buy tables at $75,000 a pop! And why shouldn’t they – after all, Manhattan Institute writer Charles Sahm just wrote a fawning article about Success Academy to counter the recent New York Times article that so angered Eva Moskowitz. See, everybody wins! Well, everyone except all the public school students trapped in failing (and underfunded) public schools, in districts where Success Academy is NOT chomping at the bit to open new schools to serve them. Remember, failing public schools don’t need more money and Success Academy raising $9 million in a night does not mean that money makes any difference.
LikeLike
NYCPSP
They conveniently ignore the fact that SA charters stop at grade 8. High school programs with multi-level sports, Regents level science labs, certified teachers for advanced classes, shop/technology classes, bands and orchestras, theatre, and other specialized programs are much more expensive to run than simple, bare bones elementary classes. No wonder Eva can pull down $500K annual salary as CEO of her “non-profit” charter. And she wants to open about 65 new schools. I wonder how many will be 9 – 12 high schools?
LikeLike
The results of my Google image search for Success Academy Charter School science labs, band rooms, shop/tech labs. and sports teams is shown below.
Squinting won’t help.
LikeLike
Did you see the list of Spring Benefit Event Chairs:
Campbell Brown | Joel Greenblatt | Daniel S. Loeb | John Scully | Regina Scully
Eli Broad was the honoree.
Typical public school PTA meeting.
LikeLike
So if hedge funds donate $9.3million to 10% of the NYC students, will they donate $83.7million to the rest?
LikeLike
Math?Vale
Eva’s 10,000 students represent only 1% of the one million children in NYC schools.
As my t-shirt says, “Decimal Errors Happen”
LikeLike
Simple math.
Using recent figures—
Eva Moskowitz got $575,000 for perhaps as many as, let’s be generous, ten thousand students.
That’s $57.50@student for one year.
Carmen Fariña, NYC Public Schools Chancellor got $212,614 for [let’s round it down] one million students.
Even rounding up, that less than 25¢@student for one year.
We can’t question Saint Eva and her motives and those of her principal backers & enablers because at $57.50@ student she is above reproach. She’s only in it for the kids!
Carmen Fariña, though, at less than 25¢@student is obviously an untrustworthy self-aggrandizing union thug. She’s only in it for herself!
Rheeally! And in the most Johnsonally of ways too!
But when you look at the numbers and don’t subject them to harsh interrogation methods, turns out that they tell a very different story.
Really!
So when it comes to $ucce$$ Academy, let’s stick with the hard data points.
😎
LikeLike
Wasn’t Jeffries endorsed by the UFT????
LikeLike
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/05/the-quiet-coup/307364/
LikeLike
I really do not understand the need for SA to raise money. Money isn’t important and teachers should teach for the love (of children). So just where is the money going? Well, I guess we’ll never know. That puts Katie and and my sister-in-law the same league. Katie will never know where her donation actually went and my sister-in-law will never know how her tax money is spent. But what the lack of an audit does imply and what since schools aren’t improved by money, is the money may be in the Caymans!
LikeLike
Correction: (hit wrong key)
But what the lack of an audit does imply and what the need to raise money does imply is that the money may be in the Caymans.
LikeLike
Given that it has been reported here that the retention rate is not good and the discipline demanding, it would seem this is a selection of students who would achieve under any circumstance, perhaps even the least effective schools in NYC. I have seen that happen in Los Angeles, in what might be called the next to least effective school. And in L. A. some students from that school went to Ivy League or Ivy-League comparable schools.
It isn’t a miracle and is fairly easy to do once you sort them out and give them an appropriate curriculum taught by knowledgeable teachers.
LikeLike
All this discussion about donations is crazy. People with money donate if they want and don’t if they care not to. There is certainly a group that doesn’t want to donate through taxation so they give on their own. Unfortunately, for these people they often get stung by donating to organizations for whom overhead takes away from the very people they are supposed to help. So if Katie etc. want to pay for a bunch of P. R. they can but they should realize they haven’t supplied one student with a workbook from COSTCO.
LikeLike
By the way, is the principal of the g&t school that you claim is “less diverse” going around the country bragging about her school’s test scores and saying that she “proved” she could educate “the same kids as in that failing public school” so class size doesn’t matter, and those failing public schools don’t need more money? Are the parents at that g&t posting here that their school “proves” that we don’t need to spend more money on education to help the students who are not served by g&t programs? Are the g&t schools claiming they educating the same kids for the same money but doing it better? I guess those public school parents and administrators value honesty and that’s something I WANT in my school. How about you? Or do the ends justify the means?
LikeLike
Sorry, I intended this to be a reply to Eric Kreitzer above.
LikeLike