Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charter schools (originally called Harlem Success Academy) have been ruthless in grabbing public school space from existing schools and crowding their “hosts” out.
Currently they are involved in taking space from a Harlem public school dedicated to children with special needs.
Moskowitz has several fabulously wealthy hedge fund managers on her board. It is a shame that they are unwilling to contribute the money to buy or lease space for their charter, instead of pushing out the city’s neediest students.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yes, hosts and parasites, indeed.
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I must infer that using public school space is substantially cheaper and may help inprove their “bottom line”.
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Let’s see how they make out with NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli:
Charter School Claims State Can’t Audit it
http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/07/11/59266.htm
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This should be illegal!
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It would be very interesting indeed to see the emails between Eva Moskowitz and Deputy Chancellor/TFA alum Marc Sternberg, who is in charge of “Portfolio (formerly known as “Schools”) Management.” Perhaps one day an independent-minded prosecutor will take a look.
One can always dream…
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Michael Fiorillo,
You can FOIL the emails, as someone FOILed those between Eva and Joel. It takes time but you will get them.
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And now she says the state has no right to audit her taxpayer-funded schools. http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/07/11/59266.htm
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As a teacher in District 75, I found this absolutely appalling. Most students in the district require busing to their schools and it’s a logistical nightmare that often results in kids on the bus for over an hour, if not longer. That particular site in Harlem serves a number of students from the Harlem / Washington Heights area. Subjecting these students to a bus ride 90 to 100 NYC blocks further downtown is a real impediment to their education and rights.
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Why should a publicly funded school that’s a non profit and does not charge tuition need to buy or lease its own space? Doesn’t really matter who is on the board. It’s a public school serving NYC children.
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Ines, the school’s legal argument is that it is not a public school but a private corporation with a government contract. Let them lease their own space.
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Going to be interesting to see how this works out in Washington state. The initiative that created charter schools defines them as public schools. Supporters claimed over and over that these would be “public” charter schools. But once they’re faced with monitoring and oversight, will the non-profits that start up charters in Washington state make the same “private institution” claims? And how will the proponents of charter schools handle that?
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That is what my mom would have called a “nutsy-cuckoo” argument.
Universities — public or private doesn’t matter — that accept federal research dollars or training grants are strictly accountable for compliance with a host of equal protection purse-strings, for example, non-discriminatory hiring practices and benefit distribution.
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Horrific, as are the actions of those entrusted with managing our schools who hand over the people’s spaces to the likes of Moskowitz. We need an education version of the “Arab Spring.”
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sounds just like lebensraum to me
The Nazis supported territorial expansionism to gain Lebensraum (“living space”) as being a law of nature for all healthy and vigorous peoples of superior races to displace people of inferior races and disabilities.
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Someone puts kids first, gets great educational results (see http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/schooling_the_critics_XRa3xDb5Ad7NNl07wNWfhM/1) and all of a sudden she’s a Nazi?? You can certainly disagree with her, but your characterization is so over-the-top it is laughable. Your prejudice is showing.
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Love her or not, Eva’s charters do not take the same kids as public schools. It helps test scores when you exclude or counsel out the kids who are ELL and special Ed.
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And Mayor Bloomberg is backing Corey Booker for senate in NJ. We need to look serious at this special election.
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