One of the charter schools turned down by Mayor de Blasio was an effort by Eva Moskowitz to expand her Succes Academy elementary school into a middle school in Harlem. This would have displaced students with disabilities, on the theory that students with high scores should get preference over students with disabilities.
Here is a press release about a rally on Monday at 4 pm.
Which kids are really getting hurt in the charter wars?
Monday March 10, 4PM: Rally at Harlem School for Victims of Moskowitz Attempt to Push Out Special Ed Kids
Rally To Support de Blasio and Public Schools in Harlem Tomorrow
Where: Outside PS/ MS 149
When : 4: 00- 5:00 March 10
41 W. 117th St between Lennox Ave and Fifth
Subway: 2 or 3 to 116th
Even as Mayor Bill de Blasio’s handling of the issue of charter school co-locations has disappointed many, it has signaled the end of the era when the likes of entrepreneur Eva Moskowitz is granted whatever entrepreneur Eva Moskowitz wants, regardless of how many public school children are displaced, short changed and treated as if they are second rate citizens.
Over the past week and more, Moskowitz has received absurdly favorable press in New York City papers, even as she once again removed children from schools during school hours, this time to bus them to Albany as if they were adult lobbyists. After years of incredibly favorable treatment by the Bloomberg administration, de Blasio has had the political courage to stand up to Moskowitz and her billionaire backers.
As a result, Moskowitz and her friends in the media are doing all they can to paint her and Success Academies as victims and create the false appearance of overwhelming public support for Moskowitz and the horrific and destructive policies of Mike Bloomberg.
They have flooded the air-waves with slick, heart-tugging commercials, engaging in a multi-million dollar public relations campaign designed to do nothing less than trick the public into forgetting that de Blasio won by a margin of 75% over Joe Lhota, in large part because of de Blasio’s rejection of Bloomberg’s education policies, of which Moskowitz is such a perfect example.
Today we have an opportunity to once again reaffirm the public will, let Moskowitiz’s billionaires know that they do not own our schools and our city, and let de Blasio know he is not alone.
Please, if you can, come and let your voices be heard loud and clear. Come and remind Moskowitz’s billionaire backers that we live in a democracy. Above all, come and help insure that all of our children are shown the dignity that all children deserve.
Patrick Walsh
Chapter Leader
PS/ MS 149
Harlem
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Disgusting how Eva Moskowitz and the media/parents who support her feel that it is OK to displace these kids. All I can hope is that karma doesn’t take it’s own sweet time in getting to her.
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The media and the public need to wake up. There is nothing heroic about demanding preferential treatment for charter students at the expense of public school students.
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I have to disagree. My kids are in public school. I’m satisfied with their teachers and their learning progress in the public school they attend (but it could be better). I have no intention of letting them attend charter schools. However, I wholeheartedly support the charter school movement.
Love or hate her, charters serve to bring needed competition to the UFT-influenced educational establishment, a failure by any measure. Hopefully, charters will greatly increase in number and force the UFT to reform its protectionist union contracts to get rid of incompetent teachers, lengthen the school day, lengthen the school year, and adopt the best practices of successful charter schools.
All the rhetoric about displacing special ed kids, billionaires getting rich off charter schools, etc. is a complete misrepresentation of facts, no doubt perpetuated by the UFT. Just look at the numbers of people who attended the charter school rally (7000 parents and kids) versus De Blasio’s UPK rally (1000 union members) last Tuesday. It is blatantly obvious De Blasio is catering to the UFT and trying to secure their support for his re-election 3 years down the road.
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You are wrong, wrong, wrong.
I don’t have time to argue with your post point by point, but pretty much everything in it is demonstrably wrong.
Regarding “the best practices of successful charter schools,” it has been proven again and again that charter schools get high test scores by excluding poor children, special education children, English language learners, undisciplined students, and students without supportive and involved families. Teaching to the test, a narrowed curriculum, and relentless test prep is a given in charter schools.
Success Academy kicked out its entire first class of middle schoolers for getting low test scores, and to this day Success Academy has extremely high attrition rates.
You say public schools should adopt the practices of high scoring charter schools. Do you mean that public schools should also have the right to exclude low-scoring students? What do you propose for students excluded from charter schools and public schools, should they roam the streets like Oliver Twist?
The charter movement is backed by millionaires, billionaires, Wall Street and hedge funders. Financial interests give far more to political candidates than any teacher’s union.
Unions of all sorts, including teacher’s unions have been eviscerated in America. The pushback against charter schools is not being led by teacher’s unions. Opposition to charter schools is coming from parents, students, education experts, and community members. De Blasio isn’t pandering to the teacher’s union, he’s pandering to parents and rational people.
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Of course, no charter school is free of problems. However, the problems with the public school system as it currently functions are much more harmful in terms of maintaining and improving the human capital required by businesses operating in New York City. Is it surprising that businesses in NYC must recruit talent from out of state because the local labor pool as a whole is so poorly educated? This is the only reason corporations are motivated to support charter schools. If you weren’t aware, charter schools such as those operated by Ms. Moskowitz are 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. There are no shareholders in nonprofit organizations. The Wall Street investors that you vilify cannot invest in charter schools and receive no part of revenues collected by charter schools. I don’t see a relationship between charter schools and Wall Street supporters that is harmful in any way for society as a whole. On the other hand, the relationship between the UFT and how the educational system is operated is clearly detrimental to preparing New Yorkers to enter the workforce, as the UFT is first and foremost motivated to extract financial gains and job protections from the taxpayer. During my experience teaching undergraduate courses at CUNY, I was shocked at how poorly prepared students were after having received their education in NYC public schools. If the public school system was doing such as great job of education, there would not be any demand for charter schools. There is no question the NYC public school system needs to be improved, and the competition created by charter schools provides the impetus to focus on the shortcomings of the public school system and to hopefully initiate reforms.
Some of the other claims about excluding low-performing students in charter schools to boost performance don’t seem truthful. It may be true in a few isolated cases, but I highly doubt it is an institutionalized policy. Even so, public schools also do similar things to boost their test scores. “Teaching to the test, a narrowed curriculum, and relentless test prep is a given in charter schools” applies equally to public schools, from what I see in my kids learning experience in public school. Whether charter schools really do a much better job than public schools is irrelevant. Both systems should exist and be fully supported by government. The rising competition and publicity created by charter schools is healthy; otherwise the existing public school system will not change for the better.
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is her 500,000$ salary non profit?
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This is blatant salary envy. YOU aren’t worth it, but Eva is.
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THANK YOU! I am a well-informed, involved parent and support the De Blasios of the world. Public school is just that. ALL students have equal rights to education. Charters, in most cases, defy this in one way or another. I assure you, it is not teachers, parents or districts making money off this hundreds-of billions-of-dollars industry. Yet the students and families (your “consumers”), have the least control over delivery of services. Teachers’ experience is disregarded and they are systematically undermined in their efforts to be quality educators. The teachers are NOT the problem, take it from a parent of 3 students in public schools pre- and post-reform (15 years a public school parent).
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It is hilarious that you think charter schools will improve the “human capital” for local work places. I’ve worked in charters and they definitely aren’t improving anything except the CEOs bank account. It is totally disgusting.
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What is the intended output of public school education? It is to prepare young adults to enter the workforce immediately or after college. Naturally, businesses need a qualified workforce to operate efficiently and if the public school system fails to provide a qualified labor pool, businesses explore alternatives to securing a qualified workforce. Hence, there is a corporate movement to support charter schools. Whether you like big business or not, it keeps the economy humming and puts food on the table for everyone. If big business did not have a say in education, then the society that we enjoy today will eventually fall into decadence as countries with better educational systems continue to erode the long-term competitiveness of the U.S. Whether charter schools are much better than publc schools is irrelevant, so long as some force exists to create pressure for the public school system to be reformed.
The CEO’s salary should be commensurate with the repsonsibilities and risks that are undertaken in an enterprise. If the average salary of a mid-level corporate manager is in the range of $100,000 to $200,000, then a salary of $500,000 for the director of a company is certainly reasonable. I don’t think anyone undertaking this type of work would work for much less than $500,000. If you don’t have any experience taking the risks of running and operating a corporation, then you are not qualified to judge the worth of such a position. Bear in mind that even though equivalent private industry salaries in isolation are higher, the total compensation package including pension benefits of civil servants paints a very different picture.
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There is nothing wrong, in my opinion, for private schools to exist in order to serve the students of parents willing to pay more for what they feel is a better education. The problem comes when you divert tax dollars that could be spent improving the classroom supplies, professional development incentives, and other ways to make the public schools better, to instead pay for vouchers and rent-free schools. If money going to pay for schools and education come from public tax money- then ALL tax payers should have equal access to its services, and the providers should be accountable to ALL of the litigation and legal protections that go along with it.
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I guess people have just lost hope that the public schools will use any extra un-diverted money wisely.
When the unions opt for 401k retirement rather than defined benefit, I’ll believe they are serious about real reform. Why? Civic solvency.
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I agree.
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Thank you for posting this.
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PW thanks for posting this information. The mass public needs to know the truth how charter schools are pushing out public schools kids. The student with disabilities deserve a quality education as well. This are the same kids that Eva would NOT accept at her schools. Especially in grades 3-8 because they risk failing or scoring low on the NYS exams.
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Charter schools area money grab.
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Today it is reported that Moskowitz is filing lawsuits against the DOE for this injustice. Funny how she can have all of this money for advertising, bussing little lobbyists, and lawsuits but cannot pay rent? Heard on the radio this morning a comment about how DeBlasio is “using” minority students for his personal agenda. Being that Moskowitz used her minority students to lobby in Albany, this is a joke. But, I didn’t expect anything less as most of the radio in the NYC area is controlled by big business.
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Maybe you misperceive the matter. Perhaps there is a cause of justice on Eva’s side. Reconsider your anti business bias.
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I agree.
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Go Team.. Wish I could attend. Here is how it has to be done…
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The New York Mayor was on Morning Joe on MSNBC today and did a fair job of defending himself. Still no one has mentioned on that show that Moskowitz makes about 500,000$ to run a school for 7000 students. Certainly not the hosts who swoon over the test scores from her school without knowing that only 60% of the kids who started kindergarten were still there to take the 5th grade test and score so well. On top of that, if you delete music, art, band, orchestra, and everything except Science, Math, and English you are bound to have better scores. Plus they retain about 25% of their students each year. when you are retained they tell you that if you go to the local public school, you can move on the the next grade. Presto, you just weeded out the kids that will lower your score in 5th grade. NONE of this goes into the charter school discussion on the news stations.
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The fact is the public school system is failing to prepare young adults to enter the workforce. Charter schools may not be the answer, but to maintain the staus quo is to continue a path of self-destruction.
Someone who earns $500,000 to run 20 schools does not at all seem excessive. You cannot compare the salary of someone with such responsiblities with the salary of a public school teacher. With the Dept of Ed as inefficient and bloated as it is, I would not doubt that the administrative expense per student in the public school system far exceeds the administrative expense per student of charter schools.
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The pres of the US only makes $400,000, right? Why in the he#$ should EVA make $500,000 to run some schools? She wastes more tax money through her advertising and other bs Her charters sound like test prep factories. Could you please explain how she is preparing students for the working world???????????
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Actually administrative expense is higher for charters because like business, the concentrate money at the top thus squeezing it out of the middle class. Your assumptions, like most pundits are wrong. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/10/charter-schools-spend-mor_n_1415995.html
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At this point, charter schools are also “status quo”. I don’t see them making much of a difference except to re-segregate schools and communities and make hedge fund managers and profiteers like Eva rich. You say public schools are failing to prepare young people for the workforce – I ask what workforce? The workforce that exists today? Or the one that will exist 6 months from now or a year fom now? The workforce is constantly changing, and the K-12 school systems are being unfairly blamed for not hitting a rapidly moving target. Rather than public school systems training the workforce, they should be able to provide all kids with a rich curriculum, ensuring they have music, art, history, literature, math, science, and exposure to different languages and cultures. Our job is to educate, not train. Business should be the ones training the future workforce, or setting up training programs in community colleges; ones that can be rapidly changed as the market changes. They are the ones making the changes, they are the ones producing the products – as such they should train the workforce, and let public schools educate the public as they are meant to. (Educate and train are not one and the same).
Yet we are saddled with a worthless piece of legislation (NCLB) that dumbs down everything to a multiple choice test question, and a whole bunch of fools who think they know what is best for education simply because they went to school. We are told public schools are failing, though rarely by an accurate metric. Ed Deformers run things by ideology rather than research; what sounds good for the market must be good for schools too, right? Those kids are just commodities, like blueberries, and we can push out the “bad” ones and just keep the “good” ones. This is what true public schools are pushing back against. Kids are NOT commodities, and all kids have value and deserve an education- not just the wealthy ones who test well – but also the child whose breakthrough comes when they finally learn to indicate yes or no with an eye-blink or a switch, or the child who finally learns to read at 4th grade. These are the children the charter system refuses to admit or counsels out.
Charter schools have significantly higher administrative costs than public schools because charter schools typically skimp on teacher pay and curriculum, while making sure their founders/CEOs/admins are extremely well-rewarded. That’s been shown again and again in the research. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/10/charter-schools-spend-mor_n_1415995.html.
http://www.geneseeisd.org/DocumentCenter/Home/View/604
For a delightful anecdotal example of how charter admins spin a buck to make a proft, one Utah charter dug a 30-year-old reading curriculum out of a dumpster at a school district office. By “saving” money there, the admin/CEO was able to pocket the difference and take home an approximately $30-40K “bonus”. Charters also tend to hire non-certificated teachers at much lower pay, and typically don’t pay into any form of retirement or often even health insurance. But they do spend a bunch of public dollars on advertising and have fun little gimmicks like free computers for students for enrolling, and when asked for an accounting of those public dollars, they typically tell the state where to stick it. So do you really think that it’s OK for charter school leaders to make as much as they do – even though at least 15 NY charter school admins make considerably more than school superintendents across the country who supervise many more schools? http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/top-16-nyc-charter-school-execs-out-earn-chancellor-dennis-walcott-article-1.1497717 Or is it just OK for Eva Moskowitz because she’s a fellow alum?
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Strictly speaking, her pay is irrelevant. Cherry picking, however, is a legitimate issue.
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Eva insists her schools can’t afford to pay rent, that makes her high pay, the pay of her executives, and the money she spends on advertising, public relations, lawyers, and lobbying relevant.
I certainly agree with you that cherry picking is a legitimate issue. The charter schools attack public schools for getting low test scores, meanwhile they cherry pick the top-scoring students. Totally immoral and outrageous.
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Her salary is despicable.
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I have a feeling that some commenters here will be organizing a “Pity the Poor Millionaires and Billionaires” rally.
😱
Let’s see. A recent New York Times article put Eva Moskowitz’s salary at $475,000 for 6,700 students.
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/nyregion/de-blasio-and-builder-of-charter-school-empire-do-battle.html?_r=0
According to the NYPost, NYC Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña makes $212,614@year [same as her predecessor Dennis Walcott] plus is collecting a DOE pension (after 40 years) of $199,579. *She is responsible for 1.1 million students.*
Link: http://nypost.com/2014/01/05/new-schools-boss-to-collect-double-de-blasios-pay/
So Eva M is collecting $475,000 ÷ 6,700 students = $70.90 approx., rounded off to $70 of $tudent $ucce$$ for every one of her data points. *Notice how I gave her the benefit of the rounding off?*
Carmen Fariña is already getting a pension; nothing about that has changed and it is irrelevant to this point. For the extra, very onerous and serious responsibility of leading the largest school system in the country she is getting $212,614 ÷ 1,100,000 = $0.19@student.
I am not bending over backwards as I did in previous postings to favor Eva M and disfavor Carmen F. Even steven. No hypocritical double standards. None of that new-fangled charterite/privatizer math.
Eva M: $70@student@year. Carmen F: $0.19@student@year.
So for every student they serve, Eva M’s bank account gets 368 times what Carmen F receives.
Which supposedly proves—according to the leaders and supporters of the “new civil rights movement of our time”—that Eva M is worth 368 times what Carmen F is worth.
Señor Swacker: while it may be difficult, or impossible, to put a numerical measure on a quality like shameless greed, don’t you think this comes awfully close to invalidating at least a bit of Noel Wilson?
Or as one of those old dead Greek guys wrote so very long ago:
“For greed all nature is too little.” [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
😎
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Charter schools should be privately funded with no public money at all. Public money is for public schools. Charter schools are nothing but a money grab for public money.
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Charter schools are deregulation of the essential right we all have to education in this country. Way back in the 1970’s this right was affirmed for disabled people by the passage of PL 94-142 and continues to be regulated and guaranteed. To promote a Charter School that denies Education for All Students is a denial of the basic right of any child to be educated regardless of color, economic standing or disability.
I do not understand how Charter Schools have a leg to stand on, legally, given that they have funding from the State. The fact that they are not required to adhere to the rigorous standards the State imposes on the Public Schools here in Ohio just boggles the mind of this 35 year veteran of Special Education.
Add to that, in Ohio, the public schools have to provide transportation to the Charter School students to their Charter School-when our own students have to walk. AND if the little entering K child to the Charter School is suspected of having a disability, they get booted.
I can almost imagine a day when the Public Schools are filled with special needs students. I hope not, but…
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