Gary Rubinstein deals in this segment with two controversial sagas in the brief and tumultuous life of Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy Charter Chain.
The first came about because Mayor DeBlasio declared that he would rein in Eva Moskowitz when he was elected (under Bloomberg and Klein, she got whatever she wanted). Eva’s billionaire friends promptly put up a kitty of millions to run emotional television ads claiming that her students were about to be tossed out into the street, when the reality was that she was trying to claim extra space and push out children with serious handicaps. Her campaign was skillfully managed, and she ended up with legislation guaranteeing that the city would give her the space she wanted or pay her rent. Governor Cuomo embraced the charter cause,and the mayor suffered a defeat.
Then there was the infamous video, leaked to the New York Times, showing a teacher ripping up the paper of a first grader and sending her as punishment to a corner to calm down (although the teacher seemed to be more agitated than the child). Most people thought the teacher humiliated the child, but the practice seems to be commonplace at SA.
The next segment is the last.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Remember, every time Success Academy is caught doing something wrong, it is “an anomaly.”
https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2019/05/04/how-special-education-failed-jazmiah/
This Chalkbeat article shows major issues at both the DOE and Success Academy. However, there is one difference:
“In response to questions from Chalkbeat, Success officials provided detailed records of Jazmiah’s time at the charter network, including progress reports, contemporaneous notes from multiple educators and psychologists, and a copy of her learning plan.
Frank LoMonte, an expert on student privacy at the University of Florida, said Success’ disclosure of these records is likely a violation of FERPA, a federal privacy law that protects students’ education records from distribution without permission. “Giving out documents about an individual student’s academic or psychological history is pretty close to the heart of what FERPA was meant to prohibit,” he said.
Success officials defended the disclosure. “It is our position that we are allowed to rebut false claims without violating FERPA when a parent has chosen to go the press but our critics don’t accept that position,” Powell wrote in an email. Success has previously faced criticism for disclosing a student’s records.”
Like Donald Trump, Eva Moskowitz believes she is above any law. Children and their privacy don’t matter as much as she does.
Stunning that the SUNY Charter Institute not only condones but rewards this behavior from Moskowitz. The SUNY Charter Institute board needs to be investigated. Maybe the next Governor will finally do something about their lack of concern for the children their favorite charter CEO tells them are not worth caring about.
^^As usual, Eva Moskowitz prefers to publicly destroy a young child’s reputation than to allow any criticism because she must always be portrayed as absolutely perfect and someone who can do no wrong and is always victimized by critics telling lies. Just like her idol Betsy DeVos is. Two peas in a pod, willing to throw children under the bus if that gets them what they want.
Given the huge margin of victory for de Blasio I believe he could have fought Moskowitz successfully if he really wanted to. Unfortunately Mr. de Blasio did not fight back because he was already planning to run for president and wanted the support of the traditional donor class. Just look at recent NYT articles about his shady practices for raising money from them.
How?
This is so silly.
LOL! Tell when that “donor class” that supports Eva Moskowitz starts giving lots of money to Mayor de Blasio’s presidential campaign!
I love how absurd this idea is, however. Do you write for comedy shows?
Too bad you can’t respond in a civil manner. Try reading The NY Times if it’s not too difficult for you.
^^^Michael, I apologize for being flip. I took some time to read up on your concerns about “donors”. It is interesting to read between the lines of the articles written by the NY Times. (I only wish they’d write articles about Trump with the kind of innuendo they do about de Blasio.)
I realize that it is possible that Steven Banks, who de Blasio put in charge of housing, is covering up for de Blasio’s corruption. But I don’t see it. Banks spent most of his adult life fighting for the rights of the poor. He may be overwhelmed with the homeless crisis, but I don’t doubt he is trying to do the right — and progressive — thing.
Unfortunately, we put some of our progressive politicians in a tough position. We demand immediate action, but the people who sell buildings know this and rightly gamble that a progressive politician will feel so much pressure to help the homeless that they will pay a premium to make something happen immediately and not some years down the road. I suspect Banks felt this way.
Maybe Banks and de Blasio should call those building owners’ bluff. Would progressives understand or be on their case for not doing more while children suffered?
If this had just been some de Blasio crony I would not feel the same. But I don’t believe Banks took a thankless job for some political gain or to reward de Blasio donors and then help de Blasio cover it up. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe all progressives are as corrupt as the right wing wants us to believe. Maybe that’s why none of the progressives running for President have criticized DFER or Moskowitz.
I don’t know. I can only surmise.
^^You may not believe this, Michael, but I wrote my post above before I saw your response. You were absolutely right to call me out. My apologies.
Thank you. I am VERY jaded when it comes to politicians.
Michael,
One thing that I don’t understand is why you think this “donor class” are fine with Mayor de Blasio’s efforts to drop the SHSAT and expand the Discovery program, and his efforts to integrate public schools in District 15 and District 3 (as pilot programs) but they won’t allow him to make any public criticism of Eva Moskowitz (but he is allowed to quietly thwart her). Who are these people who you believe de Blasio wants to please and what is their education agenda? Integrated public schools, no SHSAT anymore, and no criticism of charters allowed?
I don’t know what the donor class wants from de Blasio, but I believe de Blasio wants the financial support of the donor class.
Michael,
I agree with you about that! de Blasio definitely wants their financial support.
While I am not condoning this, I do think de Blasio wanted those donations for his original campaign to turn Albany progressive, since it was Albany that was punishing him for standing up to Moskowitz. He got into trouble for that fundraising effort, but mostly because the money went too directly to those candidates. It was definitely ahead of its time, but a number of years later, the election of more progressive politicians happened.
As usual, de Blasio’s good progressive idea was not particularly well-executed. But even when I disagree with some of his actions, I do often feel that he gets the same raw deal you see with other progressive politicians — only his failures are magnified while anything good he does is forgotten. That happened with David Dinkins, too. Meanwhile Giuliani’s total corruption gets a pass. Remember when Giuliani appointed Russell Harding – the son of his pal who didn’t even have a college degree — as head of Housing Development Corp at what was for the 1990s a huge salary of over $111,000? And then Harding racked up another $250,000 in expenses traveling first class because just having a do nothing job wasn’t enough — he used the agency as his personal piggy bank. And even pre-charged expensive open ended airline tickets as he was leaving so he could continue to travel in style at government expense!
The fact the Giuliani is still treated like a non-criminal while de Blasio is treated as some corrupt pol by the media is something I will never understand.
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/newsletters/politico-new-york-education/2018/10/19/moskowitz-calls-on-de-blasio-to-provide-more-space-for-new-charters-124653
“‘I’m here to speak out for equity,” Moskowitz said Thursday morning on the steps of City Hall, flanked by roughly 70 Success parents. “Parents and families are far too often shut out of good schools and an excellent public charter school is their only option. And yet the mayor, who promotes equity, doesn’t seem to believe in it for charter parents, only for district parents. That’s discrimination. He is the mayor of all parents, district parents and public charter parents.”
Moskowitz said de Blasio has approved about one-third as many charter school co-locations in his five years compared with the previous years. From 2011 to 2014, about 8,100 charter school seats were added, compared with 4,900 in the past three years, according to Success.
…….
Success said it requested space for 14 new elementary schools in 2014 and that only five sites were approved. Just four are in operation. For the 2019-20 school year, Success said it requested space for new elementary schools and for middle schools in Brooklyn and Queens.”
Moskowitz claims she is in it for the children. I say she is in it for the $600,000 (form 990) yearly income. Also I believe her husband also runs a charter school but not sure.
Moskowitz also claims that she endorsed Betsy DeVos and worked so hard to make sure DeVos was confirmed by the Senate for the children.
Moskowitz clearly believes America owes her a great debt of gratitude for her hard work getting DeVos confirmed. Thank you, Eva Moskowitz. We give you the full credit you probably demand because you told Americans over and over again how important it was that DeVos be Secretary of Education. For the kids.
And I have no doubt Moskowitz believes the parents and children at her charter schools owe her big time for her hard work endorsing DeVos and working to get her confirmed. She did it all for them. I hope they wrote Moskowitz thank you notes to express their endless gratitude for DeVos.