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The leader of New York’s largest charter school network compared teachers’ union activists and lawmakers to segregationists “barricading” children from quality schools.
Eva Moskowitz, CEO of the 57-school Success Academy, blasted labor leaders and lawmakers and said they are taking a page out of former Alabama Gov. George Wallace’s playbook and standing in schoolhouse doors because they’re “super politically threatened” by charter schools putting the brakes on their gravy train.
“There is a deep connection in New York between the union and local elected officials for everything from trying to shut the schools down to barricading, not allowing children into the school building,” Moskowitz said during testimony before the House Subcommittee on Education on May 14.
She then referenced the landmark Supreme Court 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision that declared “separate but equal” racially segregated schools unconstitutional.
“I am experiencing sort of the opposite, where union operatives have not allowed children to get into the building. It’s a pretty venomous debate, which is really, really unfortunate,” Moskowitz told committee members.
Moskowitz later told The Post she was referring to United Federation of Teachers protests in 2009 outside the Harlem Success Academy 2, which co-located in a school building with PS 123 in Harlem. She mentioned the ugly episode in her book, “The Education of Eva Moskowitz.”
Her testimony evoked Wallace, who infamously stood at the front of the admissions office at the University of Alabama in 1963 in an unsuccessful bid to block two black students from enrolling in classes in the previously segregated school.
Moskowitz said dealing with the Democratic-controlled government in deeply blue New York “has its challenges.”
Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Ca.), chairman of the panel and a charter school booster, asked Moskowitz if she had the support of Albany lawmakers given the high performance of her students in math and readings after hearing Success Academy students ranked first in New York State in math and third in reading, according to standardized test score results.
On the contrary, she called the efforts to co-locate her charter schools in city buildings with unionized traditional public schools a “19-year battle” because “the teachers union has made life very, very difficult” including by filing lawsuits to try to block access to school buildings.
The union has unsuccessfully filed lawsuits to block co-location of Success Academy charter schools as recently as 2023 in Brooklyn and Queens.
Charter schools have become a polarizing political issue in recent years, with Republicans generally in support of school choice while many Democrats have lined up with the politically powerful teachers’ union.
Moskowitz said the teachers’ union and lawmakers find it “super politically threatening” upon hearing proof that poor and mostly minority students are excelling in her schools.
“There is a problem with a system of delivering [results],” she said.
But the ranking Democrat on the education panel, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Oregon), cited flaws as well as benefits of charter schools.
“At their best, they offer potential for innovation, flexibility and responsiveness to community needs,” Bonamici said.
“But at their worst, and too often in practice, they operate without adequate oversight, without sufficient safeguards for civil rights, and without the transparency required of traditional public schools,” she added.
Moskowitz told the panel that 100% of Success Academy high school graduates went on to to four-year colleges the past eight years — and 95% of students have taken and passed at least one Advanced Placement course.
“Providing a structured, joyful, focused learning environment with an exceptional teacher training and education training program is really our secret sauce,” Moskowitz said.
She put in a plug for the High Quality Charter School Act, co-sponsored by Kiley, that would provide a new tax credit for charitable contributions to nonprofit charter school organizations.
The House GOP did not include the tax break to publicly funded charter schools in its tax bill as it did for private schools, but Kiley vowed to include the provision in the final legislation.
Upstate Rep. Elise Stefanik, the House Republican chairwoman, said NY kids need school choice.
“NY elected Democrats near universal opposition to school choice has left our students trapped in a failing system. Despite spending more than any state in the nation per student —New York’s schools continue to underperform with rampant absenteeism and failing outcomes,” Stefanik said.
“It’s time to give every child the chance to reach their full potential.”
The United Federation of Teachers had no immediate comment.
Additional reporting by Joshua Christenson
English (US)