Success Academy
<a href="http://www.alternet.org/education/when-charters-try-crowd-out-marginalized-public-school-kids">http://www.alternet.org/education/when-charters-try-crowd-out-marginalized-public-school-kids</a><div>
</div><div>blog</div><div><div class="post-header" style="border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(239, 234, 228); margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding-top: 20px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(249, 247, 245);"><h1 style="font-size: 2.2em; margin: 0px 0px 0px 131px; padding: 0px 0px 4px;">Success Academy Tax Documents: Moskowitz Can Afford the Rent</h1><div class="author" style="margin: 3px 0px 0px 131px; color: rgb(192, 178, 165); font-size: 1.2em;">December 1, 2013</div></div><div class="entry clear" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 131px; width: 497px; font-size: 1.3em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(249, 247, 245);"><p style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.385;"><a href="http://www.successacademies.org/about-success-academy/" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(16, 114, 156); font-weight: bold;">Since 2006</a>, Eva Moskowitz has been running a small charter empire that has at least $50 million in government per-pupil funding, at least $30.9 million in total, end-of-year assets, and the support of hedge fund millionaires. Why is it, then, that her Success Academies have never paid a dime in rent for the public school space occupied by her charter schools?</p><p style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.385;">Recently-elected New York Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to put an end to the rent-free usage of public school space by charter schools.</p><p style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.385;">Moskowitz’s response?</p><p style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.385;"><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/election/charters-send-kids-march-blaz-plan-article-1.1465408" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(16, 114, 156); font-weight: bold;">She closed her 22 schools</a> on October 8, 2013, so that her students could “volunteer” to protest.</p><p style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.385;"><em>Public schools</em> do not close in order to have <em>public school students</em> engage in protests– and this protest coincided with the political agenda of Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota, who <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/charter-school-rally-sends-message-de-balsio-lhota-article-1.1479884" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(16, 114, 156); font-weight: bold;">just happened to attend</a>.</p><p style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.385;">Moskowitz is playing both sides of the public-private hybrid that is the Success Academy charter school. Her schools are “public” when it benefits her schools to be so, and they are “privately managed charters” when that is title is convenient (as in her closing school in order to have her students “protest” in favor of a mayoral candidate).</p><p style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.385;">Not only does Moskowitz believe that she has a right to squat rent-free in the very buildings of schools she intends to replace; Moskowitz also believes that she is above having to undergo a state audit– an audit that would likely reveal additional details in support of the obscenity that is the Success Academy Rent-free Ride.</p><p style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.385;">In July 2013, Success Academy Charter Schools CEO Eva Moskowitz <a href="http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/07/11/59266.htm" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(16, 114, 156); font-weight: bold;">sued New York</a> State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and his office for DiNapoli’s attempts to audit Moskowitz’s charter network. Moskowitz believes that submitting annual reports to the New York State Board of Regents is enough.</p><p style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.385;">Back to that “over $50 million”: In 2011, nine of Moskowitz’s schools received a total of over $50.5 million in per-pupil, <em>public</em> funding.</p><p style="font-size: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.385;">Wonder what else a state audit of the Success Academy empire would reveal.</p></div></div>