The libertarian Reason Foundation honored charter school founder Eva Moskowitz on May 5 with its 2016 Savas Award for Public Private Partnerships. In 2006, Moskowitz founded Success Academy, a chain of 34 public charter schools with 11,000 students in New York City.
That night, Moskowitz spoke with Reason TV’s Jim Epstein in an interview published Wednesday. Moskowitz talked about the school’s challenges with politics and media bias.
“The unions are constantly suing us,” Moskowitz said when Epstein suggested one of the benefits of charter schools is that they’re insulated from politics. “The unions blockaded the entrance to our schools a number of years ago. The mayor threw out three of our schools. It’s just been a constant battle to provide this critical service.”
Most, but not all, charter schools have nonunionized teachers.
When asked about a video of a first-grade teacher yelling at a student and ripping up her work, Moskowitz said the New York Times had overblown the story and overlooked abusive teachers in the city’s traditional public schools.
“It seemed as if there were a double-standard. In the New York City school system, you have teachers engaging in physical abuse of students, teachers engaged in sexual abuse of students, and yet somehow that was not front page New York Times story,” Moskowitz said.
Results from New York City’s standardized tests show Success Academy students are more proficient in english and math than the city average. Moskowitz said the schools have 20,000 parents on a waitlist for 3,400 spots.
In the past, Moskowitz was on New York’s City Council. She left the door open to running for mayor in the future, although she already announced she won’t run in 2017.
Charter schools are publicly funded and do not charge tuition. Compared to traditional public schools, charters have more independence and flexibility in their operations and curricula, which is why many families find charters desirable. They are open to all students, but they often don’t have enough space to meet demand. In that case, they use a random lottery system to determine admission.
Click here to watch the full interview with Moskowitz.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
