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Eva vs. public schools

New York Teacher

Eva Moskowitz has scheduled a pro-charter rally in Albany the same day as the UFT’s lobby day at the state Capitol on March 4.

We believe her aim is to hold a rally so big and loud that it will drown out the voices of the public school parents and educators traveling to Albany with the UFT to address the real issues facing public schools — the need for fair and equitable funding.

To that end, Moskowitz is once again closing Success Academy’s 32 schools to bus, according to press reports, more than 9,000 students, staff and parents to the rally, where she is using them as pawns in her scheme to undermine public education in New York City.

Public school educators would not be allowed to close schools for a political rally even if, as Moskowitz says she is doing, instruction was to be given on the buses. Our students are where they belong: in class.

But Moskowitz and other like-minded charter-network operators apparently follow different rules.

Moskowitz’s game is to call her schools public to justify their receiving taxpayer dollars on top of the millions they get from her hedge-fund donors. Then she turns around and says her schools are not subject to the same rules governing public schools.

Her schools don’t have to open their financial books to government oversight as public schools do.

Her schools can close to ship children to Albany so that she may score political points.

Her schools can keep their doors closed to high-needs children educated in public schools.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is enabling Moskowitz, going so far as to offer himself as the headliner for her Success Academy’s private fundraising event in April. The governor needs to understand that the only way to ensure fairness and equity for all schoolchildren is to end the destructive and dishonest claims by Moskowitz and her allies. If charter schools want to receive public funding, they should follow fundamental rules: They should open their books to public scrutiny. Open their doors to serve the same numbers of high-needs children as public schools do. And stop using innocent children as political pawns.

Related Topics: Charter Schools