Eva Moskowitz

Eva Sarah Moskowitz (born March 4, 1964) is an American historian, politician, and charter school advocate who is the founder and CEO of the Success Academy Charter Schools. A member of the Democratic Party, Moskowitz served on the New York City Council, representing the 4th district on the eastside of midtown Manhattan and the Upper East Side, from 1999 to 2005. Moskowitz interviewed to be Donald Trump's Secretary of Education, but decided not to pursue the position.

Moskowitz has advocated for the promotion of charter schools as a key component of education reform in the United States. She claims that they are instrumental in closing the educational disparity between disadvantaged and elite students. As one of the most prominent leaders for education reform, Moskowitz has clashed with the City of New York and its former mayor Bill de Blasio.

Early life and education On March 4, 1964, Moskowitz was born in New York City to Martin, a mathematician, and Anita, an art historian who fled Europe during the Holocaust. She was raised near Columbia University on 118th Street and Morningside Drive in Morningside Heights, Manhattan.

Moskowitz graduated from the public magnet Stuyvesant High School in 1982, received a Bachelor of Arts with honors in history from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in American history from Johns Hopkins University at Vanderbilt University as an assistant professor of history, and chaired the faculty seminar in American studies at Columbia University in 1996–1999, where she was also the director of public affairs.

New York City politics Moskowitz served on New York City Council as the member for the Upper East Side of Manhattan from 1999 until 2006. Between 2002 and 2004, Moskowitz wrote six laws, including laws on health care and campaign finance reform.

When Moskowitz first returned to New York after a year in Vanderbilt, she volunteered in Gifford Miller's City Council campaign and served as his field director.

In the three years in the position of chair, Moskowitz held oversight hearings focused on New York City's public school system. she developed a reputation for being "abrasive" even with those who admired and supported her. that many schools lacked appropriate facilities for physical education, schools were being overcharged for supplies because they were required to use a city-mandated online purchasing system, science education had not been updated for a modern context, there were too few qualified science teachers and insufficient science facilities, that social studies and civics instruction was below par, that only 10 percent of black and Hispanic students were eligible for Regents diplomas, and that parents were being asked to donate basic supplies for basic hygiene, such as toilet paper and paper towels. In 2005, approximately 30 students appeared at a hearing to testify about school conditions including complaints about filthy bathrooms and broken toilets.

United Federation of Teachers (UFT) members were "enraged" by the 2003 City Council hearings on teachers' contracts, seniority rights, work rules, and on other education issues. When she ran for the Democratic party nomination to be the Manhattan Borough President to succeed C. Virginia Fields, under a campaign emphasizing education and transportation issues,

Success Academy Charter Schools

The first Success Academy Charter School opened in 2006, with Moskowitz serving as Principal. There were 165 students. The school was co-located in a building in Harlem with two other zoned district public schools. According to the podcast StartUp, Moskowitz had succeeded in closing the achievement disparity between disadvantaged students and more elite public-school students in New York in standardized tests as required by the New York State Education Department for students in grades three and eight. With these unprecedented test scores, Moskowitz earned the support of the media, wealthy donors (including Wall Street hedge fund executives), and those with political power, such as New York's Governor, David Paterson, and Mayor Bloomberg, who said that the Harlem Success Academy was "the poster child for this country." President Barack Obama also recognized charter schools as being crucial in reforming the education system. They became the Success Academy network's key funders that contributed to its growth In 2008, three more schools opened.

By 2012, Success Academy Charter School Inc. had made over eight million dollars in savings and cash investments, and it had spent over one million dollars on outreach services. and push for education reform. These wealthy hedge fund executives provided a significant counterweight from the political sphere to the teachers in the educational sphere who opposed charter schools. was DFER's CEO.

In 2015, hedge fund manager John Paulson, a major Trump ally, donated $8.5 million to Success. By December 2017, Success Academy included 45 schools, with schools in every borough of New York except Staten Island, According to a 2017 article in New Yorker, it was Moskowitz' wish that she would be running 100 schools within a decade.

Controversy In an October 2015, PBS NewsHour feature, PBS special correspondent for education, John Merrow, reported on the high-profile network of charter schools in New York City. A representative of a Success Academy charter school that shares the same building with a zoned public school in Brooklyn, New York, said that they did use out-of-school suspension for kindergartners and first graders. In 2014, in one school alone, 44 out-of-school suspensions were issued to 203 kindergartners and first graders. In 2019, the US Department of Education found that these disclosures violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Success Academy again violated a former student's privacy rights when school officials disclosed the details of her educational records to a reporter. In 2020, the New York State Education Department found the school had violated the New York State student privacy law.

In 2017, hedge fund manager and Success Academy network board chair Daniel Loeb compared Democratic State Senate leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a black woman, to a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Moskowitz retained Loeb as chairman after he deleted the post and apologized, stating that opponents of charter schools were using the incident as an opportunity to call out the entire charter system.

In Midtown Manhattan June 2018, students from Success Academy's new flagship high school took to the streets to protest Moskovitz's policies, including the "no excuses" disciplinary policies. In January 2018, Moskowitz—who was concerned the high school's principal and teachers were not being strict enough—took a measure of installing her desk in the school hallway to more closely monitor students. As the number of new rules and severity of the consequences increased, the students organized their first protest in the high school itself.

Charter school advocacy In December 2014, Moskowitz said that public education in the U.S. is lacking in rigor. She said that children must be challenged, as well as engaged, in order for them to want to be at school.

In her May 15, 2015, acceptance speech of the Manhattan Institute's Alexander Hamilton Award, Moskowitz promoted "school choice" which was first proposed in 1955. Moskowitz praised the use of tax credits as a powerful tool that allows parents to "vote with their feet." popularized in the 1990s as a policing method by Rudy Giuliani and Bill Bratton. The theory has been criticized for over-criminalizing communities of color. In every Success school there is a special business operations manager (BOM) team of several full-time staff, who are responsible for non-instructional components, such as maintenance of the school and courtyard and ensuring that the school is bright, cheerful, and inviting.

Moskowitz said that there is a need for more charter schools with socio-economic and racial diversity considering that New York City schools are "shockingly segregated".

In an interview with MarketWatch, Moskowitz said that education was mostly a matter for the state and local governments, but that she would continue to form new conceptions of public education considering its importance as a civil rights issue.

By 2019, the charter school movement reached the statewide cap on new charters, and capacity was near its limit.

Conflict with New York City Moskowitz has been in a battle with Mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio since they both served on the New York City Council. In 2018, the New York Daily News called it a "long-running war between Moskowitz and New York's charter-skeptic mayor. Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the number of charter schools in New York increased from 17 charter schools in 2002, to 183 in 2013.

In a November 28, 2011, interview with the New York Daily News Editorial Board, Moskowitz emphasized the need for great schools and that this would only occur with a reform-minded administration. By November 2011, Moskowitz was concerned about Bloomberg's potential replacement in the 2013 mayoral election. At that time, de Blasio was already dubbed as an obstructionist of the charter schools by the Daily News. Bloomberg had proven to be a strong effective advocate for charter schools in the City. By 2011, Moskowitz already had opened nine successful charter schools and had five more schools that she was preparing for opening. She told the Daily News that she was considering running for the office of mayor. Charter schools can "add revenue from private sources, lengthen their academic day and year," and are in control of their own curriculum.

De Blasio's stance against charter schools was just one aspect of what was described as a rebellion against corporate-friendly education policies in New York.

As New York Mayor, de Blasio announced in early 2014 that he was disapproving three of Success Academy's co-locations that had been approved under his predecessor, Bloomberg, due to concerns of placing young children in high schools or displacing special needs public school students. Some in the media called this de Blasio's war on charter schools and minority students. Moskowitz, who was called a fierce critic of de Blasio, closed all 22 Success Academy schools on March 4, 2014, and encouraged staff and students to participate in what would be one of the largest civic field trips, with thousands of students, parents, and teachers rallying in Albany. Moskowitz was criticized for seeking the support of hedge fund managers and other influential financial leaders on Wall Street in her fight against de Blasio. Moskowitz, along with the allied charter school PAC StudentsFirst, contributed over $4 million to New York State Senate Republican campaigns, helping them maintain control of the chamber, to foster legislation for further privatization.

Moskowitz founded and directs the Great Public Schools Political Action Committee (PAC) that supports charter schools, following an election in which a pro-Success Academy candidate lost. In the 2011–2012, the Great Public Schools (PAC) gave $50,000 to Andrew Cuomo 2014, Inc.

Selected publications and films In 1993, Moskowitz wrote, produced and directed the VHS-only Some Spirit in Me, which examined the feminist movement from non-prominent activists. In 1996 she published a Journal of Women's History article on the work of Betty Friedan. In 2001, Moskowitz released the book In Therapy We Trust. The book argued that the American emphasis on self-fulfillment damages civic engagement. In 2012, she co-authored Mission Possible: How the Secrets of the Success Academies Can Work in Any School with Arin Lavinia. In 2017, HarperCollins published her memoir, The Education of Eva Moskowitz. In 2023, she co-authored A+ Parenting: The Surprisingly Fun Guide to Raising Surprisingly Smart Kids.

In 2010, Moskowitz was featured in the documentaries The Lottery and Waiting for "Superman", which followed students applying to Success Academy as well as protests and legal disputes associated with charter schools.

Personal life She is married to Eric Grannis and has three children, two of whom attend Success Academy Harlem East.