If Eva Moskowitz Weren’t Real, Charter School Opponents Would Have Had to Make Her Up
At a press conference Friday afternoon, Eva Moskowitz, former New York City Council member and the founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, announced that she would not fire the principal responsible for the now-notorious “got to go” list that the New York Times reported on the previous day. The Times story detailed one Success Academy’s efforts to push out 16 particularly challenging kids: “I felt I couldn’t turn the school around if these students remained,” the principal, Candido Brown, said in an email.
Without defending the actions of the principal, the ever-classy Moskowitz distributed emails she’d sent after discovering the “got to go” list and reprimanding Brown, who she called “stubborn and somewhat dense” in one missive.
“At Success, we simply don't believe in throwing people on the trash heap for the sake of public relations," Moskowitz said of her refusal to fire Brown. (Note: This is exactlywhat she is accused of doing to students who don’t meet Success’ rigorous disciplinary and academic expectations.) The short-lived list, in Moskowitz’s telling, was an outlier—the error of a single “dense” principal, not a systemic problem with how her schools are run.
Brown, the principal, also spoke, through tears: “As an educator I fell short of my commitment to all children and families at my school and for that I am deeply sorry.” He said he was “doing what I thought I needed to do to fix a school where I would not send my own child.”
Success is New York City’s largest charter network, with 11,000 students. The most that Moskowitz would acknowledge was that “Success may not be the absolute best setting for every child,” particularly children with special needs. This is not a new admission, or a new controversy—though the storm clouds seem to be thickening above Success’ CEO of late.
To think that just a month ago Moskowitz was considered a likely challenger—and aEva Moskowitz defends Success Academy principal responsible for 'got to go' list.: