Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Did Moscowitz cut a deal with Trump?

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Did Moscowitz cut a deal with Trump?:

Did Moscowitz cut a deal with Trump?


Last month, charter schools' biggest hustler, Eva Moscowitz, who pulls down a half-million/year as the operator of N.Y. Success Academies, was in the running for Trump's Sec. of Ed post. She didn't get the job. Trump gave it to fellow plutocrat and religious zealot Betsy DeVos instead.

The Trump transition team may have been frightened off by the spate of negative press about her schools' discipline practices and internal workings and the ongoing federal investigation conducted by the Office of Civil Rights, as well as mounting criticism from local elected officials. It is unclear whether Moskowitz could have even been confirmed as a cabinet official of an agency that is investigating her schools.

But that didn't stop Moscowitz, a Clinton supporter, from swearing loyalty to Trump and his plan for market-driven public schools.


Moscowitz bought space here for $68M.
Then, no sooner had she plopped down $68M in school money for the purchase of ground-floor classroom space in a glitzy Midtown tower, after rejecting space offered to her in public school buildings, when the auditors caught up with her.

Today she is under fire for financial mismanagement and allegedly ripping off the taxpayers and even her own Success Academy schools for millions of dollars, including thousands that were supposed to have been spent on services that were never delivered to students with special needs.

The Observer reports: 


An audit  by city Comptroller Scott Schooling in the Ownership Society: Did Moscowitz cut a deal with Trump?: