Eva Moskowitz Gets Hit In The Comments

They tell you not to read the comments. This time we're going to.

Eva Moskowitz is the founder and uber-boss of Success Academy Charter Schools based in New York City, and as such has been at the center of plenty of controversy. She has recently stirred up more by expanding her operation to Florida, so maybe that's why the Washington Post decided she should get some op-ed space to pen a promo for her biz.

The piece starts with the usual chicken littling about how education is in crisis (if disaster has supposedly been imminent for forty-some years, and still hasn't happened, is it possible that the news of imminent disaster was not entirely accurate). Then she lets loose with this howler--

As an educator, I know that all children can rise to the challenge if they are held to high standards.

Not how Success Academy works. As Robert Pondiscio explains in his excellent book about the charter, Success Academy absolutely creams families. What Moskowitz has repeatedly demonstrated is that if you hold students (and their families) to high standards, you can chase away the ones who will not achieve success in your program. 

Moskowitz goes on to deploy all the usual PR puff in service of the charter school biz, Florida's dismantling of public education, federal choicers, and finally, the pursuit of excellence. 

If the U.S. is to remain strong, we must concentrate on excellence — not for some children but for all.

Awesome. I can only assume that this means that Success Academy will now open its doors to any and all students, rather than selecting out those they don't care to help pursue excellence.

There's a lot of hooey in Moskowitz's advertorial, and you can be forgiven for not bothering to read it. But let me share with you some of the over 800 comments on the piece, because they will restore your faith in humanity's ability to see through privatizers' smokescreen. 

I'm going to start with excerpts from the comments with the most upvotes:

I evaluated charter schools for twenty years. You may view my publications on line. Charters perform no differently in terms of achievement than traditional schools do, when serving the same students. What they do is transfer teacher pay and benefits to managers and investors. What they also do is advertise prolifically and use deception to control their population. Don't be misled by propaganda.

Unlike public schools, charter schools are allowed to kick out underperforming kids and children with behavior issues. It’s an apples to oranges comparison. They do this while draining funds from public schools.

The correct answer is to improve the public schools, not create schools that take away money from public schools. Plus the charter schools are allowed to cherry pick their students. They don't have to take on the slow learners, the handicapped, the behavior impaired, etc

Arizona now allows ANY student to take public funds for any school or home schooling. The primary beneficiaries are the wealthy; underprivleged students overwhelmingly remain in public schools. Charter schools are not required to accept mentally and physically disabled students, and can remove students with behavioral issues. Let's put charter schools on a level playing ground and see how they do.

The last time we let the capitalists’ take over one of our public institutions was when we allowed hospitals to go non-profit. How’s that been working for us?

Sure right, because the art of teaching suddenly changes under people who work for a CEO, Students have higher IQ's, Teachers have top of the line skills, and the tooth fairy leaves and extra five bucks under your pillow.

Absolute rubbish.

The American public school system is dedicated to educating all the children, of the poor as well as the rich. Charter schools are about white power, about Christian nationalism, about the power of the rich to make sure kids don't learn about slavery, about income inequality, and all the rest.

Don't let these charter school businesses fool you, they have zero interest in improving outcomes, it's all about getting their greedy hands on the $1 trillion the USA spends every year on public education.

Charter schools do no better ON AVERAGE than public schools. Fact proven by studies.

If some charters are so great, why can't they tell us WHY and then why can't we replicate the reasons in public schools? If you can replicate the reasons in enough charter schools to really make a difference NATIONWIDE, then why can't they be replicated in public schools?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Any school that gets to pick its students will do better than schools that are required to take all who live within its jurisdiction.

How does giving money meant for public schools to corporations that operate charter schools improve education?

No data or proof that "charter schools" are better. I remember when Catholic schools couldn't handle a challenging kid...they sent them to public school... who had to take them

Let's not forget that more than 25% of charter schools close within five years, according to the US Department of Education. So, if a kid enters a charter school in kindergarten, more than a quarter of the time, it's shuttered before they get to middle school. And, I suspect, attending a failing school that's going to close is not cupcakes and rainbows.

Absolutely not. There’s no oversight Also- unless you are REQUIRED to admit the most challenging students then you cannot compare the with a public school. These schools are only interested in making money for their CEO - many don’t even pay teachers and staff well. We can improve public education, we choose not to.

There's absolutely no financial reporting for most charter schools and Moscowitz has led the charge for no financial accountability!! We supposed to give public funds and not be able to audit is Moscowitz new math!

Get back to us when you have a successful plan for ALL students.

"The promise of public charter schools is" ... segregation

I had to go all the way to comments with only 4 upvotes before I found anyone remotely supportive of Moskowitz's comments. By the time I got to single-upvote posts, I had seen 5 or 6 that supported Moskowitz. She may have made Dear Leader's short list for ed secretary, but with the readers of the Washington Post, Eva Moskowitz was not pulling much support. Good to know there are so many people out there who see the problems.