Eva Sarah Moskowitz (born March 4, 1964)[1] is an American historian, politician, and education reform leader 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.
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.
[19] 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.
[20][21] In the three years in the position of chair, Moskowitz held over oversight hearings focused on New York City's public school system.
[25] that social studies and civics instruction was below par,[26] that only 10 percent of black and Hispanic students were eligible for Regents diplomas,[27] and that parents were being asked to donate basic supplies for basic hygiene, such as toilet paper and paper towels,[28][29] In 2005, approximately 30 students appeared at a hearing to testify about school conditions including complaints about filthy bathrooms and broken toilets.
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 New York's Governor, David Paterson, and Mayor Bloomberg, who said that the Harlem Success Academy was "the poster child for this country.
[39] The day after her electoral defeat on September 15, 2005, Moskowitz met with Petry and Greenblatt who convinced her to lead their proposed charter school network.
[50][51] Success Academy again violated a former student's privacy rights when school officials disclosed the details of her educational records to a reporter.
[53] 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.
By 2019, according to The Washington Post, the Success Academy network of 47 schools serving 17,000 students, is the "highest-performing and most criticized educational institution in New York", and perhaps in the United States.
[60] In her May 15, 2015 acceptance speech of the Manhattan Institute's Alexander Hamilton Award, Moskowitz promoted "school choice"[61] which was first proposed in 1955.
"[61] Another approach that Moskowitz uses in Success Academy schools, is the implementation of the broken windows theory,[63] popularized in the 1990s as a policing method by Rudy Giuliani and Bill Bratton.
[72] In a November 28, 2011 interview with the New York Daily News Editorial Board, Moskowitz emphasised the need for great schools and that this would only occur with a reform-minded administration.
[73] Moskowitz's opposition to de Blasio intensified as she advocated for an end to caps on charter schools in general, and for Success Academy in particular.
[20] Charter schools can "add revenue from private sources, lengthen their academic day and year," and are in control of their own curriculum.
[20] De Blasio, who had served on City of New York's Council Education Committee with Moskowitz for four years, singled out Success Academy in his comments.
[78][74] 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.
[79] 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.
[83]: 382–3 [84] In the 2011–2012, the Great Public Schools (PAC) gave $50,000 to Andrew Cuomo 2014, Inc.[85] In 1993, Moskowitz wrote, produced and directed the VHS-only Some Spirit in Me, which examined the feminist movement from non-prominent activists.
[92] 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.