New York City's Success Academy charter schools do remarkably well: “We are No. 1 in student achievement in the state,” says founder Eva Moskowitz, “outperforming all the wealthy suburbs.” Although her schools teach mostly poor kids, 95 percent pass the state math test and 84 percent pass the English test. Government-run schools' corresponding pass rates are 38 and 41 percent.
How does Success Academy do it?
For one thing, she keeps kids in class longer. Middle schoolers stay until 4:30 p.m. From what I saw, that doesn't make kids hate school. Many told me they “look forward” to going to Success Academy in the morning.
Despite her schools' success, or because of it, the education establishment hates Moskowitz.
“Why do they hate you?” I asked.
“What we prove is that there's nothing wrong with the children,” she replied. “There is something wrong with ... a monopolistic system that is not allowing kids to succeed.”
Some specific criticisms of charters like Success Academy:
• They're funded better but perform worse than underfunded government-run schools. Actually, charters do more with less. New York City's regular public schools get $20,000 per pupil. “I only get $14,500,” said Moskowitz.
• They get better results because they just accept better students, skimming the cream off the top. “Simply not true,”said Moskowitz. “We admit by random lottery.”
• Only some parents enter those lotteries, so charters don't have homeless or foster kids, or kids whose parents are jailed. “Most of our kids are from very poor families,” Moskowitz said. “Yet they significantly outperform kids from suburbs ... where the average household income is eight or nine times what our families earn.” And: “About 1 in 10 of our scholars are homeless, yet 97 percent of them passed the state math exams and 84 percent passed reading.”
• Charters kick out or “counsel out” problem kids, demanding so many meetings that parents eventually withdraw their kids. But only 10 percent of kids leave Moskowitz's schools, while 13 percent leave regular schools before completion.
• Some charters turn out to be worse than government-run schools. That's true. But the beauty of choice (a market) is that good schools grow while inferior ones close. For years, bad government schools never closed.
In her new book, “The Education of Eva Moskowitz,” she explains that she's a Democrat who didn't always believe in school choice.
“I was blinded, I think, by a belief that big government was a good thing.”
Now she knows better.
Many families also now know charters may be better. Parents line up for lotteries where government rations out the small number of admissions. Kids who don't get picked sometimes cry.
It's cruel and unnecessary for government to limit choice this way, but many politicians have an investment in maintaining the power of bureaucrats and teacher unions.
Thankfully, some kids will have better lives because people like Eva Moskowitz fight the system.
John Stossel is author of “No They Can't! Why Government Fails — But Individuals Succeed.”
