Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz called out the United Federation of Teachers for hypocrisy after being silent about the expansion of prominent teachers union official Randi Weingarten’s charter school.
The NYC Panel For Educational Policy voted 22-0 to co-locate University Prep Middle School, a charter co-founded by Weingarten. The Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) consists of 23 voting members.
"Yet leaders like myself and throughout the sector are struggling to get co-location at underutilized buildings. So I call that hypocritical. You want one policy for yourself, but you want another policy for others. And it's just unfair," Moskowitz told Fox News Digital.
Moscowitz said that Weingarten has opposed every charter co-location that has ever occurred in the city, even before Success Academy existed.
However, the UFT, which Weingarten previously worked for, had not spoken out against the co-location of Weingarten’s charter school, despite having previously sued other charter schools for sharing space with public school sites.
The UFT filed a lawsuit against Success Academy citing the current state cap on class size to try to invalidate the co-location of two Success Academy charter schools at public school buildings in Queens and Brooklyn.
The Panel for Education Policy last year approved the expansion of the Success Academy charter schools run by Moskowitz. Success Academy is the city’s largest charter school network with 49 schools and 20,000 students. Success Academy teachers are not represented by the UFT.
As Success Academy was approved to co-locate with other public schools, UFT pushed back with a lawsuit, arguing that the measure was approved "without providing an in-depth analysis of how these co-locations would affect the students already in those public schools."
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"The DOE has misled parents, the public, and the PEP itself regarding the actual impacts of its proposed co-locations, including both schools’ ability to comply with impending requirements of the new Class Size Law," the lawsuit reads.
UFT’s lawsuit claims that the NYC Panel "violated state education law and its own regulations when it sought to co-locate two Success Academy charter schools into Queens and Brooklyn public schools without providing an in-depth analysis of how these co-locations would affect the students already in those public schools."
Furthermore, UFT’s lawsuit argues that Success Academy is trying to circumvent the current state-mandated cap by drawing students from two existing charter schools and casting itself as an expansion.
UFT had reportedly little to say about PEP approving the co-location of University Prep Middle School in public schools in the South Bronx.
"While the UFT often gripes that such moves deprive classroom footage from students and staff in traditional unionized public schools, not a peep was heard from union brass about the University Prep plan, though a union rep from the Rapport School raised objections," according to the New York Post.
Moskowitz told Fox News Digital that Weingarten and the UFT have opposed co-location since the beginning of the co-location policy for the "last 20 years."
"Randi Weingarten has not only opposed all of the charter co-location, she's actually sued to prevent us from opening. Success Academy right now at this very moment, is about to have to go to court because the UFC has sued to prevent Success Academy co-location," Moscowitz said.
She went on to say, "We serve 94% black and brown children in challenging neighborhoods where there aren't a lot of good educational options, and we've got people preventing us from opening great schools. It's madness."
Moskowitz explained that her charter school has been in an ongoing battle with teacher unions for several years.
"It's kind of exhausting, and it really inhibits children, educators, and leaders of high-performing organizations. I'm spending time on the politics and the litigation," Moskowitz said.
"Instead of spending all my time on teaching and learning and creating a magical school environment and helping my parents who are really struggling with often life and the challenges of crime and poverty and the difficulties of life."
