14 More Schools for Avaricious Eva - Coming to a School Near You - Or in Your Own School

....with so many schools how can Eva assure a consistent quality of cheating that keeps her scores so far above any of the other charters?

By way of example, the application points to one Harlem district school co-located with a Success school has started posting college flags in school hallways, based on a Success practice....

I'm trying not to fall off my couch laughing at this major impact Success had on one school. Talk about scraping the bottom of a barrel to try to toot your own horn.

If Success’ proposal to open 14 new schools by 2016 is approved by the trustees of the SUNY Charter School Institute, the network will enroll about 35,698 students and cost the city more than $165 million (not including the cost of potential private space) by 2020, according to the application. .. Capital NY - Success proposes to dominate NYC’s charter landscape

There is mucho unhappiness in NYC charter land today - even more than in the public school sector which pretty much has accepted the end is coming. But this pretty much spells the end of the independent/non-chain charter school. Maybe even some of the smaller chains too. The Capital NY article touches on a few issues of importance but also leaves a bunch of stuff out.

With de Blasio and the UFT helpless to fight Eva politically, and worse than that, the UFT refusal to organize schools invaded by Eva into an organized resistance force that could counter her, people in invaded schools are helpless. The UFT failed to put up any resistance to Cuomo's charter law sellout that requires the city to put up money to rent space or co-locate these schools.

Eva is jumping in to gobble up what she can, other charters be damned. We have been predicting -- even to my charter contacts - that live by the laws of competition, die by those same laws. Chains will gobble them up over time -- think of the mergers and acquisitions. Eventually, Eva will run into KIPP.

My old pal - NY charter school leader James Merriman - doesn't seem all too happy about this development. As Eva controls the entire charter landscape, he becomes superfluous.

Oh, and think of how many more UFT jobs get lost with 14 more schools. That is why the AFT/UFT are trying to organize non-teachers like nurses -- they know the teaching profession is doomed.

It won't be long before there are demands to lift the charter cap. The UFT is selling the fiction it can organize charters into the union but it will never dent the Eva monolith which is a school district within a school district. She will be facing her own wall as teacher burnout and turnover continues.

And worst of all for Eva -- with so many schools how can she assure a consistent quality of cheating that keeps her scores so far above any of the other charters?

Full Capital NY piece.





The Success Academy charter school network's proposed expansion would cement its role as the largest and most costly charter network in New York City, according to new financial and enrollment data contained in Success' application to open over a dozen new schools in the next two years.
If Success’ proposal to open 14 new schools by 2016 is approved by the trustees of the SUNY Charter School Institute, the network will enroll about 35,698 students and cost the city more than $165 million (not including the cost of potential private space) by 2020, according to the application.
SUNY's board is widely expected to authorize all 14 schools in a vote planned for October. SUNY has approved all of Success’ existing schools.
Success is planning to open four of the new schools in fall 2015 and the remaining ten in fall 2016. The SUNY board is currently reviewing the proposals, a spokeswoman for SUNY said.

“These applications are incredibly strong and and build on an impressive track record of student success," said Kerri Lyon, a spokeswoman for Success. "Unfortunately, these 14 schools will barely make a dent in the demand and urgent need in these neighborhoods for more high quality public schools."
Success secured its place as the city's most conspicuous charter network this year, as Success’ founder and C.E.O. Eva Moskowitz publicly sparred with Mayor Bill de Blasio over space for several Success schools.
Moskowitz organized several massive pro-charter rallies after de Blasio rescinded a handful of previously approved co-locations, and she helped push the passage of a new state law that guaranteed protections for local charters.
Success’ nearly 400-page SUNY application provides a look inside the charter network, and sheds light on the complicated process of local charter school authorization. The SUNY Charter School Institute, one of the two charter school authorizing bodies in New York, along with the Board of Regents, requires that prospective charters prove community interest in the new schools.
Success’ application insists that the schools have had a positive impact on the public schools they share space with, despite long-term protest from many district school leaders that Success schools siphon resources away from district schools.
“Success has seen positive culture shifts in existing public schools in which Success Academy schools co-locate,” the application reads. There are 950 public and non-public schools in the 14 school districts where Success is hoping to open schools. “It is not expected that the proposed schools will significantly impact the admissions or enrollment” at those schools, the application reads. Success’ critics have argued that new, co-located Success schools can cause overcrowding and other problems in local district schools.
By way of example, the application points to one Harlem district school co-located with a Success school has started posting college flags in school hallways, based on a Success practice. Another Success principal in the Bronx has begun advising the local district school principal on instructional practices, the application reads.
290 people from 70 different organizations, including the Department of Education, visited Success schools in the last academic year, according to the application.
Success staffers also sent 281 letters to “community stakeholders” in June, informing them of the proposed expansion, in order to fill the SUNY requirement that prospective schools solicit extensive community feedback.
The network received dozens of requests for more information from elected officials, including 16 councilmembers including Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, a longtime charter school critic, along with borough presidents Eric Adams and Ruben Diaz Jr. and 12 state Assemblymembers. According to the application, Success representatives are in contact with staffers for the electeds.
Success also outlined its academic goals for all its students in its application, as mandated by SUNY application requirements: the network is aiming for 75 percent proficiency rates for second-year students in both math and English on state tests. The network said it views its teachers and leaders as “Olympic athletes who must constantly train and improve their skills.”
With Success on track to manage nearly 40,000 students in the next six years at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, some charter leaders and education experts say the network may soon rival the size and scope of some smaller school districts.  .
“Have the networks become too big to fail?” James Merriman, C.E.O. of the New York City Charter School Center, said, adding that the question “worries everybody” in the local charter community. He noted that large and growing charter networks across the city and country have a “direct analogy with a school district,” but noted that he believes New York’s networks have proved their academic merit.
David Bloomfield, a professor of education at CUNY’s Graduate Center and Brooklyn College, also said Success’ likely expansion could create more of a wedge between Success and the city’s other charters, since the network will serve by far the most students and require the most public dollars, a sentiment echoed by some independent charter leaders.
“We have a charter-school cap,” Bloomfield said. “That cap could be filled by all chain charters or all mom and pop charters, but are Success and the big chains going to swallow up all the remaining slots? It could be a charter versus charter battle.”