STATEMENT FROM EVA MOSKOWITZ IN RESPONSE TO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ANNOUNCEMENT

STATEMENT FROM EVA MOSKOWITZ IN RESPONSE TO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ANNOUNCEMENT

New York, NY – Eva Moskowitz, Founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools released the following statement in response to the Department of Education’s announcement on space:

“By providing for only two of the six middle school spaces requested, the Department of Education leaves hundreds of Success Academy scholars without school seats next year. This unilateral announcement is not a ‘resolution’ — it’s discrimination against charter children, whose families were never consulted about these locations.” – Eva Moskowitz

Additional Background:

This afternoon, Success Academy received a letter from the Department of Education explaining how and why they were only going to provide space for a fraction of the scholars who will need a middle school next year. Success received a media inquiry about that letter shortly after. Because of this limited timeframe, we may not yet fully understand the full implications of how the Department of Education is limiting Success’ ability to provide classrooms for existing students – and we likely will have more to say in coming days.

Success had requested space for four new middle schools – two in Brooklyn, one in the Bronx and one in Queens – and reallocation of space at two existing middle schools to accommodate children matriculating from elementary school to middle school.

The City fails to acknowledge the sheer number of students across the Success network. The number of seats needed for middle schoolers over the next 4 years will grow to over 8,000 — nearly triple the enrollment in grades 5-8 today. Each year Success asks for a modest number of locations to provide for middle schoolers, and the DOE responds with inadequate facilities poorly located. This just hurts children and families.

In Brooklyn, the DOE granted only one building, located within 15 minutes of an existing middle school, but 3.5 miles from the elementary school it is to serve.

Success Academy has 12 elementary schools in Brooklyn, but the DOE has decided four middle schools are sufficient. In Brooklyn alone, middle school enrollment will grow to almost 3,000 over the next four years, roughly six times the current middle school enrollment. While the DOE notes that “every Success Academy 5th grade student who would like to continue at a SA middle school next year can do so,” it has not provided enough space for those students to remain in the same building for their entire middle school years. DOE wants SA to crowd all its Brooklyn 5th graders into four buildings, which will require them to be relocated in two or three years.

ABOUT SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOLS

Founded in 2006, Success Academy Charter Schools are free public K-12 schools open to all children in the state through a random lottery. With 46 schools across Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens, Success Academy enrolls 15,500 students, primarily low-income children of color in disadvantaged neighborhoods: 77% of students receive free or reduced-price lunch, 95% are children of color, 16% are children with disabilities, and 8.5% are English language learners. Ranked in the top 1% in math and the top 1.5% in English on 2017 state proficiency tests, Success Academy schools received more than 20,000 applications for about 3,200 open seats this year.

For more information about Success Academy, go to Successacademies.org and virtualtour.successacademies.org.

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