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Teachers union officials filed a lawsuit this week to block Success Academy, New York City’s largest charter network, from handing one of its charters to CEO Eva Moskowitz’s husband.
Eric Grannis, Moskowitz’s spouse, is planning to use that charter to open Strive Charter School, which would offer families year-round programming and a longer school day. It is slated to open this fall in the South Bronx.
But city and state teachers unions contend in a lawsuit filed Monday that the arrangement runs afoul of state law because it effectively creates a new charter school, violating the state’s cap on the number of charters that can operate, which has already been reached. The suit also names the State University of New York, which oversees Success Academy and ultimately approved the arrangement between Success and Strive in January.
“If SUNY is allowed to bypass the law by allowing a transfer of a charter from Success Academy to Strive, it will create no distinction between a revision and a new charter, rendering the statutory cap meaningless,” lawyers for New York State United Teachers and the United Federation of Teachers, wrote in court papers. They called the arrangement “deceptive.”
The suit represents the latest chapter in a long-simmering rivalry between the local unions and the city’s charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately managed. Union officials argue that charters draw students, and the resources that follow them, from traditional public schools and sued to block charters in other parts of the state earlier this year.
Meanwhile, charter school leaders argue that families should have more options to choose from and their schools often produce superior academic outcomes. Charters are typically not unionized and may operate outside the strictures of the union contract.
Grannis, who has long been involved in the charter sector, noted that Strive is designed to meet working families’ needs. The school is slated to operate from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., including weekends, throughout the year (the extended hours are voluntary for students). The school plans to draw on Success Academy’s curriculum but would operate as a separate entity with its own board. Grannis indicated in a statement that demand is strong, and the school has received 200 applications.
“It is cruel that the teachers union is trying to deprive families of the opportunity to benefit from this program with this last minute lawsuit,” Grannis wrote.
SUNY officials said they are reviewing the lawsuit and would respond in court. A Success Academy spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is not the first time the arrangement between Strive and Success has raised legal questions. State Education Department staff argued in a January memo that the move represented a “circumvention of the cap” and urged the state’s Board of Regents to reject it.
The board ultimately sent the proposal back to SUNY for reconsideration — a largely symbolic gesture because under state law SUNY does not need the Board of Regents’ signoff for the change to take effect.
The unions’ lawsuit also contends that state law provides no legal mechanism for transferring a charter from one entity to another. State lawmakers have sometimes allowed charters that were surrendered or revoked to be reissued, though union lawyers argue that situation does not apply here. Even if additional charters were available, the suit argues that SUNY did not follow the competitive process typically required for issuing one.
“New York’s students and public schools deserve better than this kind of maneuvering, and NYSUT will not stand by while bad actors try to rewrite the rules to suit themselves,” Melinda Person, the union’s president, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, some charter school backers argued that the suit is without merit.
“I’m confident that the SUNY Board of Trustees acted not just lawfully but in the interest of families,” said James Merriman, CEO of the New York City Charter School Center, an advocacy group.
“If NYSUT and the UFT want to waste their members’ dues on a highly dubious lawsuit just to stop a school whose twin mission is alleviating parents’ child care issues, while also providing students with a first-rate education, well, be my guest.”
Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at [email protected].
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