Tuesday, October 7, 2014

What Success Academies Costs The City

From the WSJ:

Lease documents show the city is paying almost $18,000 in rent for every student at the Success Academy that opened last month in Washington Heights, in the former Mother Cabrini High School. 

...

The Department of Education descriptions of the 10-year contracts, obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request, say the city will pay $39 a square foot in the coming three years for Success Academy Washington Heights and Success Academy Harlem Central; its analysis found a market range of $24 to $27 a square foot for comparable space. The rents will rise over time.

The memos said thorough searches found no other options before school started.

“There are very few places that are ready to be occupied by a school in less than six months, and costs vary significantly depending on the neighborhood and borough,” education department spokeswoman Devora Kaye said in an email. “While these leases may be on the higher end, they are by no means unprecedented.”

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In total, the city will pay $5.46 million this year for the three sites, including $3.2 million for the deal in Washington Heights. Some parents have complained that site went to a charter school when traditional public schools nearby are over capacity and children are jammed into trailers.

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The rental fees come on top of $13,777 for every student that taxpayers provide to charters, which are publicly funded and independently operated.

The city's paying nearly $32,000 a student for Eva's charters.

That's what Eva Moskowitz's charter schools cost.

That money could have been used to find space for public school students, but instead, it goes to Eva so she can pay herself close to $600,000 a year in salary and spend millions more on pro-charter, anti-public school advertising.

6 comments:

  1. sad sad sad thank the hapless politician morons

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    1. I wish they were hapless. What Cuomo did with last spring's budget giveaway to the charters was deliberately malicious.

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  2. I find it interesting that you can find more dirt on Eva from Murdoch publications than the NYTimes.

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    1. I got the story from Capital NY - it's owned by Politico, not Murdoch.

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  3. Please when you can write what's happening to Philly teachers. We need to stand with them.
    http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/A-stunning-act-of-political-cowardice.html#BFtv3kTUPhV2cbVi.01

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    1. I haven't written about it not because I'm not sympathetic to the teachers or outraged by the story but simply because others closer to the story can do a better job of it. But I'll write something this weekend with a NY angle to it.

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