Critics Ask SUNY to Probe Charter School Network

By DAISY WU

Families and advocacy groups pushed for an official investigation of the charter school network Success Academy’s discipline practices on Thursday at the SUNY board meeting.

“She [Success Academy founder Eva S. Moskowitz] violated my son’s rights,” cried out Fatima Geidi, a former charter school parent.

Geidi is one of several people and advocacy groups demanding the SUNY Board of Trustees in Manhattan to cease approvals for new charter school developments and to launch an investigation to check the discipline actions of the charter schools.

Success Academy, managed by former City Councilwoman Moskowitz oversees 34 charter schools dispatched around the city. Many charter schools are overseen by the SUNY Charter Schools Subcommittee under the board of trustees in New York State.

Recently, the Success Academy has come under scrutiny after a so-called “Got to Go” list was revealed to contain the names of 16 students who were singled out for removal to enhance school performance records. Moskowitz has since denounced the “Got to Go” lists, calling them “irregular” issues.

Geidi’s son, Jamir was one of the students ousted through pressure and discontent.

“My son was able to read at the third grade average but he could just not write,” said Geidi. Even with written documentation from the DOE, Jamir was not given the services he needed, such as occupational therapy and adequate time to complete his writing assignments, according to his mother.

Geidi was forced to withdraw her son from the charter school program because no services were provided and he was being ridiculed by teachers for not catching up in school, according to his mother.

“The child is treated bad because he struggles,” said Geidi. “Teachers would tell him that if he doesn’t write faster, he will need to leave.”

Numerous complaints about the Success Academy schools have emerged in the recent years. Frequent suspension of students beginning in kindergarten have been documented.

A letter written to Governor Andrew Cuomo by the Black Institute, NAACP and various state assembly and senate members, states, “Recent findings have shown that for elementary students, Success Academy suspends at a rate that is seven times that of our district schools.”

Complaints about petty nuisances that get students suspended and daily phone calls requesting parents to retrieve their children early have caused many to be pressured into transferring out. Out of the 16 listed on the “Got to Go” list, 9 have already left the schools.

“We request that you undertake this investigation immediately and that the SUNY Board of Trustees considers no expansion of Success Academy Charter Schools until the completion of the investigation and the resolution of the issues identified,” demanded the letter written to Cuomo.