Staff Reports
New York City pours roughly $36,000 into each public school student and spends about $40 billion on education. Yet Success Academy founder and CEO Eva Moskowitz told Tom Basile on Newsmax’s America Right Now that a new analysis she commissioned says about 43% of city schools are “grossly failing” nearly 400,000 kids. Those are explosive claims — and they deserve paperwork, not applause lines.
Big spending, weak results — the facts we can check
Independent watchdogs confirm what everyone can see on the city budget: New York’s per‑pupil spending ranks near the top of the nation (mid‑$30,000s per student) and the NYC Department of Education budget is in the tens of billions. National tests and other independent measures also show many New York students struggle in reading and math. So the headline is right in spirit: big money, middling results. But the precise numbers Moskowitz cited come from a Success Academy–commissioned analysis that has not been posted publicly, so reporters and parents should not treat those exact percentages as settled fact until the method is shown.
Why throwing cash isn’t the whole answer
The left’s instinct is always to blame funding levels and demand more dollars. That’s lazy. Money matters, but it is not a magic wand. Low expectations, union rules that protect ineffective practice, one-size-fits-all pedagogy, and a thick city bureaucracy also wreck learning. Success Academy has a reputation for getting results where it gets latitude. If their analysis is right, it points away from budget cuts and straight at structural reform and higher standards — exactly what parents want.
Show the report — demand answers, not slogans
If you’re going to declare 400,000 children “failed,” show your worksheets. The public needs the report, the data, and the definitions. Which tests were used? What counts as “grossly failing”? Were English language learners and special education students counted differently? Until Success Academy releases that paper or Newsmax provides a transcript of the segment, the headline numbers should be treated as a claim, not a verdict. City officials should also respond — not with excuses, but with hard data and a plan to fix things.
Where reform goes from here
Parents should demand options. School choice and charter expansion have helped many kids escape failing schools. Policymakers should stop asking how to spend more and start asking how to spend smarter: reward growth, lift standards, strip protection from chronically ineffective practices, and expand proven school models. New Yorkers pay a premium for education. They deserve real results — and they deserve to see the math when someone says that system is failing 400,000 children.
