Success Academy Charter Schools, originally Harlem Success Academy, is a charter school operator in New York City. Eva Moskowitz, a former city council member for the Upper East Side, is its founder. According to the New York Post, Success Academy had 17,700 applicants for 3,288 available seats, which resulted in a wait list of more than 14,000 families for the 2018 - 2019 school year. It has 47 schools in the New York area and 17,000 students. Two documentary films, The Lottery and Waiting for " Superman ", record the intense desire of parents to enroll their children in Success Academy and charter schools like Success Academy.
History
Eva Moskowitz opened the first Success Academy charter, then Harlem Success Academy, in 2006 with 157 students chosen by lottery. She subsequently opened more schools in Harlem, and then schools in other New York City neighborhoods. The charter schools are funded by taxpayers and philanthropic donations.In February 2014, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio revoked a number of previously approved charter school co-locations, which are publicly funded but privately run, including those for three Success Academy schools. The decision was reversed in April after New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo stepped into the controversy. The city ended up finding space for three Success Academy schools. Hedge fund managers Joel Greenblatt and John Petry were founders who helped to recruit Moskowitz as CEO. John Paulson donated $8.5 million to Success Academy in July 2015 to help open middle schools in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
