From the estimable Diane Ravitch, we get a look at a letter sent by some of the parents of the students at the Hudson Yards middle school in New York City, a school that’s part of the Success Academy charter network. The Success Academy network is run by Eva Moskowitz, a charter-school proselytizer who makes a little more than half-a-million dollars a year running her empire. Bear in mind that Moskowitz is putatively a liberal and is regarded in many quarters as the best the charter movement has to offer. Anyway, the letter is quite striking.



HYSA faculty broke our children’s spirit and erased their self confidence in less than 3 weeks. Our children who once loved the SA, who were proud of being a part of a great school, rallied in Albany and other events, now simply no longer want to go to school. Some of our children are getting physically sick, experiencing meltdowns, vomiting, having nightmares and/or having sleepless nights and are unable to concentrate etc. Some of our children have even requested to be homeschooled although they had been award winners and popular last year. Intimidation and Detention of the scholars: Since school started most of the scholars were detained at least once for reasons that can hardly justify such an extreme measure. Examples:

• Not locking their hands

• Not completing homework that was confusing, in some cases assignments not even given to them in the first place

• For unintentionally and/or accidentally breaking wind or burping in the classroom

• On October 2, 2017 approximately 50% of the school was detained

• Some parents were informed about the detention 1 hour before it took place.

For almost 30 years, my father worked in what was then called an “inner-city” public high school. It was underfunded. It was coming apart at every seam. His last job was as its assistant principal and he was in charge of “student relations,” which is to say discipline. I can safely say that there wasn’t any particular day on which half the students there were in detention. That’s not educational. That’s a prison riot.

And this, if true, is just awful.

A terminally ill mother was trying her best to acclimate her daughter to the Hudson Yards Middle School community to be her second home. The future may turn out to be just like that. Unfortunately, the scholar’s grandfather passed away shortly after school started and the mother provided the school with her precise travel plans for the funeral. As the scholar’s grandfather was lowered into the ground, the mother received a phone call from her teacher but instead of condolences and support, this teacher demanded speaking about uncompleted homework.

There’s a reason why places like Massachusetts keep a close regulatory eye on the charter movement, despite that movement’s best efforts to remove it. If this letter is close to being accurate, students are being ill-served to the point of a breakdown while it seems the staff is under the kind of pressure to perform most often seen at places like UPS or an Amazon distribution center. The American business model has become devoid of humanity in its customary sphere. To allow that model into the classroom is asking for bigger trouble than burping or farting in class.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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