By: Meyer Wolfsheim

Eva Moskowitz, the outspoken CEO of New York City’s largest charter school network, delivered explosive testimony before Congress, accusing teachers’ unions and their political allies of using obstructive tactics to deny students access to high-quality charter education — and drawing a sharp historical comparison to segregationists.

As reported first by the New York Post, Moskowitz told the House Subcommittee on Education that labor leaders and some Democratic lawmakers have actively worked to block charter schools from expanding, comparing their actions to former Alabama Governor George Wallace’s infamous stand in a schoolhouse door to prevent Black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama in 1963.

“There’s a deep political alliance in New York between the teachers’ union and elected officials,” Moskowitz testified on May 14. “They’re essentially barricading students from entering charter schools — a modern-day version of the George Wallace tactic,” she told members of the panel, according to the New York Post.

Moskowitz leads the Success Academy, a high-performing charter network of 57 schools. During her testimony, she cited her experience battling for space in public school buildings — a conflict she described as a nearly two-decade war with the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), documented in her book The Education of Eva Moskowitz.

Referencing the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, she said, “I’m experiencing something similar, yet opposite — where union operatives are physically and politically preventing children from gaining access to better educational opportunities.”

According to the New York Post, Moskowitz specifically cited a 2009 UFT protest outside Harlem Success Academy 2, where charter students were set to co-locate with a traditional public school. The incident was tense and deeply symbolic of the larger fight over education access, she claimed.

Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA), chairman of the subcommittee and a vocal charter school advocate, asked Moskowitz whether the high academic achievement of her students — who ranked first in math and third in reading statewide — has earned support in Albany. “It’s been a 19-year battle,” she said, adding that the union has “made life very, very difficult” through lawsuits and political pressure.

Despite Success Academy’s record — including a 100% college placement rate and 95% AP course pass rate — Moskowitz said lawmakers view her success as a political threat. The New York Post reports she told the committee that poor and minority students thriving outside the traditional public school system upends a status quo tied to union power and taxpayer dollars.

Upstate Rep. Elise Stefanik, the Republican House chairwoman, echoed Moskowitz’s concerns. As quoted by the New York Post, Stefanik said, “New York elected Democrats’ near-universal opposition to school choice has left students trapped in a failing system. We spend more than any state per student, yet outcomes continue to fall.”

The hearing also addressed the proposed High Quality Charter School Act, co-sponsored by Kiley, which would introduce tax credits for donations to nonprofit charter schools. While it wasn’t included in the House GOP’s latest tax bill, Kiley vowed to fight for its inclusion in final legislation.

Still, not all lawmakers were on board. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), the subcommittee’s ranking Democrat, warned that while charter schools can foster innovation, they often lack oversight and transparency.

Meanwhile, UFT President Michael Mulgrew dismissed Moskowitz’s claims as self-serving. “Talk to the families of the thousands of children pushed out of her schools,” he told the New York Post.