Opinion

Giving children a chance

Why is the Success Charter Network opening a new public charter school on the Upper West Side? Because that neighborhood — like the rest of the city — needs more great public schools, and parents there are demanding more options for their children.

Anyone who has seen “Waiting for Superman” or followed the legislative process in Albany this past spring is aware of the dramatic rise in demand for charter schools. Yes, virtually every charter in our city to date typically serves lower-income children — but parents from all income brackets are looking to send their children to the best possible school at the lowest possible cost.

That includes parents on the Upper West Side.

Despite the perception, traditional public schools across the Upper Wide Side are not uniformly superior. Some — like PS 87 and PS 199 — are excellent. But some are average — and some are struggling.

Parents only want excellent — as they should.

And not every child can get into gifted and talented schools like Anderson, not every parent can afford private-school tuition, and not every family wants to pack up and move to Scarsdale. That means they need more high quality, tuition-free options.

That’s what we’re hoping to provide with the Upper West Success Academy.

At Success Charter Network, we have a very simple vision: Give every child who walks through our doors a high-quality teacher and a well-rounded program and they will love school and excel.

We recruit the best teachers from across the country and give each one 400 hours of professional development per year. We focus on the basics like math and reading, but also on science, critical thinking, chess, sports, writing, music and art. For instance, every student at our schools does a science experiment everyday.

We want our students to be able to think for themselves and be prepared to solve more than just the problems they see on standardized tests.

That approach gets results.

Consider Harlem Success Academy, the first school we opened in New York City. While test results fell across the board for city schools this year, Harlem Success’ scores remained head-and-shoulders above the rest: 97 percent of Harlem Success third-graders passed the state math exam and 88 percent passed the state English Language Arts exam.

Through the Upper West Success Academy, we’d bring that same high-quality teaching and well-rounded education to the UWS community. When it opens, it will give parents another high-quality choice in their local neighborhood to choose from.

And with 190 new Kindergarten and first-grade seats to start — seats that don’t now exist on the UWS — it would help alleviate some of the overcrowding at PS 87 and PS 199 in the process.

We’ve spent a lot of time this summer talking to Upper West Side parents. Regardless of their politics or ideology, they almost all agree on one thing: If they can have the option of applying to a new, tuition-free school in their community with proven results, they want that option.

It’s that simple. And no one should take it away from them.

Eva Moskowitz is the founder and CEO of Success Charter Network, which operates seven charter schools in Harlem and the South Bronx.