Just as Mayor Bill de Blasio finally managed to settle his public battles with charter network leader Eva Moskowitz, his City Council allies are gearing up to revive the fight.
The Council Education Committee announced Monday that it plans to hold an oversight hearing on “charter school management and accountability” on May 6.
Committee Chairman Daniel Dromm (D-Queens), a former teacher with close ties to the United Federation of Teachers, initially called for the hearing last month after learning that Moskowitz allowed kids in her Success Academy network to skip classes and attend a rally in Albany to support their schools.
“I am deeply concerned about the legality of a school leader closing schools for entirely political purposes,” Dromm said at the time. “No educator should be allowed to use children as pawns for their political agenda.”
Dromm also questioned whether Moskowitz’s use of funds — which come from both public and private philanthropic sources — was appropriate.
“I am also troubled by reports of the Success Academy paying administrators extraordinary salaries,” Dromm said when first planning the oversight hearing. “I also intend to use my oversight powers to investigate Moskowitz’s extensive marketing campaigns costing millions of dollars.”
He did not respond to a request for comment late Monday.
Moskowitz has insisted the trip to Albany was a great civics lesson for her students.
She also had teachers conduct lessons on the bus ride to and from the state capital.
On Saturday, City Hall announced a long-awaited deal with Moskowitz that gives three of her Success Academy schools space inside defunct Catholic school buildings come September.
Under new state law, the city is required to pay the charters’ leases for those buildings.
The accord finally ended a vocal backlash from the charter sector that came after the administration reversed space-sharing deals made under the prior Bloomberg administration to give the three schools free space inside public school buildings.
City Hall’s antagonism to charter schools even got Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers to add protections for charters to the state budget.
De Blasio subsequently made a strong effort to show a more inclusive attitude toward charters, which serve about 6 percent of the city’s 1.1 million public school kids.
On late Monday, Moskowitz, who earns $475,000 as CEO of a 22-school network, was still thanking de Blasio.
“We are deeply grateful to Mayor @BilldeBlasio for his support, which will enable us to serve students at the three Success Academies,” she tweeted.
She declined comment through a spokeswoman, who confirmed Moskowitz has been offered a chance to testify at the council hearing.