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Success Academy Gets $8.5 Million to Add Charter Schools in New York City
New York Times | 7/30/15

Behind the Headline 
What Explains Success At Success Academy?
Education Next | Summer 2015

 Success Academy announced last week that it received an $8.5 million gift  so that it can open more of its charter schools in New York City.

The charter network currently has 34 schools but would like to expand to 100. Earlier this year New York increased its charter cap so that more schools can be opened.

In the New York Times, Kate Tayor notes one potential obstacle

Success Academy’s growth has posed a problem for the de Blasio administration. Under a law passed last year in Albany, the city will have to either find space for the new schools in public school buildings or pay a portion of their rent.

Mr. de Blasio is a critic of charter schools and said that as mayor he would halt the practice of giving them free space. But when, not quite three months into his tenure, he sought to block three Success Academy schools from getting space in public school buildings, a group of charter-school supporters financed a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign criticizing him. The mayor ultimately backed down.

Asked if the city would be able to provide space for all the schools Success wants to open, Devora Kaye, a spokeswoman for the Education Department, said only, “There’s a clear and fair process in place for any school to seek space in D.O.E. buildings or to apply for public support to secure private space.”

Charles Sahm investigates What Explains Success at Success Academy  in the Summer 2015 issue of Education Next.

– Education Next