Charter Leader Moskowitz Not Running for Mayor After All

"I am not running for mayor in 2017."

With those words, charter school leader Eva Moskowitz ended the near-term speculation about her political future. The intrigue had only grown since August, when Moskowitz told an Albany radio host who asked about her mayoral ambitions, "it's an interest."

But instead of simply releasing a statement to the media, Moskowitz alerted reporters on Wednesday that she intended to make "an announcement concerning her political plans" on Thursday morning outside City Hall, setting off a minor Twitter storm ahead of the actual event.

When she arrived, she was greeted by hordes of press. The crowd was notably large considering that Mayor Bill de Blasio all but invited reporters to his own event that morning by adding a rare off-topic question and answer session.

Moskowitz, a registered Democrat, ran an unsuccessful primary race for Manhattan borough president in 2005. Despite flirting with higher office, she apeared amused on Thursday at the idea that she would have considered a run for mayor.

"I don't know of too many people who have run for mayor by opening up schools," she said. "I also don't know too many people who run for mayor after tangling with the Democratic Party establishment and the most powerful political interest group, namely the teachers union."

Instead of a career in politics, which she suggested would be constrained by union opposition, she said she wanted to work on education issues as a private citizen.

"I believe we have the chance to dramatically change public education," she said. "Of doing for education, frankly, what Apple did with computing for the iPhone. What Google is doing with driverless cars. This kind of transformational change may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I believe our kids are worth it."

Moskowitz said she had not yet supported any candidates for mayor, adding she'd be interested in one who could address the "broken" school system.

As she spoke, protesters from a group called the Hedge Clippers and New York Communities for Change could be heard chanting in City Hall Park. They claimed her schools rely heavily on donations from the hedge fund managers who want to undermine public schools. They even boasted of buying domain names such as evaformayor.org.

Billy Easton, executive director of the Alliance for Quality Education, a group that accepts money from the teachers union, addressed reporters immediately after Moskowitz. He criticized her for not joining the fight to get more money for public schools.

"The agenda here is to attack public education and to attack the mayor," he said.

Moskowitz first angered public school teachers a decade ago when she chaired the City Council's education committee, by holding hearings on the union's contract. When she started her Success Academy charter schools, the union sued over the city's plans to site her schools inside regular public school buildings.

Her critics noted that her schools served low proportions of English language learners and the neediest special education students.

Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said teachers and parents were disappointed by Moskowitz's decision not to run for mayor. "They had been looking forward to pulling back the curtain and showing the public the real Eva Moskowitz and the privatization agenda of her hedge-fund pals,” he said.

Supporters of her high-scoring charter schools said she's proving that low-income, mostly minority students could succeed in schools unencumbered by union work rules and other perceived constraints. 

Meanwhile, Moskowitz criticized City Hall for not moving on her request to open more charter schools inside public school buildings.

"You would think, given our results at Success Academies, the mayor and the chancellor would be rolling out the red carpet" she said.

The Department of Education said it's reviewing the requests and would comply with a state law that required the city to pay rent for charters if it had no space inside district schools.