Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Breslin has provided legal cover and comfort to charter school empress Eva Moskowitz, who successfully challenged the right of the state of New York to check up on her educational enterprises.
Was his ruling based on an impartial and scholarly analysis of the law or was it driven by motives less pristine?
Justice Breslin concedes the right of NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to audit the money trails of publicly-funded institutions. Nobody disputes that charter schools like those run by Moskowitz are funded by taxpayers. Indeed, her pet talking point is that charter schools are public schools. All public schools are subject to audit by DiNapoli.
But not Moskowitz’s.
Justice Breslin sided with her on the pretext that her schools were not “units of the state.” In other words, not public schools.
In cities like Los Angeles and Chicago, there would have been no wiggle room for the bench to make such a fallacious decision. But in New York, technicalities selectively apply and so Moskowitz can hire “independent” auditors.
Why is there an assumption that a state agency cannot be independent, but a private group hired by an interested party can? If the charter school tycoon’s books are as open as she claims her schools are to the enrollment of all manner of kids, then what is she so nervous about?
Ron Isaac
Fresh Meadows
