The Education of Eva Moskowitz: A Memoir

From Eva Moskowitz, the outspoken founder and CEO of the charter school Success Academy, comes a frank, feisty memoir about the rough-and-tumble battles to reform America’s education system.

Eva Moskowitz is a fighter with a reputation for having "sharp elbows"— if that’s a synonym for getting the job done, she’ll take it. A born and bred New Yorker, former City Councilmember, and "charter czarina," Moskowitz has taken on powerful unions and politicians to establish and grow her astonishingly effective and popular charter school program in four of the city’s five boroughs.

In this unabashedly candid memoir, Moskowitz tells of how she became a forward-thinking education entrepreneur and her fight to establish nearly three dozen schools—activism that has made her into one of the most polarizing figures in New York City and beyond. Now, having established a remarkable, even unprecedented, track record for guiding the city’s most disadvantaged children to high academic performance, Moskowitz addresses the battles she has won and lost, writing candidly about the people who seek to undermine her work—most notably New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio—and celebrating the powerful allies who have aided her cause, including former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Moskowitz’s insightful memoir is a deeply felt personal story and an impassioned call to action that bluntly identifies failing policies and the alarmingly powerful forces arrayed against improving an education system that is both deeply dysfunctional and prejudiced. The Education of Eva Moskowitz is sure to galvanize supporters, enrage her opponents, generate headlines, and urgently impact the national conversation on education.

From Eva Moskowitz, the outspoken founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, comes a frank, feisty memoir about the rough-and-tumble battles to reform America’s education system.

EVA Moskowitz is a fighter with a reputation for having “sharp elbows”—if that’s a synonym for getting the job done, she’ll take it. A born-and-bred New Yorker, former city council member, and “charter czarina,” Moskowitz has taken on powerful unions and politicians to establish and grow her astonishingly effective and popular charter school network in four of the city’s five boroughs.

In this unabashedly candid memoir, Moskowitz tells how she became a forward-thinking education entrepreneur and of her fight to establish nearly fifty schools—activism that has made her one of the most controversial figures in New York City and beyond. Now, having established a remarkable, even unprecedented, track record for guiding the city’s most disadvantaged children to high academic performance, Moskowitz addresses the battles she has won and lost, writing openly about the people who have sought to undermine her work—most notably New York City mayor Bill de Blasio—and celebrating the influential allies who have aided her cause, including former mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Urgently necessary and insightful, The Education of Eva Moskowitz is a deeply felt personal story and an impassioned call to action that bluntly identifies failing policies and the alarmingly powerful forces arrayed against improving an education system that is both dysfunctional and inequitable.

“[Moskowitz] writes beautifully, salting her own clear, passionate, yet often analytic prose with quotes and references plucked from many sources, from Twain and Dickens to Carnegie, Fielding, and Hardy.”  - EducationNext

“[Moskowitz] decided a long time ago that poor children of color are equally capable as the affluent white children in New York’s premier zip codes. And unlike most who simply bemoan the inequity and throw their hands up, she is doing something about it. And Eva has real skin in the game. Not just because these are her schools but more importantly, because her own children attend them.” - Good School Hunting

“Readers get the sense that Moskowitz, fiercely independent and confrontational, likes the fight: She knows she’s in it for the right reasons—building better schools—and isn’t giving up.” - Weekly Standard