Dan Loeb Donates $15 Million to Success Academy for High Schools

• April 24 2018
• Amanda L Gordon

Activist investor Dan Loeb isn’t backing down.

Activist investor Dan Loeb isn’t backing down.

Loeb, who has drawn the ire of teacher’s unions and politicians for his support of charter schools, is giving $15 million to Success Academy, its founder Eva Moskowitz said Monday night at a benefit for the New York network of 46 schools. The gift from the foundation that the Third Point LLC founder created with his wife will establish the Loeb Fund to Reimagine the American High School.

“Several years ago, Margaret and I recognized that for our students to excel in college and beyond, Success Academy had to develop an entirely new model for public high school," Loeb, 56, said in a statement.

Success Academy opened its first high school in 2014, and a second two years later. It plans to open as many as eight more by 2033, with the Loeb gift supporting school design that can be replicated. Since its founding in 2006, Success has used private funds to cover start-up costs, including $8.5 million from John Paulson. The student population is 95 percent black and Hispanic, with 74 percent from low-income families.

Five years ago, the American Federation of Teachers put Loeb on a watch list of money managers that support groups the labor organization considered hostile to traditional public employee pensions. Soon after, Loeb boosted his pledge to $3 million from $2 million at a Success Academy gala. Last year, he wrote and deleted a Facebook post criticizing a black state legislator who hasn’t supported charter schools, saying she hurt people of color more than “anyone who has ever donned a hood.” That prompted Mayor Bill de Blasio to demand his resignation as chairman of Success Academy. Loeb, who apologized, remains in the role.