Education
new York’s schooLs are amongst the COUnTRY’s most segregated. it’s unconscionabLe that we can’t provide a worLd-cLass education to aLL our kids.
We can end practices that foster segregation in our K-12 schools—testing four-year-olds into Gifted & Talented tracks, limiting access to the best middle schools according to screens that reward the privileged, and restricting specialized high schools to the best test-takers.
Meanwhile, all students can be served by better structured, better funded public education with smaller class sizes and more counselors and social workers—rather than police officers who traumatize the students they are there to protect.
Outside the walls of our schools, we can fund the futures of our children. Steps like universal childcare, summer employment, college funding, and expanded birth control access for teens are proven to increase opportunity, equality, and safety.
With committed poLicymakers in ALbany, we can make sure every New York chiLd—regardLess of the zip code they’re born in—can thrive in the cLassroom and beyond.
A 2021 CiviL Rights Project report found that new York is the state with the most segregated schooLs in the nation for BLack students —but we have the tooLs to correct this inequity.
We must leverage the renewal of mayoral control of schools in favor of equity. The current Gifted & Talented program in elementary schools, requiring standardized testing of four-year-olds, should end. Just 20% Black and Latinx kids test in, though they are 65% of the city’s public schoolers.
Temporary moratoriums on middle schools screens should be made permanent, to enable all elementary school-kids to equitably access high-quality middle school education.
The state legislature must overhaul the Hecht-Calandra Act that governs specialized high schools, to eliminate our reliance on only one test score (the SHSAT) to dictate access to elite high schools—which has led to less than 10% of their students being Black and Latinx.
As we integrate our schooLs, we can take cLear steps to strengthen the instruction that happens inside the cLassrooms, increase the dignity of the haLLways, and offer Life-changing opportunities beyond their waLLs.
We must listen to our parents and educators about class size, and finally deliver on promises to increase the attention each student gets from our amazing teachers.
Students tell us that they feel less safe with school safety agents in their halls—and data shows they increase arrests and expulsions without reducing gun violence. Instead, students should get more social workers, guidance counselors, and better physical infrastructure. The New Deal for CUNY will accomplish this at the college level.
Data proves that one of the best ways to keep our kids on track is summer employment, which saves us billions of dollars in future incarceration and lost lives. All New York kids should be guaranteed jobs.
It’s time to invest in the next generation—there’s no way to generate a higher return.
We have the resources to foster every New York kid’s passions and intellect, and to expose them to the diversity of experiences and ideas that make our city the best in the world.