I am a product of public schools and I am committed to making sure our schools are worthy of our children. High quality, accessible education is an equalizer, and our public schools are key to ensuring every New Yorker has what they need to thrive. Early childhood education is particularly critical for setting up children to be successful in school and for allowing parents to be successful in the workplace. Yet too often, New York City students face barriers to educational growth and success based on class, race, disability, language access, immigration status, involvements in the child welfare, juvenile or criminal legal systems. These students are often deprioritized or overlooked, and staff are under-resourced to help ensure no student is left behind. With federal coronavirus funding expiring, many of our schools are struggling to continue programs that support students and families with ongoing needs like evaluations for students with disabilities, bilingual programs for English Language Learners, expanding restorative justice funding, hiring school social workers and psychologists, and more. Schools are the centers of our community, and we should make sure they have they tools and resources they need to help care for all stakeholders: students, their families, teachers, and staff alike.

That is why I will fight to keep our public schools public and accountable to the community and to ensure that our teachers are fairly compensated and have the resources they need to support every child holistically.

This includes:

• Expanding and protecting early childhood education—Pre-K and 3-K—statewide, including guaranteeing funding for outreach and support to ensure children and families know about and can access seats in schools.

• Properly funding the State Department of Education and continually updating the Foundation Aid formula to ensure all our school districts statewide receive 100% of the state aid they need and deserve to support students.

• Keeping our public schools public and making sure charter schools don’t drain vital resources from our public school system.

• Designating funding for community schools that provide wrap-around services for students and their families. We should have more community schools that provide more services.

• Caring for our children and families long before school starts by investing in truly universal child care statewide, without means-testing, without barriers, and with targeted outreach and support for historically underserved families. 

• Ensuring our childcare workforce receives a substantial increase in salary to ensure living wages and ongoing cost of living adjustments. Childcare workers are key to building fair, livable communities for New York families and they deserve to be invested in.

• Increasing staffing for wraparound services like literacy instruction, school nurses, social workers, psychologists, and more.

• Investing in a New Deal for CUNY and advocating for a fair contract for CUNY workers.

• Working towards making SUNY tuition-free for all New Yorkers.

• Increasing funding for arts education, ensuring every student has access to arts and physical education by hiring more teachers and supporting local arts partnerships.