Education
Education is about building a more equitable city. Our kids deserve the best education that will prepare them for the 21st century. Our parents deserve to feel reassured that the local public school is the best choice for their child.
Education Policy
As a proud NYC public school graduate (PS 321, IS 88), a parent of two multiracial kids, and sister of a DOE special education teacher, Kathryn knows firsthand what our teachers, students and parents are facing.
Building an equitable city means ensuring high-quality public schools are available to all families, regardless of zip code. We must abandon the scarcity mindset–that there can only be a few “good schools” to compete over.
Instead, we will implement structural change that will desegregate schools and incentivize better educational outcomes, so that families feel confident that the closest school to their home will provide the best education for their child.
The world is changing. We must make sure our kids are prepared to succeed in the 21st century and in the green economy. Students should see schools as more than just a stop on the way to graduation. Instead, schools are there to build your skills and talents and put you on a pathway to who you want to be. As mayor, Kathryn will focus on youth talent development and build a pipeline to careers.
In too many schools, our teachers are faced with kids that may not have had enough to eat at home or may not have a home at all. We will be hyper-focused on the 140 schools with more than 20% of homeless students. Schools are not just centers of learning, they are centers for community support. We will ensure that schools are safe and offer services and stability for families, not just students.
Today, our streets and sidewalks are a losing battle between competing uses.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Move $ out of administrative bloat in DOE directly into classrooms
- Abandon the scarcity mindset and make sure every school can succeed
- Accelerate our Universal Literacy goal to 2023
- Build new high schools in every borough, with a focus on South Brooklyn, Central Queens and South Bronx
- Guarantee city employment for certain CUNY and trade schools graduates
- Prioritize mental health support for students hardest hit by COVID-19
- Reform school safety and discipline to end the school-to-prison pipeline
Abandon the scarcity mindset and ensure every school and teacher can succeed
- Principals know what their schools need, but don’t have enough dollars to invest in classrooms. We will move administrative coffers at Tweed directly into classrooms so our principals have the funding for hiring the best teachers and the supplies they need.
- Accelerate our Universal Literacy goal to 2023. Equip teachers with science-backed curricula based in phonics, so that 100% of second graders are reading at grade level by the end of the school year.
- Get virtual learning right to expand AP for All more ambitiously than we have before. We will implement universal broadband and create a “Virtual Excellence” center at DOE -- to ensure students at all high schools have access to rigorous and specialized courses taught by teachers that are strongest at online learning. If kids can learn the latest hot dance moves on Tik Tok, we can teach them science, history, the arts and more too.
- More than 4,000 students have lost a parent to COVID-19. Mental health will be one of the most important areas of focus to ensure students with interrupted education can get back on track to succeed. We will provide mental health support for all educators and training to address students’ needs.
- Expand support for the 140 NYC schools with more than 20% homeless students and provide practical necessities, like installing a washer and dryer.
- Measure school metrics (not just student metrics) and reward schools that demonstrate more progress with students entering at lower proficiency levels.
- Pilot creative models to increase student-teacher ratios, such as moving to a quarter system where students take no more than 3-4 subjects at a time. This frees teachers to focus on fewer students at a time and helps students dive deeper into subject areas to learn.
- Improve screening for students with disabilities, particularly students of color, and double down on programming rooted in research-based programs to meet their needs..
Take a structural change approach to integrate our schools
- Expand challenging magnet offerings at every single elementary school, and identify students for advanced learning opportunities every year--not just through a one-time test for four year olds. Work proactively to identify and match students of color with those opportunities.
- End middle school screens permanently on a district by district basis in consultation with parents and engage underserved families to make sure they understand how to navigate the system.
- Prepare every middle school student for a rigorous high school experience. Implement Algebra by 8th, taking the approach used by MS447 to help every student meet this rigorous goal.
- Build new schools for students in the top 10% of their 8th grade class to incentivize better educational outcomes at every single middle school in the city and integrate our high school classrooms. The schools will be in every borough but we will start with a focus on South Brooklyn, Central Queens and South Bronx.
- Recruit more teachers of color and ensure that there is diversity in all the adults in the school, including school nurses, paraprofessionals and other support staff. Work with CUNY – our biggest pipeline of teachers – to develop more flexible pathways for people who want to go into teaching, and implement fellowship models that allow teachers to get certified while getting experience in the school.
- Adopt a culturally responsive approach within the curriculum, but also throughout the school system: sourcing and contracting with providers aligned with CRE goals to ensure after-school programs, enrichment and arts programs are also aligned.
- Reform school safety and discipline to end the school-to-prison pipeline. Black children can’t experience school as a hostile environment focused on control and regulation -- we will reform school safety and discipline policies, so that students are not arrested for behavior that is best addressed by school officials.
Prepare our kids for success in the 21st century economy
- Begin bilingual programs and offer language classes at the elementary school level in every single school. Leverage universal broadband, new iPads in the DOE system and new NYC Student Accounts to ensure parents have access to support in their preferred language and invest in high quality English language programs for bilingual students.
- Expand the summer youth employment program to include partnerships with the private sector, from finance to food to fashion.
- Better maintain the bike lanes we already have: procure badly needed small equipment to clean and plow bike lanes
- Work with the private sector to offer 10,000 paid internships to high school students.
- Place work-based learning coordinators at all high schools and subsidize wages for youth who face barriers to employment.
- Create a pipeline from CUNY colleges and trade schools to jobs, including guaranteeing graduates of our trades schools City employment. Work with the public sector to provide real jobs by engaging students in apprenticeship programs that lead to careers. Engage employers in an innovative, partnership-based approach that asks them to participate in curriculum development and training, so that companies have an incentive to commit to hiring CUNY grads who are best prepared for the jobs they offer.
Education x Climate
- Green every single school roof. Green roofs improve air quality, enhance insulation, increase building energy efficiency, reduce the urban heat island effect, absorb stormwater--and provide amazing opportunities to engage youth in green education and recreation.
- Replace 500 blacktop schoolyards with brand-new green playgrounds, starting with neighborhoods more than a half mile from a park – and expand access to open space by welcoming the public into schoolyards on weekends to give New Yorkers more opportunities to play, exercise, and gather.
- Electrify more than 10,000 school buses to protect our youngest lungs
- Our public education system should prepare every graduate for a job in NYC’s green economy. Retool the City’s existing workforce programs to support “Green Collar” jobs and recruit from neighborhoods most impacted by a legacy of environmental racism. Expand programs like Green City Force that literally build a bridge to a long term career in green jobs--and provide participants with all the resources they need to be successful.
- Learn more about our climate platform here
Media Coverage
BKMAG
“We have to fund the education system in elementary school evenly and ensure they have art and music in those classrooms. It’s so important for all of our kids to be creative, and that means we need to empower principals and teachers and get rid of some of the insane bureaucracy…”
CHALKBEAT
“We need to focus on helping students catch up from 18 months of stop-and-go learning and heal from the mental and emotional demands of the pandemic. That means more guidance counselors, social workers, arts and music classes, summer school, and smaller class sizes. We can pilot creative models to increase student-teacher ratios.”
