"If kids were the special interest Mayor de Blasio cared the most about, we would see a very different teachers' contract. In a student-focused contract, the best teachers would be paid more and there'd be an easy way to exit poor performing teachers from the classroom. If it was about kids, there would be no forced placement of teachers and the ATR would be abolished once and for all. As advocates, we always hope any plan to improve schools is successful because our kids are too important. However, the lack of ambitiousness of this contract should raise serious concerns for parents," said StudentsFirstNY Executive Director Jenny Sedlis.

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StudentsFirstNY is a grassroots education advocacy organization dedicated to improving public school options throughout New York State.

Charters are Increasing High Quality Seats while the City is only Changing Who Can Access Theirs
"Year after year, these assessment results show that the expertise in closing the achievement gap is found abundantly in the city's charter sector. While Mayor de Blasio boasts he 'came into office to shake the foundation of the system' in reality, the City is just changing who gets to go to the schools it thinks are good. None of the City's strategies increase the number of quality seats. The only people focused on that are the city's charter school operators who are ready, willing, and able to open more schools if the cap is lifted. 

“Mayor de Blasio could have fixed the Absent Teacher Reserve back in 2014, but he kicked the can down the road, squandering hundreds of millions of dollars that should have been put back into classrooms. The real cost of the ATR pool is paid by the kids who are stuck with teachers that no principal wants to hire,” said StudentsFirstNY Executive Director Jenny Sedlis.

(New York, NY) – Hundreds of public school parents joined education reform organization StudentsFirstNY and other advocates on the steps of City Hall today to urge new Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza to hit the reset button on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s failing education agenda. The parents want Carranza to deviate from the path laid out by former Chancellor Farina and Mayor de Blasio because it didn't produce results for their children. Taking Carranza at his word, the parents called on the Chancellor to “look under the hood,” saying they will support a bold new vision.