(New York, NY) Dozens of public charter school parents from across New York City rallied outside the NYC Department of Education in support of a longstanding City initiative that allows charter schools to mail flyers to prospective families. New York City has a model program where it protects parent privacy so that no school has access to parent contact information, but parents can still be informed about school options in their neighborhood.

“The budget agreement reached by Governor Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Speaker Heastie puts the needs of students first. Thanks to their leadership, all public school students – charter and district – will be better off. This year's budget deal takes an important step to making sure all schools have access to the funding they need," 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.

"New York City charter schools have been among the most widely studied and effective tools for improving educational outcomes for low-income students of color. New York City parents and families know this, which is why demand is so high. The message New York City parents are sending is clear and we should give parents what they want by raising the charter school cap.”

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

On Saturday February 16th, more than 200 public school parents and students braved the weather and the long trip to Albany for a special panel discussion. The conversation, co-sponsored by Assembly Member Robert Rodriguez and StudentsFirstNY, focused on school collaboration and ensuring the best education opportunities for students in low-income communities.

"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.