Today, thousands of parents, educators, and students came together to make a stand for school equality. New York City’s schools are separate and unequal. There are 478,000 students – mostly black and Hispanic – who are stuck on a path to failure, forced to attend the lowest performing schools. These children don’t have a voice, but we do. Testimony from one of the parents who spoke -- Patrick Cabiness, is below.
Patrick Cabiness:
Good afternoon. My name is Patrick Cabiness and my son is a 3rd grader at PS 67 in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. I also am a proud member of StudentsFirst New York. I have seen firsthand how Mayor de Blasio has been failing our schools and our kids. At my son’s school 9 out of 10 kids can’t read on grade level. So basically, my son has a 1 in 10 shot of passing the state tests. Most of the parents if not all the parents in Fort Greene feel the same way: that our schools are ignored and forgotten by this Mayor. The Mayor promises to have all second graders reading by the year TWENTY TWENTY-SIX! My son will be 19 years old in 2026! I can’t wait for that and neither can he!!! Right now, my son and other students at PS 67 are being set up for failure. Our kids need high quality schools RIGHT NOW! Our kids need quality teachers RIGHT NOW! And our kids need quality school options RIGHT NOW!, not in TEN YEARS.
