Albany, New York – StudentsFirstNY, a statewide education reform advocacy organization, today was joined by public school parents and advocates in testifying before a New York State Joint Committee on Education in support of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Opportunity Agenda.
The panel of parents and advocates decried the public school crisis across New York State. They also spoke out in favor of the Governor’s Opportunity Agenda as a bold solution to the many failed policies that have plagued the system, especially in traditionally underserved communities. The parent activists of StudentsFirstNY have been clear — it’s time to deliver fundamental reform to turn around New York’s schools.
Speaking on behalf of public school parents, AU Hogan – a New York City public school parent and grandparent, said: “My grandson Dre is an example of a child who is being failed by our broken education system. I am here today to represent the many parents and grandparents like myself who believe that taking the necessary steps to reform our education system must happen now. Governor Cuomo is right – 'education is the great equalizer.' I am proud to stand in support of the Governor because he is fighting for kids across the state, kids just like my grandson.”
Also speaking on behalf of public school parents, and as the Director of Organizing for StudentsFirstNY, Tenicka Boydsaid: “When students in high poverty communities are three times as likely to be taught by an unsatisfactory teacher than a student in a low poverty community, this is a fight for equity. We have failed generations of students and their parents with policies that have sought to provide more comfort for the adults than quality education for the students.”
Speaking on behalf of the education reform advocacy community, Executive Director of NYCAN: The New York Campaign for Achievement Now Derrell Bradford said: “…Our children are the most important thing we have as a society; our shared future exists in each and every one of them and we should be doing everything possible to ensure that all children—including the 250,000 who have languished, as the Governor notes, in chronically underperforming schools for over a decade—receive an education that makes them both productive citizens and, ultimately, truly free in our society. NYCAN believes now is precisely the right time to make this dream a reality.”
