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"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.

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.

“We welcome Richard Carranza as NYC Schools Chancellor and hope he will show himself to be an independent leader who critically reviews Mayor de Blasio’s education policies and charts a new course. Carranza said he will ‘look under the hood’ and when he does, he’ll see that Mayor de Blasio’s inattention to K-12 school improvement and the achievement gap, his hostility to school choice and his failed turnaround programs mean that a change is needed,” said StudentsFirstNY Executive Director Jenny Sedlis.

"On behalf of our more than 13,000 parent members, we welcome the new Chancellor and hope that Alberto Carvalho will be the independent leader that public school children desperately need. We extend our best wishes for his success and we look forward to working together to expand school choice and improve teacher effectiveness. After four years and half a billion dollars on a failed school turnaround program, NYC students need a leader who will work with urgency to give them the quality of schools they deserve," said StudentsFirstNY Executive Director Jenny Sedlis.