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Mayor de Blasio Must Take Action to Boost College Readiness & Eliminate Hidden Tax on NYC Families

(New York, NY) – More than 200 students and parents joined leading education reform organization StudentsFirstNY on the steps of City Hall today to bring attention to a hidden tax that is costing New York City high school graduates an estimated $63 million annually. This “Remediation Tax” affects 21,000 New York City college students who have graduated from city high schools but are unprepared for college-level coursework. CUNY students are speaking out about how the Remediation Tax impacts their college experience and future opportunities.

"New York City charter public schools are continuing to show us poverty is not destiny in the greatest city in the world. Charter public schools offer the promise of closing the achievement gap and today's results show they are delivering on that promise. It's been almost 20 years since New York passed it's charter law and these public schools are now out of the experimentation phase: not only should their lessons have more reach, but so should they," said StudentsFirstNY Executive Director Jenny Sedlis

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

"Today's data show unequivocally that Mayor de Blasio will harm children if he follows through with his plan to force place unwanted teachers into classrooms. The data confirms parent concerns: a third of the ATRs have disciplinary issues, many are ineffective, and a jaw-dropping 25 percent haven't been able to get a job for at least six years. There is not one parent in New York City who would willingly accept one of these ATRs into their child's classroom. It is unconscionable to put the worst teachers into the classrooms of the neediest students," said StudentsFirstNY Executive Director Jenny Sedlis. 

(Park Slope, NY) Public school parents from low-income communities across Brooklyn joined with StudentsFirstNY to rally outside the Prospect Park YMCA, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s favorite weekday hangout spot. The reason? They want Mayor de Blasio to reconsider his new plan to force place teachers from the Absent Teacher Reserve back into the classroom. But instead of engaging with these concerned parents (and voters), Mayor de Blasio turned his back on them and drove away.

New York, NY – More than 200 parents and students gathered on the steps of City Hall today to demand that Mayor Bill de Blasio respond to the Freedom of Information requests that StudentsFirstNY has filed on their behalf. The average FOIL request from these parents has been kicked back 16 times. Parents feel their requests for information have been deflected, dodged and denied and they are giving the Mayor a grade of “F” on transparency.

New York, NY – Leading education reform organization StudentsFirstNY released a report today analyzing Mayor de Blasio’s Progressive Redesign Opportunity for Excellence (PROSE) program which he promised would be the union-backed answer to charter schools. In 2015, Mayor de Blasio boasted, "This is going to be a national model for reform, and one that I think is going to bear fruit very quickly."

Unfortunately for New York City students, a close examination of the program shows that PROSE is neither a national model for reform, nor one that has borne fruit. 

“Despite the rhetoric from Mayor de Blasio, it’s clear that PROSE schools are not as effective as the charters they seek to emulate,” said Jenny Sedlis, Executive Director of StudentsFirstNY. “PROSE was billed as the union’s answer to charter schools, but by definition, real innovation means challenging the status quo – something this Mayor is incapable of doing.”

Rally at City Hall in Support of Opting In To State Assessments

HIGH ACHIEVEMENT NEW YORK & STUDENTSFIRSTNY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARCH 23, 2017
CONTACT: JOHN COLLINS, 212 681 1380
MICHAEL NITZKY, 212 257 4349
RADIO TESTIMONIAL: https://youtu.be/K__UujLh88w 

(NEW YORK) – More than 100 parents from across New York City came together today to support a city and statewide campaign encouraging parents to have their children take state assessments, which begin next week.

New York City opt-in rates continue to lead the state with over 98 percent participation. At the same time, statewide opt-out rates have flat-lined over the past two years.  This is in part in response to steps the New York State Department of Education and its Board of Regents have taken to improve the quality of the tests themselves as well as quality and timeliness of the information teachers, parents and students receive about student results. Taken together this has helped underscore the value of these critical assessments. 

Today's rally is part of a statewide “Say Yes to the Test” effort that includes similar events in Buffalo, Rochester and Albany, a testimonial campaign from parents and leaders airing on Pandora and social media, and ongoing communication efforts.

"While students should be praised for higher graduation rates, today's release still highlights serious problems that cannot be ignored. 

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

In Mayor de Blasio's state budget testimony today, he spoke against raising the regional cap on NYC charters and against fairly funding charters. Mayor de Blasio can't talk about fairly funding some schools and not all schools. The following quote can be attributed to StudentsFirstNY Executive Director Jenny Sedlis:

"Parents are tired of Mayor de Blasio's political opposition to charter schools. It's not good for kids and it's not helping solve the city's education crisis."