StudentsFirstNY, which launched last week, already counts 100,000 advocates, educators, parents and citizens across the state as members. These New Yorkers, and many more who will join them, recognize that we are approaching a critical moment in the fight for quality public schools.
Geoffrey Canada and Ed Koch discussed the new organization with the New York Daily News:
We’re proud to be part of a new coalition of people united behind one critical goal: giving all our students the excellent public education they deserve.
The mandate is as simple as our name suggests: Put the students ahead of the bureaucracy, ahead of the unions, ahead of politics and parochialism and squeaky-wheel-gets-the-grease decision-making. What do our kids need to compete and learn most effectively? Focus on those things and deliver them.