A Plan to Fix Our Schools

New York City spends more per pupil than any other city – over $40,000, more than double the national average of $17,000 and up 26% in the last five years.

That means if you’re a parent of two children, New York City will spend about $1 million on their K-12 education. For that kind of money, you’d expect us to be leading the country in reading and math scores.

But instead, student learning and outcomes are dismal. For example, Mississippi’s fourth graders have rocketed past ours in reading, even though it’s the poorest state in the country and only spends $12,000 per student:

I wish I could blame Republicans for this -- for misguided policies or a lack of adequate funding. But I can’t. We’re a one-party city in a one-party state.

The problem, rather, is that the Democratic Party – my party – has become beholden to the numerous special interests in the system, most notably the teachers union, such that the school system is run by and for the benefit of adults – and the politicians who pander to them – not children.

The result is an overpriced and ineffective bureaucracy characterized by deep systemic inequalities. Some families have no choice but to send their children to schools that have been failing kids not just for years, but for generations. It used to be Republicans like former Alabama Gov. George Wallace standing in the way of opportunity for kids of color, but tragically today it is Democratic politicians who are blocking the schoolhouse door of opportunity, sometimes after having passed through it themselves. The result is that, far too often, the children who most need the best schools to escape the poverty they were born into instead get the worst.

This is deeply wrong and un-American.

As the child of teachers who met and married in the Peace Corps, I have dedicated my adult life to improving our public schools, especially for our most vulnerable children. After finishing college, I moved to New York City to help start Teach for America, which has recruited and trained 70,000 dedicated teachers to work in our highest-need schools. Later, I joined the board of KIPP New York charter schools and co-founded Democrats for Education Reform.

 The good news is we know what works. The education reform movement has a proven record of results, especially here in New York City. Just look at the chart above showing the learning gains during Mayor Bloomberg’s tenure versus the decline since then, especially during the pandemic when the teachers union made impossible demands that kept our schools closed a year longer than necessary. Those of us fighting to fully open schools during the 2020-2021 school year know it was a lonely battle that few politicians were willing to join for fear of angering the union. Our children – and our party – are still paying an enormous price for this huge mistake.

As mayor, I will continue what I’ve been doing for more than three decades: standing up to entrenched special interests and fighting for what’s best for children and parents. 

The Solutions

● The right leadership: I will fiercely defend mayoral control of our public schools system and appoint an experienced and fearless schools chancellor with a track record of innovation and success.

● Identify bloat and waste: The chancellor I appoint will make it a priority to track every penny of our $40-billion education budget, so we can identify bloat and waste and free up resources for additional schools and services.

● Fight the class size mandate: The class-size mandate imposed by the state on New York City – and only the city – is a costly giveaway to the teachers union that will do nothing to help kids. As the experience of many other cities and states has shown, the requirement to quickly hire thousands of new, less-experienced teachers offsets any benefit from smaller classes. It’s also a threat to our most in-demand schools like our specialized high schools and sought-after neighborhood elementary schools that have large classes and therefore may be forced to slash enrollment, perhaps by as much as one-third.

● Excellent teachers in every classroom: Currently, the city rewards teachers based on seniority and certifications, rather than how well they inspire and educate children. That’s not a formula for attracting and retaining top-tier talent. I will fight to increase pay for high-performing teachers, as well as those in high-needs schools and academic specialties with shortages (e.g., STEM, ELL, and bilingual special education).

● Adopt rigorous, proven curricula: In the core subject areas, we must adopt rigorous, evidence-based curricula that have produced proven results. In particular, we need to fully root out the disastrous whole language approach to reading. Cities and states that have adopted the science of reading are surging in proficiency, passing us.

● Embrace innovation at the student, classroom and school level: We must support educators to explore and expand access to new school models, learning pods, microschools, hybrid education, unbundled learning, and AI and technology-driven learning that personalizes instruction and enhances student engagement.

● Expand high-quality schools, including charters, to give parents more choice: We must enthusiastically help the highest-performing schools replicate and expand to meet demand and give parents more choice through magnet schools, career academies, dual enrollment, inter- and intra-district choice, universal enrollment systems, and more.

In particular, New York City’s nearly 300 charter schools educate approximately 150,000 students and have had remarkable success narrowing the racial achievement gap with much lower per-pupil spending than traditional public schools.

I will help any great school with co-location, and lobby Albany to fund charters more equitably and lift the artificial cap on their number. 

● Hold schools and educators accountable: Every charter school in New York state is fully evaluated by its authorizer every five years. If it can’t demonstrate that it’s delivering for kids, it can be put on probation or even closed. This should be the case for all of our public schools.

● Fully fund early-childhood education: I support the city’s excellent, universal pre-K program and will expand it to fully fund 3-K as well.

● Hire high-impact tutors: I will hire 15,000 high-impact tutors to meet with struggling students in high-needs schools three times a week to help them improve their math, reading, reasoning and science skills. This is a wise investment that’s already yielded positive results in Washington, D.C. 

● Protect our specialized high schools: Our specialized high schools, such as Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech, are the crown jewels of New York City. I would not mess with success by trying to change the use of the SHSAT for admission to these schools. But I would seek to open more of them – such as the five new ones under Mayor Bloomberg – and, for these, offer admission to the top-performing students at each middle school rather than using the SHSAT.

● Test annually and inform parents of results: Students need to be tested every year in the key areas of reading and math and then schools must inform parents how their children performed and, if needed, what the school’s plan is to bring the child up to grade level.

● End social promotion after third grade: After improving our K-3 reading efficacy, there should be no such thing as a fourth grader who can’t read. To ensure this, we must end social promotion after third grade, as Mississippi has done. In other words, if the school system has failed to teach a child to read by the end of third grade, it will have to try again via a summer program or, if necessary, repeating the grade. Yes, this will cause an outcry among students held back – but this is what will force the system to do its job.

● Close or merge under-enrolled schools: As systemwide enrollment has dropped by nearly 100,000 since the 2019-2020 school year, the number of schools with fewer than 200 students has more than doubled to 190. Many of these schools need to be closed or merged.

● Ensure school safety: As part of my plan to hire an additional 5,000 police officers across the city, I will increase the number of school safety officers by 15% to restore the ratio between school safety agents and students that existed five years ago. The deployment of these officers would focus on high schools and schools suffering from high levels of violence.