NYC Coalition for Educational Justice

On September 21st, hundreds of local parents, students, teachers and community members protested school budget cuts on the steps of the Department of Education, presenting personal stories of how the $1.3 billion cut to public education has impacted their schools. Parents spoke of what it feels like to lose 2600 teachers, 777 school employees, as well as art, music, tutoring services, afterschool, guidance counselors, and more, and called on legislators to support the extension of the millionaire’s tax to bring in the needed funds to protect children from cuts.

Read more about the event here and here.

Responding to Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed cuts of 6,000 teaching positions and his recent claims that NYC public school parents “don’t understand the value of education”, CEJ parents parked a school bus at City Hall on May 25th and invited the mayor to stand with us, not against us, by traveling to Albany to get the funds New York City’s children desperately need. See a video of the event here.

Though the mayor has blamed Albany for his own drastic cuts to education and other essential services, he has not advocated for a solution to restore the cuts, nor has he supported revenue solutions such as the Millionaire’s Tax—a continuation of the tax on the wealthiest state residents favored by more than two out of three New Yorkers.

CEJ parents are continuing to fight restore the cuts to education. Stay tuned for upcoming events!

CEJ, the Urban Youth Collaborative (UYC)  and United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew called on new Chancellor-designee Dennis Walcott to fix the City’s failed strategy of closing struggling schools. The UYC released a report showing that closing schools serve huge numbers of the highest-needs students, but do not get the guidance and supports from the Department of Education they need to succeed. As a result, tens of thousands of students are abandoned in the closing schools and drop out, leave the school system, or have no data to show what happened to them after the school closed. Parents and students warned that thousands more students could face the same fate if the new chancellor doesn’t act immediately to change this policy.

On February 3rd, hundreds of CEJ parents, students from the Urban Youth Collaborative, and teachers from the closing schools and across the city protested the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) vote to close 13 schools. The PEP is majority-controlled by Mayor Bloomberg, with a 100% approval rate on all of his proposals. Knowing that the hearing would not result in a fair decision about the fate of these schools, the people in the auditorium erupted, chanting “Fix our schools NOW” and most people left the meeting to protest the Department of Education’s lack of a plan to fix our struggling schools. Click here to watch a video of the protest.