Scott’s Plans

Children and Education

What Scott’s Done:

Fought in the State Assembly for smaller class sizes, better health education, and resources for homeless children, and to ensure New York City got the aid and support students need.
Convened “School Overcrowding War Rooms” to create meaningful, on-the-ground solutions to resolve overcrowding and helped develop nearly a dozen new schools in Manhattan.
Successfully pushed City Hall to increase funding for Arts Education in city schools by $24 million per year.
Advocated for stronger paid sick and family leave policies to help working families.
Pushed for increased parent engagement in the public education system, including recommendations that were adopted to strengthen Community Education Councils.
Laid out a blueprint to build 200 new playgrounds for New York City kids in neighborhoods across the five boroughs.
Audited the Department of Education two dozen times as Comptroller to build a better, more equitable school system.
Released a plan to reopen schools safely while the Mayor and Chancellor dithered and outlined how to give every student internet access.

Scott’s Plans:

Scott Stringer has been a champion of public education in New York City throughout his entire career. He also knows the issues first-hand — as the father of two children in city elementary schools, the proud son of a late City school teacher, and the product of city schools and CUNY himself. For Scott, standing up for New York City’s children is part of his DNA, and across his 30-year career in public service, he has worked to ensure high-quality education in every borough and every neighborhood. As Mayor, Scott will advance a broad vision to raise educational outcomes at every level, confront inequities head-on, and invest in pathways to success for every child, from their cradle to their career.

Provide high-quality, affordable early childhood education for all infants and toddlers

Dramatically increase child care assistance to working families with children under 3 and expand eligibility requirements to serve families making up to $100,000 per year.
Triple the number of infants and toddlers in City-backed care and sharply reduce child care costs for as many as 70,000 working families.
Invest $500 million over five years to address child care deserts by building and repairing child care facilities across the city.
Support Early Childhood educators by meaningfully investing in training, professional development, scholarships, and increased compensation for the workforce.

Build a new paradigm for classroom instruction by putting two teachers in every elementary classroom, and expanding teacher mentorship and training

Make history by putting two teachers in every classroom from K-through-5, doubling the ratio of teachers to students to provide enriched and personalized instruction to all our children.
Launch the largest teacher residency program in the country to prepare teachers for the profession and reduce turnover.
Recruit 1,000 aspiring teachers each year to work in the classroom alongside an accomplished mentor teacher, with an emphasis on recruiting young teachers of color.
Provide stipends for resident teachers to cover living expenses during the year of residency — allowing them to focus on their training without debt or a second job.
Leverage and collaborate with the City’s excellent teacher preparation programs, including those at CUNY and SUNY.
Strengthen school leadership and build a principal residency program to identify and provide mentorship to promising school leaders from within the ranks of today’s Assistant Principals and frontline teaching staff.
Establish free “high dosage tutoring” through a NYC Tutoring Corps to help get kids back on track after the pandemic.
Cut waste and redirect funds into the classroom, building on Scott’s experience as Comptroller.

Integrate our schools and confront inequities across the system

Support, fund and require district-wide and cross-district plans to increase diversity, building on the success of efforts in District 15 in Brooklyn and District 3 in Manhattan.
Make the DOE’s recent decision to end geographic screens at the high school level permanent, and scale back or eliminate academic screens at the middle school level.
Stop the use of the SHSAT standardized test to determine admissions to the City’s specialized high schools and base eligibility instead on State math and reading scores, while exploring the potential of apportioning a percentage of seats to top performers in individual districts and/or schools.
Start Gifted & Talented programs later and broaden access to resources by expanding “two-teachers” — and stop testing four-year-olds.
Address chronic shortages in special education, as well as for multilingual students, English Language Learners, and students in the foster care system or otherwise temporary housed
Increase student access to social workers and other mental health professionals to reduce suspensions and provide direct, integrated, trauma-sensitive support to students experiencing emotional or behavioral crises.
Guarantee that every child has access to free, high-speed internet service at home and establish a true 1:1 device policy.
Make sure every child receives high-quality arts, physical, and health education, a requirement of State law that goes unmet by the City — as well as access to athletics.
Provide universal free, high-quality afterschool programming in every K-8 school.

Address the social-emotional needs of students with on-the-ground help

Expand the ranks of social workers and other mental health professionals to provide direct, integrated, trauma-sensitive support to students experiencing emotional or behavioral crises.
Ensure every school is staffed with full-time social workers with caseloads of no more than 1:250 students, by tripling the number of school-based social workers.
Remove armed NYPD officers from schools, bar school safety staff from responding to social-emotional student behavioral issues, and train all school staff in culturally responsive and sustaining education (CR-SE).
Establish a Mental Health Continuum to connect students in crisis directly with mental health clinicians and supports — a particularly critical investment as students heal from the trauma of the COVID-19 public health and economic crises.
Invest in prevention and identification of adolescent depression and responses to early warning signs of self-harm and suicide.
Create “Fastrack Benefits” to help families connect to services within the trusted environment of their child’s school, and expand community schools.

Prepare New Yorkers for the jobs of tomorrow

Make CUNY community colleges free for all and revamp workforce development programs to build back a more equitable and inclusive economy.
Organize paid internships for all CUNY graduating seniors to help them bridge the gap between college and career.
Dramatically increase investment in Career and Technical Education, early-college programs, and College Now in DOE schools.
Strengthen partnerships with private industry to upskill New Yorkers, improve career pathways, and expand apprenticeship opportunities.
Expand bridge programs that help connect language education to job training and opportunities.
Pilot universal paid internships for high school students, and increase career exploration and youth employment opportunities including by offering universal school-connected summer jobs (SYEP).