Friday, July 03, 2009

Tony Avella On Education


from the Working Families Party Mayoral Forum of July 2 at about the 1 hour 20 minute mark
h/t to Leonie Haimson for transcription
question to Avella; what is your plan to turnaround failing schools?
Avella: “I am absolutely not a fan of charter schools and I never have been. The whole reason they came about is because the regular public schools were failing…Why did we come up with another system, why not fix the schools that are failing?
As mayor I would make sure that all schools would be distributed equally throughout the city….up- to –date equipment, best computers, best teachers. Eventually, charter schools would go away..there shouldn't be a two tier system.
It would be my pleasure as Mayor, to say to Joel Klein you are fired don’t let the door hit you on the way out. He is an absolute disgrace. And I’m absolutely amazed that this farce of a new Board of Education has now given him the chance to stay and given him all the powers…this is an absolute disgrace..
Bob Masters: “now, I believe that additional funds go to low-performing schools now … (NO – that’s not what the DOE does; they have an abstract funding formula that denies low-performing schools extra funds! And would have cut funds from most of the low-performing schools in Harlem.)
Avella: “I’m not going to touch extra funds for low-performing schools…If you start to distribute funds equally –each child will get the same advantage. If I’m elected, the day after the general election I would start sitting down w/ the principals, teachers and parents to discuss what how to come up with system that we could all be proud of. Why aren’t we listening to you. If I’m listening to enough, we stop teaching to the test, we have to educate kids. Making sure that parents are involved and that funds are distributed adequately.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay for Bloggers and Tweeters: You rock and so does Tony Avella! The corporate media (NY1 and others) needs to get with the program and wean themselves off the machine candidate Bill Thompson and the same old same old Tammany Hall solution. Avella's the man. Why is it always the underground that sees it first. (rhetorical question)

They need to take a closer look at the Avella campaign. He clearly "won" the WFP forum. The people love him.

Bloomberg tanked and Thompson - well what can you say about someone who can put people to sleep by his speeches. I was there. I saw and heard the reception in the room.

Although not a teacher, many of my friends are and they say Bloomberg totally lied the other night. They tell me the school system is a mess. Can they all be wrong? They also support Avella.

Anonymous said...

TONY AVELLA I LOVE YOU, MY VOTE IS YOURS AND MY WORK TIME TOO, I WILL WORK ENDLESS HOURS TO GET PEOPLE TO VOTE FOR YOU, YOU ROCKED AT THE W.F.P. FORUM I WAS THE ONE THAT ASKED THE EDUCATION QUESTION ANNETTE JIMENEZ ACORN LEADER AND YOU WON MY HEART.
PLEASE CALL I WANT TO WORK FOR YOU EVEN AS A VOLUNTEER I DON'T CARE JUST TO MAKE SURE YOU WIN. LOVE YOU, ANNETTE