Education
Overcrowding in East Side public schools threatens to deny a generation of children their constitutional right to a "
sound basic education." We must make more school seats available now, build more schools to keep up with current development, and investigate new solutions for building educational infrastructure.
I have a strong commitment to public education that stems from being a graduate of the
Bronx High School of Science, State University of New York's
University at Albany and
University at Buffalo Law School. I helped create Community Board 8’s Youth and Education Committee, identified a
Free Yellow Bus Program for local youth service providers, and created an internship program to better serve the youth and education needs of our community. As your Council member I will continue to fight for increased funding for youth services and education.
My Issues:
Affordable Housing
Good Government
Marine Transfer Station
Tax Reform
Community
Health
Public Safety
Technology
Education
Israel
Roosevelt Island
Transportation
Elections
Jobs
Second Avenue Subway Construction
Other
Environment
Our city continues to grow and with it our need for more schools. The challenge we face as a city is juxtaposing that need against a limited amount of land on which to build new schools, especially in areas where new development is occurring. As you know, the limited supply of land is a key barrier to the construction of new schools and every vacant lot must be seen as a potential opportunity for building structures that can be used to educate the city’s children. My district, and the city as a whole, is currently faced with the challenge of impending church closings. Although we wish to avoid the closings, they present a unique and time sensitive opportunity for building new schools that would go a long way in increasing the number of available school seats, and especially pre-kindergarten seats.
NEW YORK – Cornell Tech, New York City public school P.S./I.S. 217 and Councilmember Ben Kallos today unveiled a groundbreaking three-year program that will enable teachers at Roosevelt Island’s P.S./I.S. 217 to incorporate computer science (CS) activity across the curriculum. Every teacher in the K-8 school will receive professional development training, after which they will devise and implement CS lesson plans covering every student in every grade. The program is part of an ongoing partnership between Cornell Tech and the New York City Department of Education to make computer science instruction available to public school students.
