first, i want to give honor to god, withouthim this day would not be possible. i want to thank your extraordinary pastor.pastor forbes, you’re a light to so many of us, you’re a conscience to this cityand this nation. chirlane and i are humbled to be with you and with this great congregation.and i’m humbled to have a few moments just to share some thoughts and we all worshiptogether.
New York City Dept Of Education, i want to thank the chair of this great organization,this great church, len leach. and all of the elected officials who are here. all the leadersof this administration who are here. and, you should know, they are working day andnight, not only for the public good writ large, but they are working day and night for ourchildren. to make sure that soon, there will
be full-day pre-k for every child in thiscity. [applause] soon there will be after-school programs forevery middle school student in this city. and we honor these great public servants forwhat they’re doing. this stunning church – this extraordinaryplace – has defined the progressive vision for so long. it has fueled and energized progressivemovements here and around the world. it’s a reminder to us of what can be done. i thinkit’s fair to say pastor, in this church, things that were deemed impossible becomepossible. now last week this whole city, was moved,was humbled, was shocked, was saddened by
the tragedy in east harlem. we all had a senseof pulling together – we came together, it didn’t matter where we were from, whowe were, we came together trying to help those in need. but somehow when we consider the educationof our children, when we as a society engage in discourse about the needs of our children,somehow we too easily pull apart. it becomes routine, it becomes even unknowing. we disconnect,we don’t communicate the way we cold. and we have a crisis when it comes to education.it’s a tragedy of a different kind – too many children being left behind too frequently. you know, only less than two thirds of ourchildren graduate high school on time. and
among those who graduate, less than a quarterare college-ready. and when you think about latino and african american students, it’sonly 11% who are college-ready. when you think about that crucial third gradelevel, that make or break year, if you’re on grade level by third grade so many thingscan happen, and if you’re not, you can fall behind permanently. in this city today, amongchildren of color, fewer than 20% are on grade level by third grade. that is a crisis – that is a status quothat cannot be accepted. and i want to refer to a great theologian,paul tillich, who spent time at union theological seminary, walked the streets of our city.he wrote a book called the shaking of the
foundations. and in it he said: “the noise of these shallow waters preventsus from listening to the sounds out of the depth, to the sounds of what really happensin the ground of our social structure, in the longing hearts of the masses, and in thestruggling minds of those who are sensitive to historical changes.†and those most sensitive to historical changesare those who are being left out time and time again. and too often that is our children. and so we have to shake the foundations. andthis may be something that can unite us. because i know people of every ideology who want toshake the foundations. i know teachers in
traditional public schools who want to shakethe foundations. i know people in the charter school movement who want to shake the foundations.and what can unify us is that sense of urgency that we can’t accept this status quo. now, the answer is not to save a few of ourchildren only. the answer is not to find an escape route that some can follow and otherscan’t. the answer is to fix the entire system. so many good people are laboring every dayin traditional public schools, in charter schools, in religious schools, to uplift allour children, who will be the future of this city together. it doesn’t matter what schoolthey went to – they will be our future together. and despite those great efforts, a systemthat is broken fights against those efforts
every day. and so we have to approach systematic change– we have to go to root causes. and some of those are what people in this church havetalked about so long – the true root causes of the challenges in our society – poverty,hunger, a lack of affordable housing. all of the things i talked about last year wheni acknowledged this tale of two cities that we’re living. but even within the education system itself,we aren’t approaching the root causes and the systematic changes we need to. we have to work from the assumption that wewill save every child, that we will reach
every child, that no system is actually workingunless every child has opportunity. and we need to be able to say, that despitethe good efforts of so many, the school system is still broken in so many ways. our brothersand sisters in the charter movement point to this reality. and i acknowledge that manypeople of good will in that movement are trying to shake the foundation. and we will workwith them in good faith. but we need to work on solutions for the whole. the original notion of the charter movementwas to innovate, to create laboratories for new and better ideas that then they couldbe brought into the whole traditional public school system. that’s a positive visionthat we have to reengage.
the idea is not to create separation – thekind of competition that works for some and leaves others out. the idea is to create afullness, a totality, a completeness in which our charter schools help to uplift our traditionalpublic schools. six percent of our children in the charters– they are our children. we need them to succeed. 94% of our children are in traditional publicschools – they are our children. we need them to succeed. the notion that some children may be luckyenough – quote unquote lucky enough – to escape from the traditional public schoolin their neighborhood speaks volumes. because
so many parents feel that way right now. somany parents are simply looking for the best for their children. and sadly they don't seeit enough in their neighborhood schools. that’s a reality i won’t accept. i want the parents to know that we will notaccept a neighborhood school that fails them. i know chancellor farina feels the same urgencyi do. our mission is to create a city in which, regardless of zip code, your neighborhoodpublic school is a great option for your child. there has been failure – we should not lookaway from it. we shouldn’t sweep it under the rug. but the failure hasn’t been onthe part of our children. the failure hasn’t been on the part of our hardworking and strugglingparents. it’s all of us in public life who
haven’t measured up. and by the way it’sbeen for decades, and it’s been bipartisan, a sad universal reality of not reaching outand fixing those root causes. well i say we today, as i start my mayoralty,i am devoted to each and every child of this city. it is my responsibility to fix the problem.and i won’t choose between our children in this city any more than any parent canchoose between children of their family. i will reach out to all of the children, intraditional public schools, in charter schools, in religious schools. they are all our children,they all deserve a solution. we made some decisions in the last weeks,striving for fairness. but i have to tell you i didn’t measure up when it came toexplaining those decisions to the people of
this city. so let me start to right the shipnow. we want children to have good options. but good options have to serve both the childrenthey are intended for while not displacing or harming other children in the schools towhich they may go. there’s a charter school with 194 children.it’s a good school doing good work, and we are going to make sure those 194 childrenhave a good home this year. but we will not do it at the expense of our special educationchildren. and that false choice has been set up as partof a broken system and a broken dialogue. and it’s time to start ending that kindof dysfunction. not pitting one against the other. not somehow allowing the educationdiscourse to be the place where we’re least
civil, least sane, least generous. so we’ll protect the children who need ourhelp, while not pitting one against another. now, we have to get to the root causes, andi’ll finish quickly on this. the root causes are that we reach our childrentoo late, that we don’t keep them in school long enough each day. that we don’t makesure that the very best teachers stay in the teaching profession, that we don’t engageour parents in a systematic way to help uplift their children. those are all foundational problems. you won’t read a lot about some of thoseproblems and some of those solutions on the
front pages of our papers. you won’t seethem on the evening news because where there’s conflict, that’s where the energy goes. but nothing would help our children more thanreaching them earlier with full day pre-k. nothing would help our children more thanextending the school day for after-school, so they’re learning more, they’re safeand secure, and they’re getting tutoring and homework help enrichment. nothing would help our children more thanmaking sure every great teacher is supported, and constantly improving and remains a teacherfor their whole career here in new york city. and nothing would help a child more than recognizing,and i say this as a parent, a public school
parent, a proud one, that our parents arethe first and last teachers of our children. and that means systematically supporting parentsin their efforts to help their own children, showing them how, reaching out to them, bringingthem in, because that’s the greatest value added when the parents are at the table, aspart of making our schools work better. we don’t talk about how to do that enough.and we don’t talk about how to retain great teachers enough. until recently, we didn’ttalk about early childhood education enough. we didn’t talk about afterschool enough.but now we are, and i’ll finish on this hopeful note, pastor. in albany now, a lot of good people are workingto make sure we will do better by our children.
they’re working to make sure we will breakthrough that dysfunction finally. they’re working for a reset – very good people ofall different parties working together. you know what they’re talking about a lotthese days? they’re talking about pre-k, they’re talking about after-school. and again, despite the partisan differences,and the way the political debate unfolds, i thank all the leaders in albany. i thankall the members of the legislature because they’re talking about this. they’re focusingon this. i know governor cuomo wants us to have pre-kfor all of our children. and i honor him for that. and this is one of those sea changemoments.
maybe despite ourselves, we’re finding ourway to a common understanding that it’s time to actually invest in our children. and when we do, when we do, because i knowwe will, i know a victory is upon us. i know it’s been a long journey, but i know a momentof change is about to happen. i know in the next few days the world will change beforeour very eyes. the way we think about education, the way we approach education is about tochange. and it’s not primarily because of anyoneelected official in office, myself included. it’s because of everyone in this congregation.it’s because the people of this city demanded it, it’s because they cared so much, theybelieved we could do something better. they
would not accept the dysfunction; they wouldnot accept a history that had let them down. they wanted to shake the foundations. andnow leaders are following the people. thank you, and god bless you.
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