The New York Advocate's Office

The Ombudsman

We know that in a knowledge-based economy, New York’s future will only be as strong as its public schools. We have made progress recently in raising standards, strengthening accountability, and improving student achievement.

But we have a long way to go before we live up to our promise to deliver a quality education to every child. That’s why many strongly support the Coalition for Fiscal Equity (CFE) litigation, and using the CFE money to increase teacher pay, raise teacher standards, reduce overcrowding, and improve school safety.

Beyond new money, though, webelieve we need a new understanding of what our students need to succeed. For starters, it’s not enough to reduce class sizes – we have to expand the number of learning moments. That’s why we should push to use new technologies to connect students to their teachers and parents on a 24/7 network, as well as to the resources of the Internet whenever they need it.

Some improvements have been:

• Seeing New York City children left out of the technology revolution, in 1997 MOUSE (Making Opportunities for Upgrading Schools and Education), a non-profit organization focused on integrating technology into teaching and learning in urban public schools was founded.
• Among many activities, MOUSE trains students to run their school’s technology help desks (MOUSE Squad), helping them to learn lifelong skills and empowering them to improve their own schools technologies.
• This program is currently supporting 89,000 students and 6,000 teachers/administrators in 90 schools while saving the city over $1.2 million per year.
• In addition, New York City Board of Education’s Task Force on Technology has spearheaded innovative projects that continue to bring technology to New York’s underserved students.

Being environmentally conscious and economically smart are not conflicting goals.

In fact, New York can reduce threats to our environment and public health and save tax dollars at the same time. How? By constructing energy-efficient public buildings, buying energy-efficient public vehicles, and insisting that vendors invest in environmentally-friendly technologies when possible.

In addition, by making these smart, budget-friendly investments, we can free up resources to strengthen ongoing efforts to clean up polluted waterways and contaminated sites and fix up lower-profile parks that are chronically under-funded.

The lack of affordable housing is an enormous challenge facing our City. In the short-term, we believe it is critical to protect tenants in rent-controlled and rent-stabilized apartments.

For the long-term, to increase the stock of homes and apartments for low- and middle-income New Yorkers, we must push for innovative strategies such as “inclusionary zoning,” which reserves a significant percentage of new housing in re-zoned areas for families who are typically priced out of most markets.

In addition, we should push non-residential commercial developers to include affordable housing in development plans and fight to make that a requirement for any major city-approved project.

The decision of how and when to start a family is an intensely private decision that should be made by a woman and her doctor, not by the government. That is why he is strong supporter of Roe V. Wade and a woman’s right to choose.

We also believe that the best way to prevent women from having to making this difficult choice is to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. That is why he supports making emergency contraception (EC) available in New York City pharmacies through the Unintended Pregnancy Prevention Act, in which pharmacists and registered nurses who elect to participate could provide prescriptions for EC to women who seek it, aiding women’s timely access to the contraceptive.

To help achieve the goal of reducing unwanted pregnancies, We believe that expanding access to information about contraception and reproductive services is critical. That’s why we should support the availability of medically accurate, age-appropriate sexuality education in our New York City schools, to help students make responsible decisions. And that is why there should exist an online catalogue of all pharmacies and clinics carrying emergency contraception (EC).

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