GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Running for: Public advocate

Political Party: Republican

Most recent job: Worked for State Sen. Andrew Lanza

Web site: www.alex2009.com

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1. Have you been endorsed by the United Federation of Teachers? No

2. Have you received campaign contributions from the following education-related political action committees?

Democrats for Education Reform No
United Federation of Teachers No
Council of School Supervisors and Administrators No
New York Education Voters No
Educational Justice PAC No

3. Do you have children in the public school system? No

4. Do you support programs like Teaching Fellows and Teach for America?  Yes

5. Do you support efforts to stop the growth of charter schools?   No

6. Would you preserve school report cards as they are now?   No

7. Do you believe test scores should be a factor in determining whether teachers receive tenure?  Yes, with reservations

8. Do you support the 2009 law giving the mayor control of the public schools? Yes, but there should be more checks and balances limiting the mayor’s power

9. What letter grade would you give the city’s public schools right now? B

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10. In the last eight years, have the city’s schools improved, stayed the same, or worsened? New York City schools have slightly improved over the past eight years. Test scores are up, the city has invested in new schools across the five boroughs, and we ended the bureaucratic Board of Education. There is a lot of room for improvement; we must allow teachers to teach, lower class size and improve parental involvement in a child’s education.

11. Do you support Joel Klein remaining chancellor of the city’s schools? No. I believe an educator with managerial experience should control schools, not a corporate leader. Would we allow someone without police experience to run the NYPD?  The answer is no and the same should be true for the Department of Education.

12. What’s an appropriate cap for charter schools, or should they exist at all (the current cap is 200 statewide)? If a community wants a charter school, if they work for all children, if they don’t take away school seats and funding from current schools than there should not be a cap.

13. What’s the best way to improve a struggling public school?

1. Discover and show why it is failing
2. Involve parents in a discussion about a failing school
3. Lower class size
4. Allocate more resources to improve the school
5. Set improvement goals and time frames for administrators
6. Offer incentives to teachers and administrators to improve the school

14. What’s the single greatest problem facing the city’s schools and what specific policy would you propose to combat it? Besides class size and the number of school seats available across the five boroughs, the greatest problem facing schools today is teacher and parental involvement in education. For far too long, decisions about a school and education were decided by bureaucrats — this has to change. Teachers should have more of a say about how to educate a student and what would work best in their classroom to help students succeed. The same is true for parental involvement. Parents need more of a say in their children’s education, not less.