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Running for: City Council, District 25, Queens

Political Party: Democratic

Current job: City Councilwoman for District 25

Web site: Sears4Council.com

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1. Have you been endorsed by the United Federation of Teachers? Yes

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

Democrats for Education Reform No
United Federation of Teachers Yes
Council of School Supervisors and Administrators Yes
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? Yes

7. Do you believe test scores should be a factor in determining whether teachers receive tenure? No. The testing systems in place are an inadequate measure of the quality of a teacher.

8. Do you support the 2009 law giving the mayor control of the public schools? Yes, I like the current school governance system.

9. What letter grade would you give your district’s public schools right now? B+

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10. In the last eight years, have your district’s schools improved, stayed the same, or worsened? How? In addition to the hard work of our teachers and the involvement of parents, our schools have improved. Technology grants and CASA funds provided by the Council have also helped enrich our school district.

11. Do you support Joel Klein remaining chancellor of the city’s schools? As long as he has the support of the Mayor, he should remain. If not, there is certainly no shortage of talented, committed people throughout the nation who could do a great job.

12. What’s an appropriate cap for charter schools, or should they exist at all (the current cap is 200 statewide)? The current cap could be raised as long as the charter schools are working with the UFT.

13. What’s the best way to improve a struggling public school? Parental involvement, smaller classes, improved communication with the community and clear guidelines for teacher assessment.

14. What’s the single greatest problem facing your district’s schools and what specific policy would you propose to combat it? Our district needs a state of the art high school and more classroom space.