"New York City school children couldn't ask for a stronger advocate in Albany than Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver. More than any other leader, he has fought to get our schools their fair share of education funding. He deserves a big thanks for forcing Albany to keep its promise to increase funding to reduce class size in New York schools."
-Jaime Estades,
NYC Director of Advocacy,
Alliance for Quality Education
An Excellent School For Every Child
"Our children and their education will always be priority number one and our commitment to them and to our schools and our teachers will never, ever, waver." - Shelly Silver
Shelly Silver has used his position as Assembly Speaker to help increase aid for New York City schools by more than $1 billion dollars over the last two years-funding which is helping reduce class size and overcrowding, bringing our children quality teachers, and restoring programs our children need to thrive. Shelly has led the fight to create new schools for Lower Manhattan and to expand universal pre-K so more kids start school ready to succeed
- Leading the Fight to Create Universal Pre-Kindergarten
- Increasing Aid to NYC Schools
- Creating New Schools for Lower Manhattan
- Fighting Overcrowding
- Reducing Class Size
- Guaranteeing Safe School Bus Service
- Make a college education a reality for all of New York's young people
Leading the Fight to Create Universal Pre-Kindergarten
Shelly Silver knows early childhood education is essential to give our children a head start in life. That's why he led the fight to create universal pre-kindergarten in New York - so every child can have the same opportunities to succeed.
Increasing Aid to NYC Schools
For years, city schools had been shortchanged by the state budget. From 1995 to 2006, this state had a governor who asserted that an eighth-grade education was sufficient for our children and for our economy. While Gov. Pataki fought ten years of laws demanding that every child receive a sound, basic education, Shelly Silver fought back and won record increases in funding for public education. Over the last two years, he has used his position as Assembly Speaker to ensure the State keeps its promise to our children and to increase aid for New York City schools by more than $1 billion dollars.
Creating New Schools for Lower Manhattan
Our growing, changing neighborhoods need to keep up with the needs of young families and their children. That's why Shelly has been working hard to build outstanding new schools for our community, including:
- securing a site and the funding to build a much needed new school in Battery Park City at Site 2B -- the City's first "green" public grammar school
creating a new K-8
school, known as the Beekman School, near NY Downtown Hospital, which will
serve over 600 children when it opens in September 2010- successfully advocating for the PS 234 annex, which provides 6 additional classrooms
obtaining
a $2 million grant for the permanent downtown location of Millennium High School,
the first non-citywide high school below 14th Street- providing $750,000 toward a gym for Millenium High School
Fighting Overcrowding
This year, until the completion of new schools that will accommodate over 1,500 children, Shelly formed a Task Force with PTA members and the Principals of both PS 234 and PS 89 to come up with interim solutions to the overcrowding at both schools to ensure that the local schools can accommodate the increase of children in our neighborhoods while maintaining high standards. The Task Force is working to develop concrete short-term solutions to ensure children can receive a high-quality education in their own neighborhood.
Reducing Class Size
No matter how experienced and dedicated the teacher, when there are too many children in a classroom, it's inevitable that some children will slip through the cracks. This is something that we can prevent. All the research indicates that smaller classes improve student performance. That's why Shelly passed a law that requires New York City to prepare a plan to reduce average class sizes within five years, especially in low performing and overcrowded schools.
Guaranteeing Safe School Bus Service
Quick intervention by Shelly Silver led to the successful restoration of school bus service for local children left stranded by the Department of Education's (DOE) bus route changes in January 2007. Dozens of Lower Manhattan school children were left stranded without bus service when the DOE tried to implement short-sighted transportation changes. Shelly convinced the DOE to restore service for children in our neighborhoods by providing "hazard variances" for the stranded youngsters and shorten bus routes so that children were not forced to take hour long bus rides that resulted from the DOE's restructuring attempts.
Make a college education a reality for all of New York's young people
Shelly has worked to make affordable college education accessible to young New Yorkers from all backgrounds. In order to provide a brighter future for all our children and create a skilled workforce for New York's economy, Shelly has helped fund the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), including in 2000, raising the maximum benefit from $4,125 to $5,000 for freshman, and boosting the family income eligibility level from $50,500 to $80,000.