Exit interview: Councilmember Robert Jackson

Posted December 26, 2013 By Emmanuel Felton

City Councilmember Robert Jackson was first elected to his Upper Manhattan seat in 2001 on the heels of a lawsuit he and other parents filed under the banner of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity to obtain fair education funding from the state for city schools. At the Council, Jackson served as the confrontational chairman of the education committee from 2006 to 2013. As mayor, Michael Bloomberg flexed the absolute power over city schools given to him by the state, Jackson regularly pulled in Department of Education officials to testify on issues ranging from police in schools to charters. Despite an inability to directly change things at the department, Jackson argues he made a difference: “We brought parents’ concerns to the people making the policies.”

Councilmember Robert Jackson, center, Photo: Azi Paybarah/Flickr

What’s going on with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity?

It’s still around and we are monitoring that. In the past few years, the city has increased funding, while the state has decreased funding. Our kids need resources committed to them getting a quality education, that’s the bottom line. I’m not one to just file lawsuits, but if we are getting cheated or shortchanged I have to. Eliot Spitzer committed to getting CFE put into place and set up his CFE, Contracts for Excellence, to get the money down here.

So New York City schools have what they need now?

We are trying to go beyond just the sound basic education that the New York State Constitution entitles us to, that’s the minimum standard and that’s what CFE was all about. If you look at the statistics, you see that we are a long way away from that. Fifty percent of white students are graduating college- and career-ready. That goes down to 17 percent for Hispanic students and 13 percent for black students. But don’t just blame the education system. Who’s at fault? It starts at home with the parents. I know most people wouldn’t say that, but it’s true. Kids mirror what they see at home. So if they don’t see work ethic, if they don’t see parents reading, they won’t do those things and without that they will never be ready for school. But the school system has to be ready for them when they get to school. The school system is still not ready for most of our children with 30 to 34 kids in classrooms and out-of-date books and technology.

What advice do you have for the next chair of the Education Committee?

Get to know all of the players: the members of the committee, the speaker, the mayor, and the new chancellor. Really do your research on the next chancellor, know what they were for in the past and always keep that in the back of your mind. Read all the newspapers, but also don’t forget the parents’ blogs, that’s where you find out what’s really going on on the ground.

Do you think that charter schools and co-locations overshadowed the funding issues that you worked on before getting elected?

Charter schools have been a major issue, recent emails have indicated that Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Walcott and former Chancellor Klein favored Eva Moskowitz and other charter school operators and I think this is a huge legacy from the last 12 years. We have been forcing kids to eat lunch anywhere between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. because of co-locations. This is a losing system. It’s all the same circle, charters, co-locations and equity are all connected.

But has education improved at all over the last 12 years?

In some ways, yes. We were asking them for years to form a chancellor’s district to help turn around struggling schools instead of closing them; they’ve done that. And while many co-locations have caused problems, smaller schools have really been a good thing in some cases. But to really judge how we have progressed we need to look beyond the traditional statistics. I mean, take the graduation rate, you have to keep in mind that the state lowered the score needed to pass the Regents, so of course graduation rates went up. You have to look nationally, to [the National Assessment of Educational Progress], there we are not progressing.

What are you looking for in the next chancellor?

Like de Blasio, I believe it must be an educator, not someone who needs a waiver. Walcott, waiver, Klein, waiver, Black, waiver, and Levy, he got a waiver. What we have seen recently is that we need someone who is able to work with parents. But I have an additional requirement. They need to know New York City. They need to know the Department of Education. This is the largest school system in the country, 1.1 million students and over 180,000 employees. We don’t have a year and a half for them to get up to speed. We don’t have time for them to come in and experiment. They have to know the fundamentals to know how to solve the problem.

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<h1>Exit interview: Councilmember Robert Jackson</h1><p><em>City Councilmember Robert Jackson was first elected to his Upper Manhattan seat in 2001 on the heels of a lawsuit he and other parents filed under the banner of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity to obtain fair education funding from the state for city schools. At the Council, Jackson served as the confrontational chairman of the education committee from 2006 to 2013. As mayor, Michael Bloomberg flexed the absolute power over city schools given to him by the state, Jackson regularly pulled in Department of Education officials to testify on issues ranging from police in schools to charters. Despite an inability to directly change things at the department, Jackson argues he made a difference: “We brought parents’ concerns to the people making the policies.”</em></p>
<div id="attachment_13300" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13300" class="size-medium wp-image-13300" alt="Councilmember Robert Jackson, center, Photo: Azi Paybarah" src="http://www.thenewyorkworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/jackson-300x169.jpg" width="300" height="169" srcset="thenewyorkworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/jackson-300x169.jpg 300w, thenewyorkworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/jackson-352x198.jpg 352w, thenewyorkworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/jackson-500x281.jpg 500w, thenewyorkworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/jackson.jpg 568w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-13300" class="wp-caption-text">Councilmember Robert Jackson, center, Photo: Azi Paybarah/Flickr</p></div>
<p> </p>
<h3>What’s going on with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity?</h3>
<p>It’s still around and we are monitoring that. In the past few years, the city has increased funding, while the state has decreased funding. Our kids need resources committed to them getting a quality education, that’s the bottom line. I’m not one to just file lawsuits, but if we are getting cheated or shortchanged I have to. Eliot Spitzer committed to getting CFE put into place and set up his CFE, Contracts for Excellence, to get the money down here.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>So New York City schools have what they need now?</h3>
<p>We are trying to go beyond just the sound basic education that the New York State Constitution entitles us to, that’s the minimum standard and that’s what CFE was all about. If you look at the statistics, you see that we are a long way away from that. Fifty percent of white students are graduating college- and career-ready. That goes down to 17 percent for Hispanic students and 13 percent for black students. But don’t just blame the education system. Who’s at fault? It starts at home with the parents. I know most people wouldn’t say that, but it’s true. Kids mirror what they see at home. So if they don’t see work ethic, if they don’t see parents reading, they won’t do those things and without that they will never be ready for school. But the school system has to be ready for them when they get to school. The school system is still not ready for most of our children with 30 to 34 kids in classrooms and out-of-date books and technology.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>What advice do you have for the next chair of the Education Committee?</h3>
<p>Get to know all of the players: the members of the committee, the speaker, the mayor, and the new chancellor. Really do your research on the next chancellor, know what they were for in the past and always keep that in the back of your mind. Read all the newspapers, but also don’t forget the parents’ blogs, that’s where you find out what’s really going on on the ground.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Do you think that charter schools and co-locations overshadowed the funding issues that you worked on before getting elected?</h3>
<p>Charter schools have been a major issue, recent emails have indicated that Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Walcott and former Chancellor Klein favored Eva Moskowitz and other charter school operators and I think this is a huge legacy from the last 12 years. We have been forcing kids to eat lunch anywhere between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. because of co-locations. This is a losing system. It’s all the same circle, charters, co-locations and equity are all connected.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>But has education improved at all over the last 12 years?</h3>
<p>In some ways, yes. We were asking them for years to form a chancellor’s district to help turn around struggling schools instead of closing them; they’ve done that. And while many co-locations have caused problems, smaller schools have really been a good thing in some cases. But to really judge how we have progressed we need to look beyond the traditional statistics. I mean, take the graduation rate, you have to keep in mind that the state lowered the score needed to pass the Regents, so of course graduation rates went up. You have to look nationally, to [the National Assessment of Educational Progress], there we are not progressing.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>What are you looking for in the next chancellor?</h3>
<p>Like de Blasio, I believe it must be an educator, not someone who needs a waiver. Walcott, waiver, Klein, waiver, Black, waiver, and Levy, he got a waiver. What we have seen recently is that we need someone who is able to work with parents. But I have an additional requirement. They need to know New York City. They need to know the Department of Education. This is the largest school system in the country, 1.1 million students and over 180,000 employees. We don’t have a year and a half for them to get up to speed. We don’t have time for them to come in and experiment. They have to know the fundamentals to know how to solve the problem.</p>

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