Good morning, CharterFolk.
Today we’re happy to share with you a Contributor Column from Danyela Souza Egorov, the founder of Families for NY and the 2025 William E. Simon Policy Fellow at 50CAN.
We provide a bio for Danyela below.
Danyela Souza Egorov has over 10 years of professional experience in business, government and nonprofits, with a focus on strategy, advocacy and management. Ms. Egorov has worked at NY Charter Schools Association, Families for Excellent Schools, California Charter Schools Association, New Leaders and Boston Public Schools. She started her career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co., holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and was the founding board chair of Brooklyn RISE Charter School. She is a member of New York’s Community Education Council 2 and founder of Families for NY. Her articles have been featured at New York Sun, New York Post, City Journal, and she has testified to the US Congress twice. Danyela grew up in Brazil and lives in New York City with her husband and two sons.
Meanwhile, we’ve released our finalists for the Contributor Columns that readers have appreciated most over the past year. Get your vote in today.
The $40 Billion Elephant in the New York City Classroom
The New York City mayoral candidates are surprisingly silent …
… about public schools during their campaigns, even though the city spends $40 billion annually on the Department of Education. I don’t blame them. There are no easy or popular solutions to fix the most inefficient public schools in the country.
Over the past ten years, New York City public schools have lost more than 158,000 students.
When we account for the nearly 36,000 migrant students who have enrolled in the last two years, the total dropout rate approaches 200,000 students. This decline reflects a desire among New York families for alternative education options, as seen by the rise in charter school and homeschool enrollments.
Despite this significant loss of students, the public school budget has not been affected; in fact, spending has increased both per pupil and overall.
In the last five years alone, the New York City Department of Education’s budget has grown by $5 billion, resulting in nearly $40,000 spent per child annually. New York is not the only major city in the country facing this fiscal crisis.
Unfortunately, this spending spree has not led to improved educational outcomes for New York City children. The 2024 NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) scores indicate that only 33% of fourth graders in the city are proficient in math, and just 28% are proficient in reading. Notably, the same NAEP data reveals that NYC charter schools perform significantly better in helping low-income students achieve proficiency by eighth grade.
Meanwhile, SAT scores for NYC students have declined and remain substantially lower than those of their peers statewide and nationally. These results are not surprisingly given that more than ⅓ of NYC students are chronically absent.
The situation is about to deteriorate further. Albany has passed the NYC Class Size Law, mandating a reduction in class sizes across the entire district. This law is both unaffordable and impractical, a fact previously acknowledged by former Chancellor Banks and Mayor Adams.
However, the United Federation of Teachers influence in Albany is unmatched and contributed to its passage. But we now know that the majority of “oversubscribed” schools are among the wealthiest and highest-performing in the city. This law will compel the city to hire numerous unqualified teachers and reduce enrollment in its best schools. Additionally, finding space for new classes poses a challenge, as some schools are already planning to relocate 3K and pre-K classes to create room.
One positive initiative from the Adams administration is NYC Reads, which aims to ensure that schools adopt curriculum aligned with the science of reading, incorporating phonics instruction and knowledge-building for reading comprehension. Two years ago, schools were limited to choosing from three curriculum options. Unfortunately, the majority of school districts opted for one curriculum that experts have deemed inadequate. Parents raised concerns about this curriculum two years ago, but no action was taken. If the new mayor intends to address the reading crisis, he faces the difficult task of urging schools to change curriculum once again.
No candidate wants to campaign on closing schools, or cuts to arts and after-school programs (despite the reality that implementing the class size law will necessitate them) and the hiring of less qualified teachers. Hence, they remain silent about this $40 billion elephant in the NYC classroom. However, eventually we will have a new mayor and he will have to confront these unavoidable issues.