Issue Position: Education & Youth

Issue Position

Jamaal is a proud public school graduate: an alumnus of PS 83 in Morris Park, MS 181 in Co-Op City, Bronx High School of Science, the University at Albany and CUNY School of Law. He knows firsthand that good public schools--pre-K through college--lead to a better future.

Jamaal has worked with Councilman Andy King and the NAACP to keep an early childhood center in Williamsbridge. He also has worked with youth beyond the school walls. He has worked to address youth development through sports, as a board member of the North Bronx Little League, and by mentoring young men in his church, Butler Memorial United Methodist.

In the State Senate, he will fight for our youth by standing up for public schools and taking an approach to education that focuses on the whole child. Jamaal knows that education doesn't happen in a vacuum--we need to give children the tools to succeed in and out of the classroom.

We need to fully fund school nutrition programs--because children can't learn properly on an empty stomach or without a nutritious diet.
We should be providing academic, social, and emotional assistance to students from middle school through graduation and college enrollment.
We need greater funding for music, sports, the arts and humanities to create well-rounded individuals, as well as access to greater gifted and talented programs for students who need extra challenges to realize their full potential.
We need to ensure that kids from every background get a fair shot at being admitted to NYC's specialized high schools. In the last year for which data is available, only 11% of admissions to these schools were Black and Hispanic children.

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