As an activist and an organizer, I’ve delivered real wins for our students. 

I am a proud co-founder of the Literacy Academy Collective, which has opened the first two free, district public schools in New York City for students with dyslexia. To put this in perspective, there are only four public schools that serve dyslexic students nationwide. This monumental effort brings evidence-based literacy intervention to the public school students who need it most. I also successfully pushed for the opening of the 75 Morton middle and District 75 school in Greenwich Village.

My top legislative priority is equitable funding for all students. I will fight to make sure we deliver education dollars where student need is greatest. To accomplish this, I support reforming NYS’s Foundation Aid formula to reflect today’s real costs and provide more funding to districts that serve high needs students, like NYC Public Schools.

This commitment includes reforming the formula to update weights for English Language Learners (ELLs), students with disabilities, students in temporary housing, and those in the foster care system. The current funding gap is at a crisis level and disproportionately impacts these groups.

As an advocate for students with disabilities, I know that policy is only as good as its implementation. I will use the power of state funding—which covers 36% of the NYCPS budget—to support a shift to science-backed curricula, teacher training, and ongoing professional development. I support continued funding of the Path Forward to ensure that higher education programs and licensing explicitly include structured literacy instruction and knowledge. I also support increased state investment to recruit, certify, and retain bilingual educators and support staff to improve outcomes for our multilingual learners.

All New Yorkers deserve access to have a high quality and affordable education. This means supporting policy changes like allowing older, late-arriving newcomers to attend high school for a minimum of four years and allowing those with interrupted formal education to remain in school until age 23. Additionally, because the state funds a significant portion of SUNY (40%) and CUNY (60%), I will leverage our influence in Albany to support these vital institutions and ensure New York's public higher education system continues to provide high quality, cost-effective programs for our community.