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City Council member Rita Joseph, a former teacher who chairs the committee on education, hasn’t forgotten her roots in the city’s public school system.
Since taking office in 2022, the Brooklyn council member has visited nearly 100 schools across the five boroughs, Joseph recently told Chalkbeat. She holds monthly meetings with a coalition of advocates, as she’s sought to help the city’s schools navigate a contentious budget cycle in City Hall, an influx of asylum-seeking and other migrant students, and other major education challenges.
Her time as chair of the council’s education committee has also coincided with a period of major overhaul in the city’s public school curriculums. Former schools Chancellor David Banks mandated elementary schools adopt one of three approved literacy curriculums — the signature policy of his tenure — while also introducing curriculum overhauls for middle and high school math.
With another budget cycle on the horizon and a change in leadership at the city’s Education Department, Joseph has her eyes set on a number of key priorities, including securing more permanent funding for programs that previously relied on federal relief dollars, expanding the city’s early childhood education system, and improving transportation options for students.
Chalkbeat sat down with Joseph last month to talk about a range of issues facing the city’s public schools.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The City Council held a hearing in September on school bus services. What were your takeaways from that hearing? What stood out to you?
Two years later, we’re still in the very same spot: Kids not having routes, kids are not being picked up on time, students that are medically fragile still don’t have traveling nurses.
And also, the students with IEPs [individualized education programs] who are medically fragile have to be on the bus for a certain amount of time, and we’re finding they’re still on the bus for two hours, when they’re supposed to be on the bus for an hour.
On the budget, last year was a big year — expiring stimulus funding and budget cuts. Obviously, a lot of that was restored, but looking back on it, how do you assess how much of your priorities you got?
I got everything. But I could never do this work by myself. I meet with advocates once a month. We even created a group called the Emergency Coalition to Save Education Programs, and that included advocates, parents, not-for-profit organizations, and labor. We got together, and we went on a five borough tour to listen to the parents, the families: If this was to be cut, what is the impact?
I remember going to the Bronx and Learning to Work, [a paid work program for students at alternative high schools,] resonated with me because I was meeting these young people. They came to testify. They came to say, ‘Let me tell you what this LTW has done for me. I’m not on the corner, Council member Joseph. I can help my mother. I can buy my own pair of sneakers.’
It’s giving a child that second chance at education.
Fairly late in the year, Mayor Adams noted he’d recently learned how many programs were funded by stimulus money. How were you able to get him on board with this?
We met with him in October 2023.
We sat down. I laid it out for him. I said, ‘This is what’s on the line.’
I called him out on every cut, from lunch to community schools, [which partner with nonprofits to provide wraparound support for students].
Hold harmless, [a policy to preserve school budgets despite enrollment drops,] was also very important for me. I told him, ‘That’s one way to stabilize, versus them bleeding out. We know we’re losing students, but we have to hold schools harmless.’
In the next budget, is hold harmless something you will continue to fight for?
I would have to look at the lay of the land first. I don’t think I would rush to that. I would assess what I have first, before I would make such a big decision.
Are there other big priorities that you have for the upcoming budget cycle?
I would like to baseline quite a few things. I would love to baseline the mental health continuum, LTW, student success centers [a peer-led program to promote college-readiness], and STH [students in temporary housing] coordinators — they play such an integral role for our students living in temporary housing.
Last year, the city’s Education Department and the United Federation of Teachers agreed to allow qualified teachers to switch to a bilingual license without losing their tenure. What do you make of this change?
I had to give up my tenure in order to switch over to an ESL license.
Now, UFT allows you to change your license and still retain your tenure. I wish they had that when I was there.
I gave it up because I knew there was a need. We were getting a lot of students from Chile at the time when I was at P.S. 6 [in Brooklyn]. We got a lot of students from Yemen as well. And when they were coming in, there was a shortage of ESL teachers in the building. So I went and took the course and got an extension to my license.
That is one piece of advice I gave to Chancellor Banks. You don’t need a new degree. Get an extension from your common branch license. It’s 15 credits, take the test, and you have an ESL extension that can be used across the city. That was one way to create the pipeline and make it easier for folks to become ESL coordinators and ESL teachers.
What are your general thoughts about the curriculum mandates?
[We need] more support for educators. No drive-thru professional development. There should be ongoing support, all year round.
New York City Reads — I like the concept that all students should be able to be on reading level by third grade, because that’s when you take your first city exam. So even by the end of second grade, you should already be meeting proficient.
When the reading scores came out, no one highlighted it — and I really want to sit with those superintendents — Districts 5, 7, and 16 [Harlem, South Bronx, and Bedford-Stuyvesant, respectively] did really well. I want to know, what were they doing over there? What were they doing differently? Those are Black and brown communities. What were the principals and the superintendent doing to support the educators and the students?
Same thing with math. We’ve got to make sure kids know their domain-specific vocabulary when it comes to math. There’s languages that go with these specific subjects. Teachers should master them. Principals should master them. And I think principals should also be part of that, because they evaluate teachers, right? So you’ve got to know what you’re evaluating your teachers on.
And reading should not be punishment. Reading should be joy.
I’m a big fan of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I have every collection, every single book that came out. I even have one signed by Jeff Kinney. So you know, I was like the coolest teacher in the building for having one signed by the author.
Find what the kids like. If it’s fashion, or cooking, or whatever it is, make sure they’re reading for something they enjoy.
What are your impressions of the new schools chancellor, Melissa Aviles-Ramos?
I’m a fan. I like her. I like her work. Because we come from the same. Teacher, principal, assistant principal, acting superintendent. She knows the lay of the land. She knows how to navigate this space. And she’s like me, she’s a worker.
We’re here to support her. She has an ally.
Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.
Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.
