by Eliza Shapiro
Councilman Daniel Dromm, who is likely to become the next chair of the City Council’s education committee, has not been happy with the direction of the city’s education policy over the last few years.
A longtime former public school teacher and daycare director, Dromm was a vocal and consistent opponent of the Bloomberg administration’s education agenda, criticizing the halt of day care funds in 2010 and fighting former chancellor Cathie Black on her proposal to have principals give the D.O.E. back half the money left over from their budgets at the end of the year.
“Many of you know I have been a critic of many of the Bloomberg policies,” Dromm said at a meeting of advocacy organizations and councilmembers he convened to discuss proposed education legislation.
During the Bloomberg administration, Dromm said, “very few educators were actually involved in the decision-making process.”
It’s sentiments like that that made Dromm a natural choice for the liberal new Council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, and his likely appointment as education committee chair is another sign of how closely aligned with Mayor Bill de Blasio the Council will be on school issues.
In a departure from the Council’s regular criticism of schools chancellors during the Bloomberg era, Dromm praised new chancellor Carmen Fariña for her long history as an educator.
Dromm also pointed out the other former educators in the council, including Ydnais Rodriguez and Mark Treyger, and said they constitute a “good core group of people who understand what actually goes on in our classrooms and in our schools to advocate for us.”
Wednesday’s hearing included proposals from activists, such as Zakiyah Ansari, the advocacy director of the union-backed Alliance for Quality Education, who pushed for or $1.9 billion in new school aid in the state budget, less emphasis on standardized testing and the passage of de Blasio’s pre-K plan paid for by a tax on the wealthy.
Dromm, who is openly gay, also spoke about the need to provide additional support for LGBT students in schools, calling it an issue that is “very, very, deeply important to me.”
read more: http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2014/01/8538873/council-education-point-person-de-blasio-era