The following is an extended version of the story that appears in our latest print edition.

Students at Norwood’s P.S. 94 Kings College School got a special visit by City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (C.D. 28) on Thursday, March 27, along with the Schools Superintendent for School District 10, Roberto Hernandez, as they joined local, Democratic, City Council Member Eric Dinowitz (C.D. 11) for the presentation of a check for $1 million to renovate the school’s cafeteria.

 

The speaker, who is running for mayor in the upcoming June Democratic primary, was met at the front door of the school, located at 3530 Kings College Place, by an impromptu welcoming committee of little kids, as the councilman crouched down and hid behind them at one point.

 

School officials, including Principal Diana Baez later gave the speaker a tour of the building, during which Adams interacted with students and teachers alike. News of the funding was received with cheers and applause from parents, kids, and attendees, and was followed by a brief inspirational talk by Hernandez.

 

“Our job is to help people by making rules that are fair for everybody, and by making sure that the taxes that your parents pay go to really important things,” Dinowitz explained in part to the kids. “Every single one of you is the future of our city, and your education is important.”
For her part, after complimenting the students on the various projects she had witnessed on the tour, Adams asked one smiling student how news of the cafeteria upgrade made her feel. The student replied, “One million times better.”

Later, we spoke to the councilman and asked him for his thoughts on U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent executive order which aims to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education (U.S. DOE). Dinowitz said the move was an attack on children, resulting in less funding for schools, and children with disabilities not getting the services they need.

 

“To take a department where all that was centralized, and not only make it disjointed, but to reduce the funds, and to fire the people who know what they’re doing to actually get the funds to places like New York City, our children are going to be hurt by this decision,” he said, adding it was important that Congress stand up to prevent the abolishment of the U.S. DOE.

 

The councilman, a former special needs teacher and current chair of the higher education committee, and the committee on education, said it wasn’t just about funding, and some functions of the U.S. DOE were set to move to different federal agencies as well.

 

For the last 20 years in New York City, under State law, “mayor control” gives the mayor of New York City the power to select a schools chancellor and appoint a majority of members to the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP), a city board that votes on major education policy proposals and contracts. We asked the councilman if the dissolution of the U.S. DOE would impact upon this mandate.

In reference to the mandate more broadly, Dinowitz said, “It’s been a real challenge for the Council to pass the legislation needed to support our children. It’s not that he [the mayor] has a veto. We don’t have the authority to legislate like we do for certain other agencies, and so despite that, we’ve done incredible things for our kids.”

 

He referenced the million-dollar investment in P.S. 94 as an example, adding it was on top of a half a million dollars he had secured for a school garden. “When they [students] were talking about the garden, they weren’t just planting things. It’s encapsulated in the education of growing and math, but even better, they were talking about getting the food into the hands of people who need it.”

 

He said, “The garden, like our school, is not just about teaching our kids, but it’s about the community, and what we provide for the community, and that’s what they are doing with the garden.” He mentioned previous legislation he had championed in the council to ease the transition for kids with disabilities from high school to college by electronically transferring their individualized education programs (IEPs).

 

“We are now working on budget items for CUNY to centralize their disability services,” he said. “So, despite the attacks on our education system by the Trump administration, we are doing what we can in the City to uplift and support our students, the future of New York City.”
Being unfamiliar with the impact of the dissolution of the U.S. DOE on each state, we asked if there was any upside to it for New York City, in light of the specific mayoral control arrangement e.g. if potentially it might mean more control for New York State over education policy.

 

“There is not more control being given to the State,” Dinowitz said in part. “That is absolutely not what it is. It’s a great line, but when you say returning authority to the states, it is completely the opposite of what Trump actually wants to do.”

 

He continued, “Trump wants to threaten funding if districts don’t do exactly what he wants to do. That is not transferring authority and power to the states. The states already have control over things like curriculum. The City already has control over how the schools function, so they have free reign to continue to do that.”

 

He added, “The president, Donald Trump’s not giving the states anything except less money. He is threatening funding left and right, including to school systems if they don’t do what he wants them to do. That is not giving more power and authority to the states.”

 

On April 2, Dinowitz presented another check, this time for $100,000, to The Matilda Avenue School located at 4520 Matilda Avenue in Wakefield for new computers, tablets, and smartboards. On April 3, he joined Literacy, Inc. (LINC) at the Kingsbridge Library to celebrate their ‘Diversity Through Literacy’ program, an initiative that fosters a love of reading and promotes diverse voices in children’s literature.

 

The councilman’s office said he has championed early childhood literacy through his ongoing support of LINC NYC, securing $10,000 in discretionary funding to help expand its reach in the Bronx. They said LINC NYC also receives over $1.3 million in funding from the City Council in support of the ‘City’s First Readers’ initiative.

 

Meanwhile, elected in January 2022 by her colleagues, Adams leads the most diverse and the first women-majority council in New York City history. She represents parts of Queens, for which she has secured record funding according to her biography. It also states she is the daughter of two proud union workers. Adams is the first-ever African American elected as council speaker.

 

In a March 17 public matching funds report released by NYC Campaign Finance Board (CFB), the speaker was not listed, while NYC Mayor Eric Adams was, along with Dinowitz and others running for office. The voluntary public matching funds program matches small campaign contributions made by NYC residents to candidates running for election, using taxpayer dollars.

Participating candidates can receive up to $2,000 in public funds per eligible campaign contributor but are required to submit certain filings on an ongoing basis, before such monies can be released to them. Part of the federal probe into the mayor’s campaign finances for his 2021 mayoral run related to this matching funds program.

 

As reported, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on April 2 that the bribery and corruption charges case brought against the mayor under the Biden administration had been dropped with prejudice, meaning the case cannot be brought against the mayor in the future. Opinion was divided on whether the decision was the result of the mayor’s seemingly ever-growing closeness with the incumbent Republican president in recent months.

 

Both the mayor and the councilman are participating in the matching funds program, have filed a disclosure statement with the CFB, but had not demonstrated eligibility for payment as of March 17, for different listed reasons.

 

We took the opportunity of the speaker’s visit to The Bronx to ask her why she is running for mayor. “I’m running for mayor because New York City needs a change. We need to have someone who actually cares about the people of the City of New York, like you see this great work that Councilman Dinowitz and I have done today,” she said.

 

She continued, “I have made it my business to put our families first, our children first; we need somebody to put the people of this City first. I feel that I am that person, and I am so excited to run for mayor.”

Check out our latest Inquiring Photographer feature here for more on this topic.

 

Click here and here to view some short videos of the speaker being greeted at the door of the school by some students, the councilman, and others.