Prominent New York charter group launches 7-figure ad buy to support pro-Adams policy

NEW YORK — An influential pro-charter group is planning a seven-figure ad buy over the next several weeks to pressure state lawmakers to keep Mayor Eric Adams in charge of the New York City public school system.

StudentsFirstNY — whose former executive director raised $7 million for a pro-Adams PAC in 2021 — is planning to launch a digital and streaming ad this week highlighting corruption that plagued the old school board structure.

The ad, provided in advance to POLITICO, blasts Albany for interfering with city schools and opening the door to bring back “a corrupt system that was rotten to its core” and references the “dysfunction, chaos and corruption” that afflicted schools.

“Without mayoral control, fraud, waste and bribery ran rampant,” a narrator states with dramatic music playing and the screen flashing provocative images like a rotting apple and newspaper headlines. “Don’t let our kids pay the price…again. Tell Albany: Keep mayoral control of our city’s public schools.”

The ad buy is part of a larger campaign from StudentsFirst in support of Adams’ push to extend mayoral control of the city school system.

On Wednesday, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said mayoral control will not be in the final budget.

The charter school advocacy organization — whose board comprises deep-pocketed members — is planning to mobilize parents citywide, talk directly with elected officials through the end of the state legislative session in June, and hold a press conference in Albany to make their case.

“We plan on holding our legislators accountable to not taking us back to a system that was proven not to work,” executive director Crystal McQueen-Taylor said in an interview. “This should not be a political fight but unfortunately it is, but we just plan to make sure that legislators know that we can’t go back to the old system.”

The state law granting New York City mayors unilateral control of the school system dates back to 2002, when Albany changed the system during the early tenure of former Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Lawmakers usually give mayors two to three years, leaving them at the mercy of state legislators, and the current bill is set to sunset June 30.

StudentsFirst last week issued a scathing, 16-page report warning of the dangers of returning to the previous school board system instituted in 1969, casting it as a “failed experiment by nearly every metric.” That analysis marked the soft launch of the campaign, McQueen-Taylor said.

The organization will issue a second report focused more on the academic successes of the current system.

The United Federation of Teachers — with whom the charter sector has long sparred — accused the group of perpetuating a “false narrative.”

"If the law sunsets, we don't automatically go back to the old school boards,” union president Mike Mulgrew said in a recent interview. “Like it or not, it's the same people who have backed privatization of public schools who back these organizations. … I take it all in very skeptically."

A number of heavy hitters who have supported mayoral control — including prominent civic and business leaders and former officials for Bloomberg and ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio — are aligned with StudentsFirst’s push.

They include Bloomberg schools chancellor Joel Klein, who, along with the Walmart heir Jim Walton, donated $2 million to StudentsFirstNY’s political action committee, as well as Rich Buery, CEO of anti-poverty group Robin Hood Foundation and deputy mayor who oversaw the rollout of de Blasio’s prekindergarten program. (Buery had previously led a charter network.)

Jim Whelan, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, is also backing the fight. His involvement comes after Adams accused developers of not doing enough to help him in his quest to retain control of schools — during remarks at REBNY’s annual gala.

Other endorsers include Kathy Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City — which represents business leaders — and Steven Rubenstein, chair of the Association for a Better New York.

Wylde pointed to the "long and difficult" process to achieve the current governance model. The partnership worked with unions, education advocates and legislative leaders.

“Literally that took years and a lot of good will on the part of people who don’t always agree with each other,” she said in an interview. “So the campaign is an effort to remind everyone, one how important this is and two, that … everybody has to, again, come together.”

The charter sector — whose priorities like co-locating with traditional public schools could be affected if a mayor’s control over schools is curtailed — has been looking to tip the scale in recent days. Schools Chancellor David Banks traveled to Albany Tuesday in a last-minute and unsuccessful attempt to persuade lawmakers to include a four-year extension in the state budget. Gov. Kathy Hochul supports the move, but legislative leaders have not committed.

Within their conferences are skeptical Democratic lawmakers backed by the city teachers union, which has been advocating for changes to the Department of Education’s oversight panel that would limit Adams’ power.

A final agreement won’t come down until after state education officials put out a report whose release was delayed to early next week.