Yassky'd

When I came back from vacation, I had three pieces of direct mail from Yassky. Yesterday I got a fourth. The fact that I haven't received any mail from anyone else leads me to rethink my original idea about the campaign, which was that the race issue would make Yassky such a distasteful candidate that there was no way he could win. Now I realize he has some serious money -- and smart campaign advisors -- behind him. Yassky could pull it off!

Here's what he said in the latest mailing about his action on education:

Int 316-2002 "Junk Food Free Schools Act" led to the removal of candy, soda, and other unhealthy snacks from City schools.

Int 464-A-2005 Translating report cards and other school documents for non-English speaking parents of city schoolchildren.

Int 188-2004 Prohibiting harrassment at schools

Int 261-2004 Requiring the Dept. of Education to provide voter registration forms to students.

Int 559-2003 Requiring the Dept. of Education to test children in kindergarten and pre-kindergarten who are at high risk for lead poisoning

Aside from the second one, none of these are too groundbreaking. Yassky really stuck his neck out, though, to support the second one -- the Education Equity Act. Lots of city councilpeople in districts with high percentages of immigrants didn't support it. It's unclear to me why Yassky did support it, but it earned him major points with Chris.

No record on city council relating to charter schools, but he did visit one of the schools I work with, which some pols would shy away from. Not that there's too much someone who supported charter schools could to in U.S. Congress. Or on city council, for that matter.

Yassky forever

Just when I thought I'd never post about Yassky again,

It turns out Yassky is a Four-Square Champion!

Also, ahead of the curve on saving the bees.

Shout out to former classmate Aaron Short.

Yassky

Saw David Yassky in the Grand Army Plaza subway station this morning. Over the weekend his campaign posters were taken down on my block. There's an AP story out today on his campaign for a historically black seat in Congress.

Previous post about Yassky here. There's another one, I think, but I can't find it.

The Results are in

Last night David Yassky lost the Democratic primary to Yvette Clarke in New York's 11th congressional district. I don't know much about Clarke (she had the support of the major unions), but it's too bad that Congress won't have a strong immigrant rights supporter in Yassky (he won my allegiance with his support of translation services for immigrant parents in NYC).

But Minneapolis elected a great candidate last night. Keith Ellison, who will likely become the first Muslim congressperson and the first black person elected to Congress from Minnesota, is a very progressive guy and is great on immigrant rights. He helped push for the passage of the DREAM Act here in Minnesota, which was later pulled at the last minute after the Republican Gov. threatened a vote.

NY Times endorses Yassky

Read it here.

Moskowitz Moskowitz Moskowitz

The results are in from yesterday's Democratic primary. Weiner conceded to Ferrer to prevent a run-off election. Other people we liked, including Mike Peters who ran for Brooklyn district attorney, didn't do as well. School of Bloggers' buddy and City Councilmember David Yassky was not running for anything, but City Councilmember (and charter school aunt) Letitia James did run for reelection and won in a landslide.

The only other remarkable occurrence was the failure of Eva Moskowitz (city councilmember and head of the Education Committee) to take the Manhattan Borough President seat. Read all about it over at Eduwonk.

Translation, Not Discrimination

Yesterday I took about 20 teenagers from my organization to City Hall to rally for the Education Equity Act, which would require the DOE to develop a comprehensive translation and interpretation system for immigrant parents (previous posts here and here). A few other groups brought high-school students as well, and Council Member David Yassky, a sponsor and big supporter of the bill, showed up as well. The kids had some great stories to tell about having to translate for their parents (unfortunately they were not reported in any papers in English) and one of the most memorable was a girl from Bangladesh who said she must have been the world's youngest translator when she started translating for her parents in kindergarten.

The Education Equity Act is desperately needed in New York City because so many parents do not speak English well, and one of the easiest steps to make towards improving education is to promote real parent involvement. But it's pretty hard to tell immigrant parents to be involved if the school can't (or doesn't bother to) provide translation at parent-teacher conferences and PTA meetings, or doesn't translate report cards or other school documents for parents.

Here is New York Sun write up of the protest:

IMMIGRANT STUDENTS PROTEST SCHOOL LANGUAGE BARRIERS

About 40 students from immigrant families gathered on the steps of City Hall yesterday afternoon to protest school language barriers they say prevent their non-English-reading parents from being involved in their educations.The protesters called for the adoption of Intro. 464, which would require the city's Department of Education to make documents intended for parents available in the nine most common languages spoken in New York City and develop an interpretation system for meetings and events. According to the New York Immigration Coalition, 50% of public school parents require translation and interpretation assistance.

A lot of ethnic media were on hand, and here is a good, long article (in Spanish) from El Diario.