Brewer Pens Letter to DOE Chancellor
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer (D) recently sent a letter to Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, compelling him to employ more social workers in city schools.
Brewer gave Carranza credit for prioritizing mental health, but maintained that there’s still a lot of work to be done, citing a 2017 report that city schools have only one social worker for every 800 students. She also cited research showing the correlation between satisfactory mental health services and improved educational outcomes.
“I know you understand the importance of providing better socio-emotional supports for young people and I hope to work together with you to address this most important issue,” wrote Brewer.
Johnson, Brewer, Hoylman, Nadler Call for Park to be Renamed After Bella Abzug
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen), Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer (D), State Senator Brad Hoylman (Chelsea, Midtown) and Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-Tribeca, SoHo) wrote a letter to Commissioner Mitchell Silver last Friday, imploring him to name the new public park in Hudson Yards after former Congresswoman Bella Abzug.
The letter said that naming the park after Abzug would educate parkgoers about the legacy of “a great New Yorker”, pointing out that she was an early supporter of LGBT rights and a founding member of the National Women’s Political Caucus.
“While we support consulting with Community Board 4 and local stakeholders on naming this park, we believe that calling it Bella Abzug Park is appropriate,” read the letter.
The Nation Gives Props to Richard Gottfried
The Nation published an article last Friday commending Assemblyman Richard Gottfried (D-Chelsea, Midtown) for his bill to establish universal health care in New York.
The article, entitled “Richard Gottfried’s Health-Care Crusade is Paying Off”, summarizes Gottfried’s long history of universal health care advocacy – including his recent bill, the New York Health Act, which would create a single-payer health care system for the state. The bill has already passed the Assembly, but has yet to pass the State Senate.
“The New York Health Act eliminates the enormous profits and red tape in the current hodgepodge of health plans, and the program will have the negotiating leverage to bring down drug prices,” Gottfried said in a statement. The recent article in The Nation reminds us that New York can advance a progressive health care agenda and reaffirm its historic role as a progressive beacon.
