Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at Christian Cultural Center

September 20, 2015

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you. Thank you. 

I thought of a little slogan I’d try this morning – grace and peace, CCC!

Audience: Grace and peace!

Mayor: Thank you so much. It is a joy to be here. And let me begin at the beginning – first I want to give honor to God. Without Him, this day would not be possible. 

[Applause]

I love being here at CCC. Every time I come here I feel energized and uplifted. I feel the opportunity to connect to an extraordinary faith community. And I thank you for all you do for this city. 

CCC makes this entire city a better place. 

Audience: [inaudible]

Mayor: Amen?

[Applause]

I know Pastor Bernard couldn’t be here today. He is doing other important work. As always, wherever the work is there to be done, you’ll find him. But I have to tell you – he has become, for me and for my wife Chirlane, a deep and true friend, a guide in spiritual matters and in the issues of our communities. And you are blessed to have Pastor Bernard leading this wonderful congregation.

[Applause]

Now I hasten to add – I’ve said this some times before – you may have heard in our household, the first lady has insisted on an updating of an American phrase. We do not say behind every great man stands a great woman. We don’t allow that anymore. It is beside. Beside every great man stands a great woman. 

[Applause]

And Elder Karen Bernard is that great woman. 

[Applause]

[Cheers]

Thank her. 

And equally want to thank Reverend William Pointer for his leadership, and Elder Lilly Pointer [inaudible] as well.

[Applause]

[Cheers]

Now, when I have to CCC, often I have had the joy of being accompanied by the first lady. But she’s not here today for a reason that’s very pertinent to what I want to talk about.

My wife Chirlane is out in California helping our daughter Chiara settle in for senior year at college. 

[Applause]

And you might say, well, then you could’ve brought along Dante.

[Laughter]

Well, Dante – he would’ve loved to have been here, but he’s a little busy because he is just starting his first weeks now not just as a student, but in the honors program at Yale University. 

[Applause]

Can you tell I’m a little proud? Can you?

[Laughter]

May I note – two products of New York City public schools, pre-k though 12th grade all the way through. 

[Applause]

And what I’m going to talk to you about today is my belief that that exact path, through our public schools or through any of our schools, can lead any one of our children to places right for them. I believe this in my heart. This is so much of what led me to come to this work, to come to this office, because I believe we can actually reach each child. And I believe that a real public servant must see all of our children – all of our children – as our own. As our own. And I believe there is tremendous potential that’s not being tapped amongst our children right now in this city. 

[Applause]

So I want for every child what Chirlane and I were able to give Chiara and Dante. And so I’ve put forward a plan this week that has a simple message – it’s called “Equity and Excellence.” Equity and Excellence – now, why? Because they are two things that we haven’t seen enough of in our public schools for decades upon decades. 

We haven’t seen enough fairness between our schools, meaning, bluntly, everyone of us in this room knows we haven’t seen fairness between our schools where all schools had a chance to succeed.

[Applause]

Because we all came up thinking, oh, that’s a great school, that’s a good school, oh, that’s a bad school. If we were able to think that’s a bad school, it means that school was failed by leadership, failed in terms of what it needed. Our children were failed. 

Children weren’t the problem. The adults who failed the school were the problem.

[Applause]

So equity says we will make every school work, and if a school can’t work – we’ve always said that if a school really can’t work, we’ll profoundly change it, we’ll turn it over. But I actually think for many of the schools that weren’t working, it was because there really wasn’t a commitment to make them work. There wasn’t investment. There wasn’t the belief that regardless of what neighborhood the school was in it could work and it had to work. So that’s equity.

Excellence – well, excellence speaks for itself, but again, the concept of excellence varied by geography. We believed that excellence was a given in some places. We didn’t hold that same standard in other places. It’s as simple as that. So two concepts unite. 

It’s not that I want equity where all the schools are okay. I want equity where all the schools are excellent. And we can reach that.

[Applause]

It’s as simple as this – every child in every classroom deserves a future that isn’t limited by their ZIP code. It’s as simple as that. 

[Applause]

Now, to borrow a phrase – I may be preaching to the converted a bit, because I know CCC values education tremendously. 

[Applause]

I know Pastor Bernard believes this is one of the core values – and you do so much to encourage young people to see college as the right thing for them. 

I hasten to add – look, some kids, college is what they want, what they need. Some kids are going to go right into a career. Some kids will benefit from extraordinary training and different skills in the economy – they can go right into a number of fields right out of high school. But our job is not to dictate to each child, oh, you’re college material and you’re not. That’s not right. 

Our job is to tell every child you can choose whatever is right for you. We have an obligation to get you ready for college, get you ready to make that choice.

[Applause]

And that’s what we aim to do. And we have to send a message – a very clear message – that success must become common, and it must become typical, it must become normal – not that we say, oh, look, that young man or that young woman succeeded, why can’t we have more succeed like that child? No. We have to say success with every passing month and year must become more and more typical, more and more the norm, the assumption, for our children. 

So it’s as simple as this – we have to make sure that success is as common in East New York as it is on the Upper East Side. 

[Applause]

You’ve heard me talk about a tale of two cities. The tale of two cities takes many forms and it certainly has existed in education for decades and decades. We want to end that.

We want one city, one great standard we hold everyone to of equity and excellence. 

Now, this is more pertinent than ever. 

I have to tell you – I hate to admit that I’m 54 years old, but I’m in a place of worship, I must be honest – 

[Laughter]

When I was coming up – I went to public school – when I was coming up, a lot of my classmates knew they could go out of high school and get not only a job, a good paying job. They could work with their hands. There were all sorts of fields, plentiful jobs – you could get a middle class lifestyle. 

But today – today it’s much more about jobs that require more education. The world’s turned. And we can look away from it or we can embrace it and say how do we bring our children to that higher standard so they can have a great middle class future? 

I say it simply – education determines economic destiny more today than at any other point in human history. I believe that is an absolute and factual statement. And so in our time, we will respond to that reality by raising the bar in every way – high standards, but a high level of investment in our children to reach those standards. 

Now, here’s the big goals we’ve set – I’ll be very quick, but I want you to hear this – we’ll do this lightning round. 

First, right now, about 68 percent of our kids graduated from high school on time. That is not good enough. I’m saying in the next ten years, 80 percent of our kids must graduate on time.

[Applause]

Second, fewer than half of our kids who graduate are actually college-ready. If they graduate, they get a diploma. If they go to college, a lot of them find they need more work just to keep up with college. That’s not right. 

[Applause]

That’s not actually preparing them. So I’ve said, as a first goal, instead of fewer than half college-ready, in the next ten years, two-thirds will be college-ready. I want more and more kids to be college-ready when they get that diploma. 

[Applause]

We’ve also laid the foundation for this to happen by [inaudible] by saying you can’t get a child ready for those higher standards if you don’t reach them early enough and powerfully enough. So, I said we needed full-day high quality pre-k for every child in this city.

[Applause]

Brothers and sisters, do you believe that were some critics who said it couldn’t be done? There were many. Two years ago there were 20,000 children in full-day high-quality pre-k in New York City public schools. Today as we speak – 65,000 kids are getting full-day high quality pre-k.

[Applause]

And if there is anyone here today who knows a child who’s four years old or three about to be four this year that is still not in full-day pre-k please call 3-1-1 or nyc.gov/pre-k.

[Laughter]

Did I mention it’s free?

[Applause]

Free for every child in this city. If you choose to spend $10,000 or $15,000 for a similar opportunity elsewhere that is a perfectly fair choice, God Bless you, but I’d like to give it to you for free. And I’d like every child to take advantage. So they can get that strong educational start – that strong foundation. By the way, we also have to give children more time to learn, so what did we say – middle school kids – middle school very challenging times – sixth, seventh, eighth grade. I’d like to say I’m a recovering middle school parent.

[Laughter]

I still remember those years. If you know a middle school child and they want to go to afterschool – right now, in New York City for the first time ever every middle school child is [inaudible] for an afterschool program for free.

[Applause]

For free. A safe secure environment where they keep learning even after the school day is over; while their parents are working knowing their kids are safe and they’re learning. That’s what we want for our children. 

Now, that’s what we did before is set the foundation – here’s what we know lighting round. First, I’m going to give you the sense of how deep we want to go. We want to reach children previously were considered unable to go as far as their God given potential will take them. 

So what we’ve heard in a lot of districts in this city – a lot of school districts that kids couldn’t get there. And when you look carefully, think about it, they didn’t have an opportunity to have early childhood education; they didn’t have an opportunity to have afterschool. So we said they couldn’t get there, but we knew [inaudible] the things that would get them there. We also didn’t give them the helping hand because, look, there are many families like so many present today that are going to be with their child every step of the way and support them. There’s other families that sadly don’t have that ability. Whatever reasons – whatever reality they’re experiencing a child might have everything it takes, but they don’t have that guide, that support to get them there. 

So, we have a new idea. And for anyone who’s read scripture it might be familiar. I borrow from [inaudible] in particular that mentions someone who supports and carries someone through. The quote, from the [inaudible] is I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my loving eye on you – my loving eye on you. We are creating – next year District 7 South Bronx, District 23 Central Brooklyn – something we call a single shepherd – single shepherd. One individual who will read with a child and their family throughout all the middle school, throughout all of high school; support them every step of the way on their way to college and career – one person to help them every step of the way.

[Applause]

Think how many kids who fall through the cracks can be caught, pulled up, lifted up, given a chance again. So, that’s going to be for all the kids in those districts. Now, we’ve also said if every child is going to succeed – if every child has a chance at college or whatever’s right for them, guess what? They better be reading early in life. So, we’ve said we’re going to provide the reading specialist in every classroom in this city needed to bring every one of our children to reading level in third grade everywhere in New York City.

[Applause]

Brothers and sisters, today in New York City only 30 percent of our kids are reading at grade level by third grade – 30 percent in what is the greatest city in this nation. It should be every child reading on grade level by third grade, and we actually have the tools to do it we just didn’t [inaudible] before. Every child needs extra help in reading there should be a reading specialist there for them. What a different that will make.

Now, if you’re going to aim high give kids high quality standards to reach. I didn’t love algebra when I was in school. I cannot tell a lie, but we know algebra helps a child to develop intellectually, and it’s one of the door openers to so much. So now, every child in this city will get algebra by the time they finish middle school – every child regardless of where you are [inaudible] will learn the subjects [inaudible].

In middle school, every middle school child under our plan and their family members who want to come along will visit a college campus in New York City to see that college, yes, is for them. We will take them there. We will show them, yes, it is for you.

Some schools have had the virtue of college-level courses, advanced placement courses. The quote-unquote “good schools”, the quote-unquote “best schools” have had the highest quality courses for kids to take advantage of. And some schools didn’t have a single course available. What does that say to a young person? If a school a mile away has advance placement course and your school doesn’t have any. That’s not exactly mysterious trying to figure what that says. Someone else is advanced, you’re not advanced. I think all of our children have the chance to be advanced. Under our plan, there will be advance placement courses in every high school in New York City regardless of [inaudible].

[Applause]

Finally – finally, I can’t tell you I’m the most tech-savvy guy. I didn’t grow up with all the virtues of new technology. I’m learning as I go along, but we’ve noticed that our children get it very quickly. Our children – thank God they explained it to us. I want to thank all our children for that.

It’s a world where technology, the ability to work on the latest technology also determines your destiny, but what’s happened, again, computer science education in some schools – the most highly rated schools, there’s lots of computer science education and lots of other schools where there are none. There’s a simple plan. Over the next ten years in this city, every child at every grade-level will have computer science education in every school.

[Applause]

Because when they have that it will open so many doors to education, but also in a city that is becoming more and more the technology leader of the country – sorry, Silicon Valley – more and more we are becoming the technology capital of the country. I want our young people getting those technology jobs. And we’re going to help them get them.

[Applause]

So, I’ll conclude with this, I said I feel every child is my child. I know our schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña who has this month celebrating her 50th year in education – 50 years serving our children – she feels every child is her child – doesn’t matter if the child is in a district school, charter school, parochial school, private school – it doesn’t matter. They all are going to inherit the city and determine the future of our city. So, we have to be there for all of them. And we can, we can work together in every type of school to uplift each other. 

That’s what we intend to do – to take the best ideas, share them among all schools to put these new dynamic ideas in place to uplift the entire school system. Equity and excellence – our children deserve nothing less.

Thank you.

God bless you all.

[Applause]