Children First

Illustration of four children holding a white sign with black text on it on a white background

This button promotes a New York education program called Children First, which was announced by Mayor Bloomberg of New York City in 2003. Bloomberg wanted to reform the local public schools and increase student test scores. To achieve these goals, the education system was centralized under the Mayor's control and school districts were combined. The program trained principles to make decisions and then gave them more control to budget and hire for their schools since they were closer to the classroom and could see student needs better. They created smaller schools to reduce dropout rates by giving students more personal attention and allowing students some choice in which high school they attend. They allocated more per pupil funds to schools with special education students and English learners rather than allocating money based on the salaries of the teachers. The success of these reforms has been strongly debated since Bloomberg left office in 2013.