Joining the Mayor at today s announcement at Pace University in Lower Manhattan were Bruce Kovner, the Foundation s Chairman, Congressman Floyd Flake and other many prominent New Yorkers participating in the scholarship program. Hundreds of private elementary schools, including Lutheran, Catholic, African-American, Yeshiva and independent schools, will serve the program s students. Education is not about Boards of Education or about public school systems or parochial school systems.
Education is about children and giving the children the opportunity to succeed.
We have begun to make substantial improvements to our public school system with programs like Project Read, Project Smart Schools and our investment in a full arts curriculum. We have taken many necessary steps to replace a culture of unaccountability with a culture of performance. And one of the best ways to accomplish this is through honest, fair and decent competition, which this new initiative will foster. I hope to see this exciting program expand to include many more children and I encourage the private and corporate sectors to continue to develop and expand this initiative, the Mayor concluded. Scholarship recipients will be selected by lottery on May 12, with priority given to children in New York City s lowest performing public schools.