By regulating marijuana, we can put black market drug dealers out of business and eliminate the rebellious allure that attracts young people.

By regulating marijuana, we can put black market drug dealers out of business and eliminate the rebellious allure that attracts young people.

When I talk about the city, I talk about a city that elevates people, which is the strength of New York. We always had the ability to do that. We had the services to do that: good schools, living-wage jobs. We're moving away from that toward a two-tiered system: a small group of very wealthy people and the rest of the city, poor and working poor.

Even the best parents have to spend so much time making ends meet that they cannot help their kids with homework or afford the extra tutoring that wealthier students enjoy. To address these unjust disparities, we need an early education revolution.

I cant solve the poverty problem, but there are things you can do to mitigate its effects on kids.

During my eleven years as a New York City public school teacher, I saw firsthand the impact that poverty has on the classroom. In low-income neighborhoods like Sunset Park, where I taught, students as young as five years old enter school affected by the stresses often created by poverty: domestic violence, drug abuse, gang activity.

It always takes a scandal to bring about reform.