Kathleen Daniel and Christopher Banks for City Council

Speaking of NY, two candidates for City Council need our support (my wife and I just each donated $175 to each candidate, which is matched 6:1; you can donate quick and easily to both here).

First, Kathleen Daniel – here’s what a friend wrote:

Friends:

Kathleen Daniel still needs our help urgently in her Brooklyn City Council race!

If you've met her, you've heard about the desperation with which Kathleen searched for a great school for her daughter, only finding relief once her daughter–her son attends Excellence Boys–was called off the Leadership Prep Ocean Hill waitlist.

In her four years as an Excellence Boys mom, Kathleen has advocated for charter schools to elected officials in Brooklyn and Albany. Two years ago, when an NAACP/UFT lawsuit threatened our schools' growth, she debated the head of the NAACP on TV on our behalf.

We know how Kathleen would stand up for great schools and help ensure space for the successful schools that are educating low-income students and sending them to college. What’s more, she has vowed as a City Council member to work to devise ways for district schools and charter schools to get beyond any space wars and instead work together to adopt the best practices that are clearly working for the students in the highest-performing schools.

Out of 51 Council members, only 3 are pro-charter. But many more are uninformed, and with strong leaders like Kathleen in the Council, we can change that. While the mayor's race garners the most headlines—some Brooklyn city council districts, where dozens of schools are located, are in many ways as important as who the next mayor will be.

  

If you are a city resident, an investment of just $175 into a campaign means $1,225 for the campaign to spend, because of the city’s matching program.

  

Kathleen needs your help in getting her story out there to fight against the name recognition of the incumbent, which newspapers say has one of the worst attendance records on the Council.

Brooklyn kids and their families deserve a leader who will fight for great schools, but Kathleen needs funds to get her message across and turn out her vote. If you are able to contribute a maximum of $2,750 to her campaign (which becomes $3,800 due to matching), it will go an incredibly long way though again, a small donation of $175 means a much larger $1,225.

Please contribute and take a moment to think of any spouses, friends or family who might want to support education reform in this way. If you haven't contributed yet, please go online to contribute to Kathleen Daniel here: http://bit.ly/1c7nR9s. It’s really easy to contribute, takes just a few minutes with a credit card, and can make all the difference to a campaign. 

Second, Christopher Banks (you can donate here):

Christopher Banks in District 42 (East New York) is facing off against Inez Barron, probably the most demagogic anti-reform member of the State Assembly.  Running to replace her husband Charles, Barron has called the reform movement an attempt to "gentrify the public school system" that hurts African-American students.  She was a member of the UFT for 18 years.  

Banks, supported by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, is a young and dynamic community leader.  He is part of a broader movement to replace the failed leadership in the City's poorest, most crime-ridden and worst educated neighborhood.  With no money or support, he won 46% of the vote against Barron in 2012, when he challenged her for Assembly.  Here’s a link to a recent Daily News profile of the race: http://nydn.us/135MkD4.