As a proud graduate of Brooklyn public schools and Brooklyn College, Shahana is deeply committed to ensuring NYC provides high-quality education from cradle to college. She is a fierce advocate for the resources, support, and policies that our school communities deserve.
Shahana’s Accomplishments:
As Chair of the Progressive Caucus, Shahana led the charge to protect public education funding, securing significant restorations for early childhood programs, K-12 schools, CUNY, and libraries.
Shahana has been a champion Universal Childcare program that would ensure every child has access to high-quality early education from 2-Care to 3-K to Pre-K.
She played a key role in creating and expanding Promise NYC, a program providing childcare for previously excluded immigrant families. After starting as a $10 million pilot program, the program has grown to $25 million in just three years, helping more newly arrived families find stable housing and jobs.
When the Adams administration began evicting asylum-seeking families from shelters, Shahana fought back. She stood up for the most vulnerable in our community and secured policy changes that reduced the disruption to the education of newly arrived students.
Shahana has consistently used her discretionary funding to make tangible investments in the schools across our district. She has delivered vital infrastructural improvements, including:
Renovations to schoolyards at PS 107 and PS 10.
Renovation to bathrooms at PS 154, PS 131, PS 130, The Children’s School, Park Slope Collegiate, Brooklyn Secondary School for Collaborative Studies, John Jay School for Law, and Millennium Brooklyn High School.
Funding to renovate the Brooklyn New School and Brooklyn Collaborative Studies’ deteriorating gym, serving over 1400 students.
Additionally, Shahana has contributed funds toward technology upgrades, auditorium renovations, countless school playgrounds, and more!
Under Shahana’s leadership, our public schools have made major strides in advancing food justice. She has worked to ensure local schools have culturally responsive offerings including kosher and halal meals. Notably, she successfully advocated for the installation of a halal kitchen at PS 131.
Shahana provided District 39 students with opportunities for skill development and civic education through her Office’s Participatory Budgeting and Youth Leadership Council initiatives.
Shahana has fought against discrimination of all forms in our schools, as described further in the Fostering Unity and Ending Hate section below.
Shahana’s Vision:
While Mayor Adams has resisted implementing the Class Size Reduction law passed in Albany, Shahana is fighting to make sure that every student gets the attention that they deserve.
Shahana knows firsthand from her upbringing in multi-cultural Kensington that our diversity is one of our greatest strengths. She supports measures like the District 15 middle school integration plan that work towards desegregating our places of learning.
She understands we need better school facilities and bus operations so that all students, especially those with disabilities, have what they need to learn. She will continue to push the DOE to cut through bureaucracy and make schools truly accessible.
She supports the Green Healthy Schools campaign to make renewable energy upgrades to school buildings.
Arts education in NYC Public Schools was essential to Shahana’s upbringing. She will keep advocating for fully funded music, visual arts, creative writing, and student journalism programs at all of our schools.
She will continue to support efforts to combat hate in public schools, including restorative justice programs and curricula that emphasize diversity and inclusion.
Additionally, in her role as Co-Chair of the Task Force to Combat Hate, she will collaborate with students and teachers to develop policies and programs that ensure safer schools for all.
