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Following Tuesday night’s unofficial results for the Democratic Primary New York City Council race––in which Yusef Salaam came out as the winner––fellow candidate and Assembly Member Al Taylor is looking ahead to continue serving the people of Harlem and beyond. 

Salaam holds a commanding lead in the vote count and is expected to be declared the victor. 

Along with Taylor, 65, and Salaam, 49, the race for the District 9 City Council seat included Assembly Member Inez Dickens, 73. The incumbent Kristen Richardson, 36, was also on the ballot, however she had announced she would not be seeking re-election. 

Early results on Tuesday night showed Salaam with a strong lead, with Dickens in second and Taylor in third.

At his watch party, Assembly Member Taylor delivered his concession speech to the guests in attendance including some of his closest supporters, consultants and volunteers. Alongside Gwen Taylor, his wife of more than 20 years, he thanked them for their service to his campaign while offering an encouraging outlook for the future of Harlem.

“What I hope that will happen is that people do not view this as a loss but they see a new horizon for Harlem, and they want to be enthusiastic about it and get to be a part of a new what’s happening along with what has existed,” Taylor shared with the supporters in attendance. “I will be voting here side by side with this young man [Salaam] to give him my input as he wants and not as I see he ought to do. I think we need to make sure that people have their space to do what they want to do and create their own footprint.”

Earlier in June, Taylor and Salaam endorsed each other and encouraged their voters to rank the other second in a strategy to combat Dickens who had support from figures like Mayor Eric Adams.

Taylor said he is looking forward to working with Salaam for the betterment of the Harlem community.

“I’m happy. When is the last time someone stepped from outside of the system and won and ran with such a resounding mandate. I’m proud,” Taylor told the Amsterdam News. 

Taylor’s term as an assembly member will continue until 2025. 

“I will continue to champion Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood, which I represent currently. And working on the city level with my brother Yusef Salaam and Assemblywoman Inez Dickens, I will continue to fight for the residents of this community in making sure we’re bringing home the resources,” Taylor said. 

Taylor was also joined by New York State Senator Cordell Cleare who supported his campaign.

Cleare emphasized she is glad to be able to continue working with Taylor in the assembly.

“I still have someone who believes in the ideals and the things that this community believes in––who is an active, historic legacy part of this community. Who knows the people, cares about the people. So it’s a win for me anyway. We have someone coming back who is ready to take care of business,” Cleare said.

Born in the Hamilton Heights area, Taylor has been a lifelong resident of Harlem. After being mentored by the revered Judge Bruce Wright, he would earn his bachelor’s degree at Lehman College and later receive his masters of divinity at Nyack College. 

Taylor assumed his office representing the 71st district of New York in the state assembly in 2017.  His district includes Hamilton Heights, Harlem, Washington Heights, and Inwood. He pastors at the Infinity Mennonite Church located between 146th and 147th st on Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. 

As a well known and beloved figure, volunteer Gabrielle Holder says Taylor spent much of his time engaging with community members throughout the campaign.  “Al Taylor has a plethora of experience from his work in the state assembly for decades, and as a state assembly member for six years, and it shows in how he conducts himself in the community, and how much engaged he is with constituents and how much love there is for him in the community,” Holder said.  

Both Taylor and volunteers would talk to Harlem residents campaigning in subways as well as communities such as the Polo Grounds, Lenox Terrace, Esplanade Gardens, etc. 

“I gave this thing everything that I had. They said, you’re not gonna raise enough money, which we did, we got a lot of small dollars. I am proud of what we accomplished,” Taylor said. 

As absentee ballots are being counted, which could take up to a week, a winner has yet to officially be declared although it is much expected Salaam will be confirmed as the winner soon and ultimately win the general election in November to head to the City Council. 

The post Assemblymember Al Taylor is looking forward to working with Yusef Salaam for Harlem appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down affirmative action in college admissions, forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies.

The court’s conservative majority overturned admissions plans at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the nation’s oldest private and public colleges, respectively.

Chief Justice John Roberts said that for too long universities have “concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in dissent that the decision “rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress.”

In a separate dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson — the court’s first Black female justice — called the decision “truly a tragedy for us all.”

The Supreme Court had twice upheld race-conscious college admissions programs in the past 20 years, including as recently as 2016.

But that was before the three appointees of former President Donald Trump joined the court. At arguments in late October, all six conservative justices expressed doubts about the practice, which had been upheld under Supreme Court decisions reaching back to 1978.

Lower courts also had upheld the programs at both UNC and Harvard, rejecting claims that the schools discriminated against white and Asian-American applicants.

The post Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action in college admissions, says race cannot be a factor appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

The constant influx of migrant families, and subsequent increased student enrollment, alongside  the disparity in funding in public school programs in Mayor Eric Adams’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget, has raised concerns from Advocates for Children of New York (AFC), an organization devoted to safeguarding access to education for children.

The AFC recently issued a brief for the public with three distinct demands directed at Adams’s new FY2024 budget: first, aiding the large influx of immigrants enrolled in school since last year: second, extending funding to Promise NYC, a government-subsidized childcare and early education program for low-income families, primarily for undocumented children who might be ruled out from traditional schooling; and third, creating more services to support English Language Learners (ELL) programs at transfer schools.

Relative to immigrant families, the AFC reported that the city’s public school system enrolled more than 18,000 new students in temporary housing. The organization determined that immigrant student services are increasingly essential, due to the population of high school-age students increasing by 76.5 percent in March 2023 compared to March 2022.

The brief also reported that nearly 42 percent of students in New York City public schools live in primarily non-English–speaking households. Paired with U.S. Census information that finds thousands of students whose parents do not speak English fluently, many of the same families lack access to stable internet connection—access that provides crucial information about their children’s schools.

The organization said the city provided $4 million in the previous two years for immigrant family outreach that addressed language barriers through community-based organizations (CBOs), and that this funding does not exist in the coming fiscal year budget.

The AFC also said that the Promise NYC program, which mainly helps young children regardless of their immigration status, will expire at the end of June. The program, subsidized by the city and run by four CBOs partnered with the city, has helped more than 600 children.

“It would be unconscionable to pull the rug out from under the hundreds of immigrant families who are currently benefiting from this program; if anything, the City should be increasing funding to meet the demand,” the brief read.

Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, director of AFC’s Immigrant Students’ Rights Project, said removing such a program would cause cascading failures for children and parents. Parents lacking affordable childcare options could lose employment options to care for their children full-time, resulting in less income and less engagement for their children, on top of their asylum or other immigration status.

While the AFC wants a $20 million investment for the program in the upcoming budget, the New York City Council urged the administration to reinstate the $10 million in previous funding to Promise NYC in its Preliminary Budget Response in May. 

A spokesperson for the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) said the initiative achieved its objective of enrolling 600 children and is working to address the problem further.

“We are very appreciative of the work done by the four CBOs. Through the budget process, we are working with the Council, the Mayor’s Office, and (​​Office of Management and Budget) (OMB) to determine the future of the program,” the statement read. “ACS is in discussions with OMB, the Mayor’s Office, and the City Council about the future of this program and we look forward to the outcome of the budget negotiations.”

The statement read that while the ACS does not keep a waitlist for families, it is aware that its partners still have interest in the program from families. 

The final demand from the AFC was a $3 million investment in English Language Learning (ELL) programs in current transfer schools. Transfer schools give those ages 16–21 who dropped out or fell behind on credits in high school a chance to earn their diplomas.

According to the AFC, the current five ELL transfer schools with sufficient support staff for older immigrant students primarily serve lower Manhattan. There are 40 other transfer schools in the city but those lack support, especially for ELL students. This centralization of schools also doesn’t align with where these recent immigrant students live—many are in the outskirts of Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. 

The organization also stated that approximately 3,015 immigrant students did receive diplomas from their home countries and were not currently enrolled in a school.

Rodriguez-Engberg said the points raised in this brief address immediate concerns regarding Adams’s executive budget, and the organization hopes to work with the city to set these demands into action to help families in need.

“Investments in immigrant students and families are investments in the future of New York City, and right now, the need is greater than ever,” said Rodriguez-Engberg. “This year’s budget must restore funding for programs that are on the chopping block, and ensure schools have the resources they need to support older newcomer youth.”

The post Immigrant students may face hardships in FY24 budget appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here