For our schools to truly succeed, all those involved in the education of our children need to be held accountable to do their part well. That, of course, applies to the teacher in the classroom, but it also means that parents (who are the primary educators of their children) need to fulfill their role, because without involved parents, the likelihood of success in the classroom is greatly diminished.

Currently, we spend over $50 million dollars per year busing children all over this city. Many of our children are on buses 2 hours per day - that's 2 hours they could be doing their homework, reading or simply being kids and playing outside. I would rather take that money and use it to hire more teachers or lengthen the school day.

I also think if parents live closer to the schools their children attend it makes it more likely that they will be involved in their children's schools. When children attend a school far away from their parents' home, it makes it very hard to be an involved parent.

To be clear, I am not saying that a child would have only one school to choose from, but that preference should be given to families at the schools closest to their homes.

Charter Schools are here, and I believe they are here to stay. Instead of re-fighting those battles, I strongly believe we need to work together. They are all our children, whether they are in traditional public schools or public charter schools.

To help the district move forward we need the state to look at how charters and public schools are funded, ensuring fairness on both sides. For instance, we need to look at legitimate concerns that charters drain money away from public schools, but we also need to resolve questions around the fact that charters receive no aid for their buildings. Neither of these situations are fair to our school children.

I will work hard to make sure that charters and traditional publics co-exist, working together to make all of our kids learn and thrive.

We need to drive more resources-and money-into our classrooms and away from the bureaucrats. More resources mean we can hire more teachers, lower the teacher/student ratios, and offer more individualized attention. Studies show that small class sizes have a profound affect on student achievement.

First and foremost the school district's obligation is to keep our children safe: that means from the moment they let go of their parent's hand and get on a bus until they get back home. That will be my first obligation to you.

Gov. Paterson's budget-as proposed-would be devastating. We need to make sure that at least some of these shortsighted cuts are rescinded. But that alone would not solve all of our problems. Our school district must be run more efficiently. Spending over $20,000 per child might be worth it if we were providing a world-class education. Until we do, we need to work to maximize the dollars we do spend. We also need state reforms to help us work smarter including mandate relief, reform of contract negotiations, and pension reforms.