Brad not only has a strategy – he has the experience and management skills to see it through. As a champion for public schools, the son of a public elementary school counselor, a public school K-12 student himself, and the father of two PreK-12 NYC public school graduates, Brad knows firsthand how strong schools build strong communities. In the City Council, Brad invested millions in his district’s public schools. He led the campaign that secured air-conditioning in every classroom after exposing that 25% of NYC classrooms lacked it. As the long time host of the Brooklyn PTA Fun Run Brad helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for local public schools. He sponsored the School Diversity Accountability Act, to hold DOE accountable for confronting segregation.

Along with parents, students, and educators, he helped create the plan to adopt a bold, community-driven middle school integration plan in Brooklyn’s District 15, which is now showing real success. And a recent Comptroller’s report he commissioned shows that inclusive school mergers can reduce class sizes, advance integration, and improve student outcomes at the same time.

As Comptroller, Brad helped lead the successful fight against Mayor Adams’ devastating proposal to cut the budgets of 77% of New York City's public schools — and against Adams’ cuts to 3-K, Pre-K, and CUNY. He also developed comprehensive strategies to better serve students with disabilities while saving hundreds of millions of dollars wasted on due process claims. Brad has led and supported key efforts to make New York City’s education system more fair and functional. He helped lead the campaign for Promise NYC, securing funding for schools enrolling newcomer students, and fought to end the cruel 60-day shelter limits imposed by Mayor Adams. He ensured that dozens of early childhood education providers—facing insolvency due to DOE payment and contract delays—received the funding they were owed. As a member of the Panel for Educational Policy, Brad has played a key role in DOE procurement oversight and served on both the Fair Student Funding and Class Size Working Groups. As Comptroller, his audits and investigations exposed the DOE’s failure to comply with federal asbestos monitoring requirements and revealed the need for reform in the CCEC election process.

Brad has the skills and track record to fulfill the promise of strengthening forms of democratic participation in our schools.  In 2011, he was one of four Council Members to introduce participatory budgeting in NYC, a groundbreaking new process in which residents decide themselves how public dollars will be spent.  Today, the process has spread to 24 council districts across the city, with neighbors allocating over $20 million per year.  That is the kind of real impact Brad wants parents and educators to have in their schools.