• Record spend, middling outcomes. Compliance and central office growth crowd out classrooms.
• Violence, truancy, and chaos undermine learning—teachers pay for supplies while politics eats the budget.
• Families can’t see what’s taught, special-ed services are delayed, and career pathways are an afterthought.

• SEZ — School Empowerment Zones. Parent/teacher boards, curriculum control, open enrollment/choice, classroom-first budgeting rule (protected % flows directly to classrooms).
• LEZ — Local Education Zones. Community-rooted models (trades, agri-tech, maritime, media, health), shared staffing, cross-zone virtual courses.
• Transparency by default. Zone dashboards: curriculum libraries, spending, discipline stats, attendance, and outcomes—updated quarterly.

• School Safety Corps. Restore & professionalize school safety with training in de-escalation and mental-health first aid; clear standards and fast due process.
• Consistent discipline. Statewide discipline framework that protects students and staff; enforceable timelines and parental notification.
• Mental Health First Act integration. Co-responder access, crisis diversion, and peer supports to cut repeat incidents.

• Back to basics, forward to mastery. Phonics-based reading, structured math, rigorous civics/history; optional classical curriculum pilots inside SEZs.
• Open curriculum libraries. Every assignment, scope & sequence, and required text publicly posted by course.
• Assessment sanity. Fewer compliance tests; better diagnostics that actually guide instruction.

• 60-Day IEP Guarantee. Legal cap from referral to finalized IEP; failure triggers escrowed parental placement and state reimbursement.
• IEP Ombudsman Office. Independent, family-facing advocates with authority to resolve delays and enforce services.
• Therapy pipeline. Expand SLP/OT/PT hiring and tuition-for-service scholarships through SUNY/CUNY.

• Lift the charter cap + full transparency. Any public/charter/SEZ school getting public dollars posts budgets and results.
• Gifted & Talented everywhere. Restore/expand G&T; keep SHSAT; fair, published admissions and supports across boroughs/regions.
• Small, safe, high-performers scale up. Replicate the models that work; sunset the ones that don’t.

• Regional CTE Hubs. Energy/nuclear ops (Hudson/LI), advanced manufacturing (Buffalo/Rochester), agri-tech (Finger Lakes/Southern Tier), maritime (LI), media/finance (NYC).
• Dual-path graduation. Regents + industry certs (EMT, health aide, coding, welding, carpentry, hospitality, AV/media).
• Paid youth apprenticeships. Employer MOUs with wage floors and hiring preference for graduates.

• Truancy Dashboards. Every district posts weekly attendance and interventions; home visits and mentorships prioritized.
• Child-Care & MH tie-ins. Link at-risk families to child-care vouchers and mental-health services so students can actually show up.
• Alt-path academies. Credit recovery + CTE/arts/sports tracks to keep teens engaged and graduating.

• Classroom-First Rule. Protected minimum % to classrooms; public monthly spend reports by zone.
• Independent Education IG. Audits central offices/superintendents; ban golden parachutes for failed leadership.
• R3A paperwork cuts. Forms >1 page simplified or scrapped; sunset/re-justify compliance rules every 5 years.

• Downstate Hub: NYC + LI + Westchester — SEZ cores in Bronx/Queens/Brooklyn/Harlem/Nassau; LEZ satellites across Suffolk/Westchester.
• Central Hub: Albany/Syracuse/Schenectady/Utica — civic & tech SEZs; Mohawk/Catskill/Finger Lakes LEZs.
• Western Hub: Buffalo/Rochester/Niagara — manufacturing/media SEZs; Erie/Genesee/Southtowns LEZs.
• Southern Tier & North Country: Binghamton/Watertown/Plattsburgh — agri-tech/open-learning SEZs; Adirondack/Chemung/St. Lawrence LEZs.

• Year 1: Pass the NY Education Freedom Act; stand up Education IG; publish district dashboards; launch 6 SEZ pilots + 6 CTE hubs.
• Year 2–3: 40% of students in SEZ/LEZ; 60-day IEP compliance ≥90%; violent incidents ↓25%; attendance ≥93% in target zones.
• Year 4–5: 100% access to SEZ/LEZ; graduation 90–93%; remedial college coursework need <10%; teacher satisfaction ≥80%.

We put classrooms before bureaucracy, safety before slogans, and skills before spin. With SEZ/LEZ local control, honest standards, real special-ed guarantees, and CTE pipelines tied to our economy, New York’s kids get the schools they deserve—and the future they were promised.