The Rita Joseph fan club speaks out

Council Speaker Julie Menin should keep Council Member Rita Joseph as Education Committee chair, according to an education advocacy group sending a letter they say is signed by more than 200 parents, nonprofit leaders and education leaders. 

The letter, organized by advocacy coalition New Yorkers for Racially Just Public Schools, comes amid rumors that the new speaker may be appointing Council Member Eric Dinowitz to lead the important committee. Nothing has been officially announced at this point – nor have committee assignments been finalized two days after Menin’s unanimous election. Dinowitz, a former special education teacher and chapter leader for the United Federation of Teachers, most recently chaired the City Council’s higher education committee.

“My whole career has been advocating for New Yorkers, whether it's in our public school or in the New York City Council,” Dinowitz told City & State when asked whether he’d been offered anything.

Joseph is a former public school teacher from Brooklyn. Her tenure as education chair coincided with a period of major uncertainty within the city’s school system. She steered the committee through multiple contentious budget cycles, conducted oversight as the city welcomed an influx of migrant students into its schools and grappled with learning loss and mental health challenges in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The letter doesn’t directly mention Dinowitz or any other council member besides Joseph. Instead, it lists a bevy of her accomplishments from the last four years like her role in pushing the city to restore funding for education programming supported by expiring pandemic dollars and advocacy for youth in foster care. It also emphasizes the need for seasoned continuity as the city’s public school system faces the threat of federal funding cuts and changes to the state’s funding formula, which led to city schools receiving $314 million less last year. 

“We want the Council to have an education chair in place that has led under challenging times and has successfully ensured that the city prioritizes the needs of New York City children and families in the midst of hard budget decisions,” the letter reads. 

As speaker of the City Council, it’s Menin’s responsibility to dole out committee assignments to her 50 colleagues. Chair positions generally go to council members with relevant expertise, but the speaker also tends to reward allies and punish foes. To that point, Dinowitz was one of Menin’s most adamant supporters in the speaker’s race. And while she voted for the Upper East Side moderate as speaker earlier this week, Joseph was not part of the initial slate of council members rolled out by Menin in late November announcing that she’d secured support from a majority of her colleagues. 

A spokesperson for the speaker’s office directed City & State to comments Menin made on NY1’s Inside City Hall Wednesday night. “On Jan. 15, which will be the next stated meeting, we will be announcing every single committee chair and then which members comprise each of the respective committees,” Menin said. “I’m having one-on-one meetings with every single member in the coming days to continue the conversations around committees.”

Joseph did not respond to a request for comment prior to publication.