David C. Banks, the founding principal of the Bronx School of Law, Government and Justice, said he believes Porter will breathe new life into a system in which he says principals and teachers are worn out and frustrated, not just by the pandemic, but also by the feeling that their opinions are too often ignored by the town hall.
“She is not an aloof bureaucrat who will speak with canned answers,” he said. Banks said, adding: ‘Meisha is really trying to speak in a language that is real and transparent, and people understand that, and that’s why people are attracted to her. ”
“The question is, ‘he said,’ will the mayor fall out of the way and really allow her to be the leader for the school system and not just have the title of chancellor? ‘
Representative Jamaal Bowman, a former school principal in the Bronx who was elected to Congress last year, said he was “delighted” with the nomination of Ms. Porter. He describes her as a ‘visionary’ who ‘lives and breathes’.
‘I’m just excited about the fact that she is tackling issues like the school-to-prison pipeline, bringing more focus to restorative justice in our schools, bringing more social workers and counselors than policemen into our schools, and our schools are responding a lot more on cultures and anti-racism, ”he said.
Mark Dunetz, president of New Visions for Public Schools, an organization that has started dozens of high schools across the city, said that Ms. Porter ‘realizes that effective guidance of schools requires careful behind-the-scenes work.’
“While looking at her work, I saw how she really pays attention to the details of how work is really done by principals, teachers and counselors,” he said. “She never assumes that these details are correct.”