Will Eric Adams’ Next DOE Chancellor Take NYC Public Schools to A Higher Level?

By: Rusty Brooks

Eagle Academy founder David Banks, head of the all-boys school that are a hybrid of public and charter models, is expected to be Eric Adam’s next Department of Education chancellor, according to sources from the NY Post. Banks has a history of helping the disadvantaged.

Patch reported:

He helped launch the Eagle Academy, a group of public schools that boasts six campuses that almost exclusively serve boys of color, part of an effort to boost graduation rates and improve life outcomes for students who are often poorly served by the public education system. Banks now runs the foundation that helps provide training and support for those schools, such as college counseling, mentoring programs, and funding longer school days.

Banks has a long working history with incoming Mayor Adams, according to various sources.

His family is intertwined in Adams’ world. Banks’ partner, Sheena Wright, a nonprofit executive who leads the United Way of New York City, is co-chairing Adams’ transition team. Banks’ brother, a former senior police official, is advising Adams on public safety issues, the Daily News reported. Adams has been a booster of Eagle Academy, appearing in a recent documentary about the schools, Patch.com reported

Banks, however, is more in line with the powerful teachers’ unions and is no friend of charter schools to the dismay of parents who want school choice. However, he is an innovator as he is interested in making changes and improvements with the confines of union contracts. None of the Eagle Academy schools are charter schools, however the operate almost like a charter school and are very successful.

While there is no indication, he is a proponent for the bigoted and anti-American Critical Race Theory curriculum, his work is based around race. Patch points out, he was an early champion of infusing schools with culturally responsive curriculum and practices that celebrate Black and brown people.

The question remains if he will be as controversial as former chancellor Richard A. Carranza, who the Asian community called out as anti-Asian for his various policies lowering school standards and eliminating specialized exams for accelerated programs, which Asian student are the strong majority of. Thus far, the indications are while Mr. Banks is very concerned with black students, especially boys, he seems to be nonpolitical and only concerned with character development of youngsters and improving society.

Banks, from a working-class NY background, may indeed be an excellent choice and his world experience as a black child in NYC, might bring much needed perspective. He wrote a book on building character for young black men called “Soar: How Boys Learn, Succeed, and Develop Character.” His father was a police officer, and he accounted how his strong family contributed to hid character and about leaving high crime Crown Heights for a better area in Queens, saved his childhood.

Banks, career excelled under former Mayor Bloomberg.

The Eagle Academy was part of a movement under Bloomberg aimed at giving families in under-resourced communities a wider array of schools from which to choose.