Zakiyah Ansari

Zakiyah Ansari is an outspoken advocate for public schools and the loudest voice on education on Mayor-elect Bill DeBlasio’s transition team.

Ansari is the advocacy director at the Alliance for Quality Education, a non-profit.

She first appeared on the public radar in 2007 as a parent leader for Coalition for Educational Justice.

Ansari, a mother of eight, criticized the creation of charter schools, saying it set parents against each other. All her children have graduated or are studying at New York City’s public schools.

Working with DeBlasio

Ansari has a close relationship with New York Mayor-Elect Bill DeBlasio

Bill DeBlasio, President of the United Federation of Teachers Michael Mulgrew, and Advocacy Director at the Alliance for Quality Education Zakiyah Ansari announcing a proposal for how the next mayor should address schools testing, New York, June 13, 2013

DeBlasio said he will make sure charter schools won’t get preferential treatment. He plans to charge the wealthy charters rent for spaces in public school buildings.

Ansari put forward recommendations to increase funding for full-day pre-kindergarten, testifying before Governor Cuomo’s New York Education Reform Commission in July 2012.

De Blasio latter adopted full-day pre-K as a key campaign component.

Further, Ansari recommended supporting low-performing schools, instead of closing them–an idea also adopted by DeBlasio.

Finally, Ansari also put forward the idea of “real and meaningful” collaboration between the administration and parents, students, and educators–the perceived lack of which draw sustained criticism to the education departments of both the state and the city of New York.