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Robin Willner highlights P-TECH experience and years of education organizing in East Ramapo presentation
Summary
A presentation described Robin Willner’s decades of education advocacy, her role designing Brooklyn’s P-TECH program, and recent organizing with NYCLU and East Ramapo parents to push for district reforms.
An introduction at a community meeting laid out Robin Willner’s decades-long work in education advocacy, from early campaign volunteering to designing and launching the P-TECH program in Brooklyn and organizing with parents in the East Ramapo Central School District (Spring Valley).
The presentation described how Willner began activism in high school, volunteering on a campaign opposing property-tax cuts that would reduce the school budget. After graduating from Columbia University, she worked with New York City parents to help them understand school budgets and to advocate for their priorities. The introduction said Willner later collaborated with a progressive rector named Fernández to pursue change from within school leadership.
In 1994 Willner joined IBM as a corporate vice president for social responsibility, working with schools in the United States and abroad to support teachers’ use of technology. The presentation credited her with designing and launching P-TECH in Brooklyn; it noted that President Barack Obama spoke about the initiative in October 2013. According to the presentation, P-TECH is a program that supports students from high school through college and was later expanded with the State Education Department, the State University of New York (SUNY) and the Business Council, including a P-TECH program at Rockland BOCES.
The introduction said that over the past four years Willner worked with the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) alongside parents and activists in East Ramapo. Organizers staged dozens of forums and demonstrations, met with Chancellor Young and Regent Wills, traveled to Albany and testified before school board meetings. The presentation said they developed a proposal to reform the district and pursue changes intended to benefit students in public schools.
The session closed with three questions from the host or audience asking: “What does forecasting mean?”; “What did Robin Willner do in high school to help students?”; and “Where in Rockland is a P-TECH program?” The presentation did not specify next procedural steps or a timeline for the reform proposal.
The presentation provided background on Willner’s experience and the organizing network pressing for changes in the East Ramapo Central School District (Spring Valley); follow-up would be required to confirm any formal proposals or planned actions from organizers.
