Ozone Park high school teacher vies for Queens Council seat
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High school teacher and activist Felicia Singh is running for city council in District 32. Photo courtesy of Singh
By David Brand
An Ozone Park tenth grade teacher running for City Council in Queens’ District 32 says her diverse classroom experiences set her apart from a growing field, and empower her to help shape education policy and budgeting for more than 1 million public school students.
Felicia Singh, a teacher at a public charter school in Brooklyn, is prioritizing schools and education in her bid to represent Ozone Park, Woodhaven, Howard Beach, Broad Channel and neighborhoods in the western portion of the Rockaway Peninsula.
Singh has followed a non-traditional path in education, both as a student and an instructor. She taught in China as a member of the Peace Corps and on Long Island before returning to New York City. She attended vocational school in Jamaica Hills but chose to attend college rather than start her career in commercial arts, the field she focused on as a teen.
“I’m visualizing what our schooling could look like based on my experiences,” Singh said. “There is a huge education disparity. We don’t even have budget justice. So how do we close opportunity gaps?”
She said she wants to focus on school integration and has proposed establishing a college and career readiness team at every high school in New York City. She also wants to expand civic engagement courses and ensure teachers and staff undergo training in “trauma responsive education” and professional development “to build anti-racist curriculums.”
Singh’s father emigrated from Punjab, India and has worked as a yellow cab driver since the 1980s. Her mother moved to Queens from Guyana and serves as a school bus matron for children with special needs.
She said growing up as the daughter of working class immigrants revealed the disparities in college and career preparedness among New Yorkers, depending on their background and where they go to school.
“I was the first person in my family to go to college, but I didn’t know about interest rates, the FAFSA, SATs. These are things I needed to figure out on my own,” she said. “I didn’t know I could have a fee waiver, that some school districts offered free SAT prep.”
Singh has long been active in the community, serving as vice president of Our Neighbors Civic Association in Ozone Park and a member of the Queens County Democratic Committee. She has also worked with AmplifyHer, an organization that helps elect women to political office.
Though her politics are progressive, Singh said she sees a clear opportunity to capture a Council seat held for the last 11 years by Eric Ulrich, a term-limited councilmember and the only Republican city or state elected official in Queens.
So far, four other candidates are also running for the open District 32 seat. St. John’s senior Shaeleigh Severino, community activist Ruben Cruz, Department of Environmental Protection research scientist Kaled Alamarieand attorney Mike Scala have each announced their candidacy or filed with the Board of Elections.
Singh leads the fundraising with $19,633 as of July 15.
She said she plans to appeal to the district’s South Asian and Latino residents who typically vote Democrat while also making in-roads among the more conservative, predominantly white voters of Howard Beach, Broad Channel and the western portion of the Rockaway Peninsula.
She has already begun that work through her role in the civic association, she said.
“When I was sitting on the e-board, I was working with communities across lines of difference, especially political affiliation, and I had to meet people where they are and they had to meet me where I was,” she said.
“I can go to Howard Beach and talk to moderate Democrats about education.”
Ranked Choice Voting in the 2021 election will allow New Yorkers to list their second- and third-choice candidates as well, she noted.
“2021 is going to be monumental in several ways. We have more women running than we ever have had historically and we can change the entire dynamic of City Council to make it more left-leaning and centering budget justice,” she said.
Singh said her educational priorities depend on shifting money from some city agencies, including the NYPD. She said she would not have voted for the most recent city budget because of the failure to adequately fund social services.
“There’s a dire need for social services, homeless services, youth and development and our education system, and that means allocating money from law enforcement,” she said.
“The $5 billion dollars to law enforcement needs to be reduced, but the biggest misconception was that ‘defunding the NYPD’ was a zero dollar investment in law enforcement,” she continued.
Instead, she called on the city council to examine how money is spent by the police and other agencies to identify unnecessary expenses. She cited a line-by-line review of NYPD budget items conducted by Manhattan District Attorney candidate Janos Marton to reveal potential cut backs to the department
“Do we need $33.7 million for locker room renovations? Singh said. “Do you know what that could have been used for? Opening a college and career center in every high school building in South Queens.
