This Bronx principal is running for Congress as a progressive Democrat
Bronx, New York school principal Jamaal Bowman wants to join the Congressional "Squad." Bowman, currently principal of the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action, is challenging long-term Democratic Party incumbent Elliot Engel in the Democratic Party primary to represent the 16th Congressional district which includes neighborhoods in the northern Bronx and southern Westchester. Bowman is endorsed by the Justice Democrats, who supported Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in her election to Congress.
Engel, who is white, was elected to Congress in 1988 and represents a district that is now a majority nonwhite and working-class. Bowman charges that “Over those 30 years, my opponent voted for an unjust war in Iraq, deregulating Wall Street, school privatization, and building more prisons. While the very few at the top continue to build their wealth and power, the majority of us continue to struggle.” Engel originally opposed the Iran nuclear deal and according to the website OpenSecrets.org, his campaign is heavily financed by “pro-Israel” political action committees. He also receives significant campaign contributions from the defense industry, including Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing and Honeywell. Bowman refuses all corporate PAC and lobbyist money. Engel has also participated in Donald Trump’s vicious attacks on Representative Ilhan Omar (Democrat-Minnesota), accusing her of a “vile anti-Semitic slur.”
Jamaal Bowman was born and raised in New York City where his family lived in public housing and rent-controlled apartments. He now lives in Yonkers with his wife and three children. He started teaching in New York City in 1999.
As an educator, Bowman is a strong supporter of the opt-out movement boycotting high-stakes standardized tests. He favors restorative discipline practices such as mediation rather than suspensions and high-quality, early childhood care and education. According to Bowman, he will bring this holistic education approach to Congress.
In 2009, Bowman founded the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action, a public middle school in the Bronx. He supports a Green New Deal, Medicare for All, criminal justice reform, and other “anti-poverty and anti-racist policies.” He believes these policies are all “interconnected to what’s happening in public education.”
On his school’s website, Bowman lays out his guiding education principles. He argues “school high stakes standardized testing . . . is designed to continue the proliferation of inequality in our society.” Bowman believes “a democracy only works if there are people and systems in place that support our most vulnerable toward upward mobility.” He wants society to “invest in ‘wraparound’ services to support the needs of all children” with ‘conception to career’ supports." Jamaal Bowman elaborates on his educational philosophy in an online TED talk.
While a relative foreign policy novice, Bowman stands against “the oppression of any people in any nation across the globe. So when I see what’s happened in Yemen and our support of Saudi Arabian weapons and their infliction of pain and suffering on Yemeni people, specifically Yemeni children, I strongly oppose that especially when we have children here in America suffering and thus not investing in their education and health care here or jobs in the communities here.” He is “completely anti-war, against any form of physical aggression against any nation” and would use our power as a country to “build more humanity across the globe and really helping humanitarian efforts.”
Engels is also being challenged in the Democratic primary by Andom Ghebreghiorgis, a New York City special education teacher.
