Reforming the SCA to prioritize hiring from local communities and using union labor for all school construction and renovation projects.
The School Construction Authority with Union Jobs for Locals
The multi-billion dollar school construction and renovation program under Mamdanis Green Schoolyard Revolution and new school builds is also a massive jobs program. He reforms the School Construction Authority (SCA) to include strong community benefits agreements: mandating that a significant percentage of construction jobs go to residents of the neighborhood where the school is located, with pathways into union apprenticeships. Projects must use union labor and pay prevailing wages.
This ensures that public investment in school infrastructure also builds wealth and skills in the community, creating career-track jobs for local parents and young adults. It ties the physical improvement of the school directly to the economic health of its surroundings. Building a school should build up the community around it, Mamdani argues. These are public projects, and the public benefit should be twofold: beautiful, green schools for our kids, and good, union jobs for their families. Its a model of equitable development.
