The short version
She turns government policy into dollars that keep Jewish schools strong, families supported and Jewish life thriving.
Sydney Altfield is CEO of Teach Coalition, the organization that fights for government funding of Jewish day schools and yeshivas — operating across New York, New Jersey, Florida, Pennsylvania, Maryland, California and Nevada, alongside Catholic, Muslim and independent school partners. At the heart of that work is a simple goal: making Jewish education more affordable, sustainable and secure so families can choose it and Jewish communities can thrive for generations.
On security she is the sector’s principal voice. Teach Coalition built Project Protect after October 7 to write and win federal and state security grants. In New York she secured $105 million for school security; in Florida her team preserved $20 million while the state was cutting elsewhere. And she can tell a reporter exactly what the problem costs: more than $400,000 a year for a single Jewish school, over $1,000 per student, against a 434% rise in antisemitic incidents at K–12 schools since 2020.
She is simultaneously driving the national push to get states to opt into the federal scholarship tax credit, a potentially transformative new source of support for families choosing Jewish education. And she will say on the record that the teachers unions are lying about it.
At the Governor’s podium
02 · The Lanes
What she can speak to.
Security funding for Jewish schools
The lane she owns. What it actually costs a school to open its doors — guards, cameras, barriers, emergency systems — and who pays. She built the New York programs, runs Project Protect, and can price the problem to the dollar.
Antisemitism in K–12 schools
Not the abstraction, the operational reality: threat levels that never receded after October 7, security budgets eating classroom money, and what administrators decide week to week. She has the federal numbers at hand.
The federal scholarship tax credit
The live national fight. Which states have opted in, what the credit does, and why she argues the “voucher” framing is false — her line is that most of the money reaches public school students. Reporters are already calling her on this.
Tuition, affordability and Jewish continuity
The day school tuition crisis, and her argument that Jewish continuity runs through whether families can afford Jewish education at all.
Multifaith coalitions that pass bills
How Jewish, Catholic and Muslim school advocates win together in Albany and in statehouses — genuinely cross-faith, genuinely bipartisan, and rare.
03 · The Clip File
Where she’s already run.
School choice & the tax credit
The Hill21 MAY 2026 How Kathy Hochul put affordable education ahead of politics Her Hill op-ed, written while most blue-state leaders were still hesitating: the federal credit projected to generate more than $5.3 billion in GDP growth and $1.3 billion in new tax revenue for New York, and her argument that affordability is not a partisan question. 14 SEP 2026 NY teachers unions protest Kathy Hochul tax credit scholarship plan Altfield to Fox News Digital:It seems that they want to continuously spread these lies and the misinformation about this program on to anyone who will hear them.Syndicated onward by Yahoo News and Fox affiliates nationally.
01 SEP 2026
Public school students benefit the most from a new tax credit
Her own op-ed, arguing from Arizona’s data that more than two-thirds of tax-credit donations reach students enrolled in public schools.
27 OCT 2025
States can pave the way for school tuition assistance
On the day school tuition crisis and why the federal program only works if states opt in.
12 AUG 2026
Parent coalition implores Hochul to opt in on Trump admin’s ‘Freedom Scholarships’
The Post broke the launch of Scholarships for All NY, the cross-sector alliance she sits in — an estimated $1.5 billion a year for New York students at no new state cost.
AUG 2026
How to save America’s kids from a failing education system
A full-length interview on the Federalist Radio Hour with Matt Kittle — school choice, the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, the partisan blockages, and what AI does to education next.
Yahoo News15 SEP 2026
Gov Hochul’s plan to opt New York into federal school choice program draws union opposition
National syndication of the Fox News interview — New York would become roughly the 30th state to opt in.
Security & antisemitism
05 AUG 2026 Back to school should not mean back to fear for Jewish students Her Fox News op-ed:They are concerned that their children may not be safe because they are Jewish.Jews are 2% of the population and 16% of all reported hate-crime victims; antisemitic incidents in K–12 schools are up 434% since 2020. RealClear
Politics25 MAR 2026 Passover reminds us not to rely on miracles for safety Written off the armed threat stopped outside a Temple Israel preschool in Michigan: the guard who was hurt, and her argument that the outcome came from planning, training and investment rather than luck. 30 AUG 2026 More police patrols urged for Jewish schools, synagogues ahead of the High Holy Days On the security posture going into the holidays and the case for a bigger municipal presence around Jewish institutions. 09 SEP 2026 N.Y. synagogue safety plan for Rosh Hashanah includes record funding Her team walked a record number of institutions through applications for the maximum $250,000 grants. Altfield on camera:
Guards are the most expensive, and guards are the ones that make everyone feel safe.And on the survey her organization ran after October 7 — average security cost above $400,000 a year, up more than 125%. Office of the
Governor08 SEP 2026 Ahead of the High Holidays, Governor Hochul announces distribution of a record $70 million against hate crimes Altfield spoke at the Governor’s briefing alongside state officials — her line that
fear has a price tagran widely from it.
