Mona Davids

Mona Davids is an American activist who is the founder and president of the New York Charter Parents Association and the New York City Parents Union.

Early life and education Davids was born in South Africa and raised in Brooklyn, New York.

As an officer of Azania, Davids reportedly organized investment conferences in partnership with JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and other banks, and sponsored trade and networking events in New York City. She also "conducted country briefings and trainings for U.S. executives leading Fortune 500 companies stationed in South Africa." In September 2014, as CEO of Azania, Davids gave a talk opening the International South Africa ICT & Telecom Tactical Investment Forum in New York City. At the event, Elizabeth Daly, Director of the Division for International Business of the Office of the Mayor of the City of New York, "offered words of support from the Bloomberg administration to the attendees and applauded Azania Holdings International Inc. for bridging the gap and facilitating partnerships between New York City based and South African companies."

Education advocacy Davids "became involved in education advocacy while on maternity leave in 2008," serving as co-president of the PTA at her daughter's school, according to the website of the New York City Parents Union.

New York Charter Parents Association After her daughter was accepted into the charter school, Davids founded the New York Charter Parents Association in April 2009. Davids later stated that she founded the group after her daughter began attending a charter school and Davids "learned that charters are not required to have PTA's."

A November 3, 2009, article noted that Davids was popping up "everywhere from charter school board meetings and charter renewal hearings to district Community Education Council gatherings," and that she had been "featured in a television advertisement for Mayor Michael Bloomberg's reelection campaign, in which she blasted rival William Thompson's education record."

the group was not listed on GuideStar, CharitiesNYC.org, or the New York State Attorney General's website of state nonprofits, so further membership and funding totals are not available according to City Limits, though Davids said the group claimed 9,000 members, and countered "We are not listed on any charity, we are grassroots. We are not affiliated with anybody or the charter lobby or education reformers, or teachers, or the teacher unions that they support".

Protea Group Davids has been president of The Protea Group Inc. since May 2012. The Protea Group describes itself as "a communications and public affairs consultancy based in New York City...that provides a full suite of services including community relations, strategic advice, issue advocacy, grassroots organizing, public affairs, website development, political management, social media marketing, investment forums and trade missions." The group's website focuses on such services as issue advocacy and the building of political campaign websites.

Media Davids has appeared on CNN, NBC Nightly News, Fox News, NY1, ABC7, Fox 5 NY, WCBS Channel 2 News, WABC Channel 4 News, and Al Jazeera News.

In an April 8, 2014, op-ed for the New York Post, Davids stated that New York City Mayor de Blasio, who was approaching his 100th day in office, had not yet "presented his education plan for our children." She also charged that de Blasio was "creating a separate and unequal pre-K system — one where students enrolled in community-based organization pre-K programs will receive an education inferior to those taught by certified teachers."

Davids v. New York In July 2014, Davids filed a lawsuit to invalidate New York State teacher-tenure laws, and said she expected the suit to be consolidated with a similar suit known as Wright v. New York that fellow school reformer Campbell Brown, head of Partnership for Educational Justice, had already announced she would file. In September 2014, Capital New York reported that the planned alliance with Brown was no more, because Davids held a press conference where she accused Brown "of trying to steal the spotlight and divert resources away from her case" and stated that "Campbell Brown is trying to reform her image and make herself relevant on the backs of black and Hispanic children, our children. This is our lawsuit." At the press conference, members of the New York City Parents Union "held up fake $100 bills with Brown's screaming face in the middle and signs that read 'Campbell Brown does not speak for NYC parents.'" Keoni Wright, a plaintiff in Brown's case, said Davids's allegations against Brown were "disgusting and ludicrous."

Davids has expressed solidarity with a fellow "mom," and advocacy director at the Alliance for Quality Education Zakiyah Ansari, creator of the "Real Campbell Brown" website, which is critical of Brown's charter-school activism.

Davids v. New York draws largely upon Vergara v. California, a similar lawsuit filed in two years earlier in May 2012. The future of the Davids case, in the New York State Appellate Division , was called into question after an April 14, 2016 ruling by the California Court of Appeals which reversed and remanded the trial court's ruling on Vergara, on the grounds that "plaintiffs failed to establish that the state's tenure laws violate students' constitutional rights to equal protection". In August 2016 the Supreme Court of California made the decision to refuse to reconsider the appellate court's decision in the Vergara case, and the NYCPU released a statement which said that the ruling "has no bearing on cases in other states," which it says are focused on legal issues distinct from those questioned in Vergara. The city teachers union's general counsel Adam Ross disagreed with this assessment, however, saying of the Davids case's usage of the initial Vergara decision as a precedent, "When they cite those cases for their benefit, they suffer when those cases are overturned".

Central to the case was the claim that the "'super' due process rights" afforded to teachers in New York and elsewhere in the country through various teacher tenure regulations create an unreasonable barrier for administrators who wish to fire ineffective teachers, ultimately affecting the outcome of students' educations. Richard Kahlenberg, education writer and senior fellow at The Century Foundation responded to this notion that teachers' jobs are unreasonably secure citing major shakeups in cities like Chicago, in which 50 percent of teachers - both tenured and untenured - were replaced in "turnaround schools" programs. Furthermore, he notes journalist Dana Goldstein's research based on figures from National Center for Education Statistics and Bureau of Labor Statistics reports which show that despite the concerns of opponents of teacher tenure laws, tenured and untenured teachers are fired annually with cause across the United States at a rate higher than private sector employees were either fired or laid off - 2.1%, and less than 2%, respectively, during the years for which the data was collected.

Criticism of Eva Moskowitz Davids has said that she is "disgusted that [CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools] Eva Moskowitz and other charter leaders are using parents and students as political pawns while continuing to violate the law by not serving their fair share of students with disabilities and English Language Learners, by not establishing Parent Associations and by refusing to be audited by the State Comptroller." She described a March 2014 pro-charter school demonstration in Albany as "an abuse of power by Eva Moskowitz and other charter leaders because no public school would be allowed to shut down for an entire morning to have their students engage in political activities."

The case was dismissed in June 2024.

Personal life Davids is the mother of two children, a daughter and a son.