Teens Take Charge is a left-of-center organization that advocates for changes to New York City’s public school system. The organization says basing admissions to high schools on factors like attendance, grades, or exam scores hurts low-income students’ chances of being admitted to New York City’s competitive-admission high schools. ¹ Teens Take Charge has also opposed candidates for public office in New York, which some right-leaning critics have alleged may violate the organization’s tax-exempt status. ²

In December 2021, Teens Take Charge temporarily ceased operations, claiming it had developed an unhealthy culture caused by “white male leadership without antiracist lens and framework” and “no systems to prevent perpetuation of white supremacy culture.” ³ In response, the organization said it “centered Black-femme members as leaders” and “explored indigenous practices to sustain anti-white-supremacy practices,” among other changes. ⁴

Activities

In 2019, Teens Take Charge launched a campaign called “Education Unscreened” that called for ending competitive admissions to New York City high schools. The organization claimed that these admissions policies had a “segregating effect.” ⁵

Teens Take Charge called for ending all forms of competitive admissions, including admission based on “state exam scores, GPA, attendance, punctuality, zip code, portfolios, in-person interviews, auditions, and specialty exams.” ⁶ The organization said these changes were necessary to account for challenges that low income students face, including having to take care of siblings or work to provide for their families. ⁷ While then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) proposed a plan to increase diversity and help low-income students, Teens Take Charge said this plan was not sufficient to help students. ⁸

The organization also called for the city government to guarantee “quality, paid internship opportunities in the summer and during the school year” to high school students and provide more resources for extracurricular activities and guidance counselors. ⁹

Controversies

According to some right-leaning media outlets, Teens Take Charge potentially violated prohibitions on political advocacy by charitable organizations when it called for then-City Council candidate Maud Maron to resign from the District 2 Community Education Council and opposed her candidacy for City Council after Maron opposed plans to change admissions policies at certain New York City high schools. ¹⁰ Teens Take Charge is a fiscally sponsored project of FJC, a New York City-based 501(c)(3) charitable organization. ¹¹

Maron told the Washington Free Beacon, a right-of-center news outlet, that Teens Take Charge activists called her a segregationist and misled about her communications with the organization. ¹² The organization also cohosted a rally against Maron and then-New York City mayoral candidates Andrew Yang (D) and Kathryn Garcia (D). ¹³ The Free Beacon received comments from lawyers who suggested that these activities probably violated IRS rules that prohibit charitable organizations from endorsing or opposing candidates for public office, though formal action was unlikely to be taken. ¹⁴

Teens Take Charge temporarily ceased operations in December 2021 to “focus on the health of our organization and to strengthen the foundation that we stand on as a community.” ¹⁵ The organization said it was “committed to radical transparency” and remained committed to being “the change we want to see in the world.” ¹⁶ It said it was facing a variety of challenges that it said created an unhealthy environment for its staff or volunteers. Among these issues, Teens Take Charge said it had a “conflict avoidant culture” that was caused by “white male leadership without antiracist lens and framework,” and it also said it had a “time-scarce, hustle culture that repeatedly lead to burnout” which resulted from “no systems to prevent perpetuation of white supremacy culture.” ¹⁷

Teens Take Charge brought in a consultant named Altagracia Montilla and made several changes to its organization. Among other things, Teens Take Charge said it “centered Black-femme members as leaders, explored indigenous practices to sustain anti-white-supremacy practices,” and “used a collaborative approach to creating internal systems to sustain our radical transformation and prevent ourselves from repeating the same mistakes.” ¹⁸

People

Teens Take Charge was founded by Nelson Luna and Whitney Stephenson, and it has seven staff listed on its website as of 2023. ¹⁹ The organization also employs high-school students as activists, hosting weekly meetings with them and paying them $150 a month for their work. ²⁰

Finances

Teens Take Charge is a fiscally sponsored organization of FJC, a New York City-based 501(c)(3) organization. ²¹

1. Tullo, Danielle. “These New York City Teens Are Fighting for Equality in Education.” Seventeen. February 3, 2021. https://www.seventeen.com/life/a34645386/teens-take-charge-nyc-equality-education/.
2.  Sibarium, Aaron. “Teens Take Charge Likely Violating Federal Tax Law, Experts Say.” Washington Free Beacon. June 15, 2021. https://freebeacon.com/campus/teens-take-charge-likely-violating-federal-tax-law-experts-say/.
3. “Transforming as a Community.” Teens Take Charge. Accessed May 26, 2023.  https://www.teenstakecharge.com/transforming-as-a-community.
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5.  “Education Unscreened.” Teens Take Charge. Accessed May 26, 2023. https://www.teenstakecharge.com/past-campaigns/education-unscreened.
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8. Tullo, Danielle. “These New York City Teens Are Fighting for Equality in Education.” Seventeen. February 3, 2021. https://www.seventeen.com/life/a34645386/teens-take-charge-nyc-equality-education/
9. “Education Unscreened.” Teens Take Charge. Accessed May 26, 2023. https://www.teenstakecharge.com/past-campaigns/education-unscreened.
10. Vohra, Sweta. “The Weekly Podcast Episode 16.” New York Times. December 8, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/18/the-weekly/nyc-schools-segregation.html.
11. “Who We Are.” Teens Take Charge. Accessed May 27, 2023. https://www.teenstakecharge.com/about.
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18. “Transforming as a Community.” Teens Take Charge. Accessed May 26, 2023.  https://www.teenstakecharge.com/transforming-as-a-community.
19. “Who We Are.” Teens Take Charge. Accessed May 26, 2023. https://www.teenstakecharge.com/about.
20. “Program Details.” Teens Take Charge. Accessed May 26, 2023. https://www.teenstakecharge.com/.
21. “Who We Are.” Teens Take Charge. Accessed May 27, 2023. https://www.teenstakecharge.com/about.