On
Wednesday, Governor Cuomo gave his State of the State Address in combination
with his Budget Proposal. It is important to note that while the Governor
offered broad budget statements, he will not release details of school aid
proposals until the legislature acts on a broad range of proposed education
reforms. We are extremely concerned about this and are working on a detailed response
that we plan to release in the next several days.
Here
is a summary of some key points associated with the Governor’s education reform
proposals:
·
Teacher
Evaluation System (APPR)
o
The Governor believes the current system cannot
be correct if 39.1% of high school students are college ready, but 98.7% of
high school teachers are rated effective or better. He recommends that 50% of
APPR be based on State tests, 15% based on observation by a local principal or
administrator and 35% be based on observation by an outside observer appointed
by the State Education Department.
o
NYS PTA reflected in our recent letter to the governor’s office that less emphasis should be placed on tests with more on
observations. We have concerns with the heavy emphasis on testing and the way
the Governor proposes to structure observations.
·
Teacher
Tenure
o The Governor
proposes that tenure be granted after 5 continuous years of effective ratings.
He states that non-tenured teachers should be subject to dismissal at any time
for any reason.
o NYS PTA has
questioned whether five years is needed to assess effectiveness.
·
Removal of
Ineffective Teachers
o The Governor
would make it easier to remove a teacher
after two ineffective ratings, unless the rating is shown to be fraudulent.
o NYS PTA
reflected in our recent letter to the governor’s office to put an emphasis on
quality of information presented at hearings and the time necessary to select
hearing officers in the process.
·
Charter
Schools
o The Governor
would like to see the current cap raised from 460 to 560 which would be across
the state, not with an update/downstate split in the cap. There would be an
emphasis on “anti-creaming” to make sure that the same cross section of
students accepted into the public school system would also be allowed into the
charter school system.
o NYS
PTA has been supportive of the charter school concept with the proviso that charter school funding not detract from the
State’s obligation to fund public schools and that charters be accountable to
local school boards. Funding as proposed would divert support from funding
traditional public schools.
·
Struggling/Failing
Schools
o The Governor
shared that 178 schools are currently failing in NYS and 77 have been failing
for a decade. He proposes using a recommendation from SED to use the
Massachusetts model in our state. If a school fails for 3 years, a
non-for-profit can takeover, usually in a community school format.
o NYS
PTA has promoted standards for meaningful two-way family and community
engagement in the education process in the form of recommendations to the Board
of Regents, legislators, community organizations and other child advocates. The
family and community engagement process using SED’s Diagnostic Tool for School
and District Effectiveness (DTSDE) shows promise and should be considered as a
basis for building a final action prior to considering a school closing.
Closing schools is a drastic step.
·
Mayoral
Control
o The Governor
sees the NYC model as working and could see it used in other cities.
o NYS PTA
pointed out in our response to the governor - How does mayoral control
differ from the fiscal dependence of our five largest school districts on their
city governments? Aren’t these schools already subject to substantial mayoral
control?
·
Funding and
Budget Issue Connect to Education Reforms
When
announcing the amount of money to be budgeted for education, it was proposed as
two options.
o
Option 1 – The legislature adopts all of the
proposed reforms – 4.8% increase of $1.06B
o Option 2 –
The legislature does not adopt all of the proposed reforms - 1.7% increase of
$377M
NYS PTA is
concerned that a budget without detail puts school districts and children in a
very tenuous planning position that will detract from learning rather than
enhance it.
Please keep
in mind that the Educational Conference Board (ECB) recommended $1.9B and NYSED
recommended $2.0B. Even if the reforms were adopted, it still is not close to
what is needed to ensure an equitable education for all children.
·
Investment
Tax Credit/Dream Act
o The
Governor is proposing a tax credit at an annual cost of $100 million, that we do
not support. Further, the Governor would link support of a “dream act” which we
do support to the adoption of tax credits. We will be sharing more information
about this in a separate publication.
·
Age of
Criminality
o One
positive item to come out of the address was his support of Raising the Age of
Criminality to 18 from the current age of 16, which is in sync with current
positions taken by National PTA, and which NYS PTA is working on educating and
advocating for.
Overall, I wish we could say this was a
surprise. The fact that the budget recommendation is tied to the governor’s education
reform proposals is extremely disappointing. We definitely have our work cut
out for us in the coming year.
--Bonnie
NYS PTA® President
Communicate to Advocate
everychild.onevoice.®
president@nyspta.org
