As 2015 begins, we look forward to a year of challenges in education from many different fronts, along with a promise that we will work in collaboration with our stakeholders to stand up for the children of New York. A few weeks ago, the Cuomo Administration sent a letter to the Board of Regents and Commissioner of Education (
http://www.governor.ny.gov/sites/governor.ny.gov/files/atoms/files/Tisch_King_letter_12182014_0.pdf) with a series of questions that exposed their intention to use the state budget to put forward education reforms.
On December 23, I was honored to be interviewed by Susan Arbetter of
Capitol Pressroom where I was given the opportunity to respond to questions from that letter. The broadcast was a combination of interviews with reactions from many stakeholders: including Senator John Flanagan (R – Smithtown), the Chair of the Senate Committee on Education; Dr. Rick Timbs of the Statewide School Finance Consortium; Bob Lowry, Deputy Director at NYS Council of School Superintendents and Billy Easton the Executive Director of the Alliance for Quality Education of New York.
To hear the interview just click on this link:
http://www.wcny.org/cpr122314/, and my portion is about 10 minutes into the broadcast. This links to the interview with all of the stakeholders listed above, and if you have time, I do recommend that you listen to all of the opinions.
This interview is just a brief snapshot of our opinions and concerns with issues brought about in the letter. We are working on a letter to the governors' office from NYS PTA that will go into more detail. As soon as it is finalized, we will share that here in this blog.
Looking forward to an interesting year...
Bonnie M. Russell
NYS PTA® President
Communicate to Advocate
everychild.onevoice.®
president@nyspta.org
