Richard Parsons, the former chairman of Citigroup, headed up the governor’s New NY Education Reform Commission, which issued its final report this month. By JON LENTZ
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ducation promises to be a pivotal issue in the state Legislature this year. The implementation of new Common Core standards has been at the center of debate in recent months, and legislation aiming to improve it is already moving through the state Senate. Bill de Blasio, the new mayor of New York City, has pledged to raise taxes to expand prekindergarten programs in the city, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo has latched onto the idea—but without the tax hike. The governor’s New NY Education Reform Commission just released its final set of recommendations, including bonuses for top teachers. In his State of the State address the governor called for a $2 billion education bond act to bring high-tech classroom supplies to schools that lack them. But perhaps the biggest education issue is the state budget, which resolves how much funding is set aside for schools and how it is spent. “Certainly every year the most important one by far is the budget,” said state Sen. John Flanagan, who chairs the Senate Education Committee. “You get to the essentials: How much money are we going to spend, and how are we going to distribute it?”
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One budget question centers on home rule and Albany’s relationship with New York City. A key campaign promise during de Blasio’s successful mayoral run was an expansion of prekindergarten and after-school programs, to be funded by a tax hike on the wealthy. The governor then indicated that there would be money in the state budget to pay for universal pre-K without having to resort to higher taxes. In his State of the State, the governor reiterated his call for “expanded full-day pre-K,” but conspicuously avoided any mention of funding. Later that day de Blasio again called on state lawmakers to allow him to raise taxes in the city, a move that requires permission from Albany. The fate of the governor’s proposed bond act will also play a major role in education funding. The $2 billion “Smart Schools” bond referendum would target children who do not have access to Internet or laptops, tablets and interactive whiteboards. The Cuomo administration said the extra money would provide students with valuable technological skills and access to advanced and interactive courses. “At some schools, there are children who are on the Internet. At some schools, they don’t even have a basketball net,” the governor quipped
LEG ISL ATIVE PRE VIEW 2014
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city & state — January 20, 2014
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EDUCATION
in his State of the State address. “There particularly contentious. The Senate are some schools where they have legislation would add some civil and sophisticated new computer systems in criminal penalties for breaches or the first grade. There are some schools misuse of student data, as well as create where the most sophisticated piece a chief privacy officer and a parent bill of electronic equipment is a metal of rights. detector that you walk through on the “People care desperately about way into the classroom, and that is just their privacy, things like identity wrong in the state of New York.” theft,” Flanagan said. “As adults, Flanagan said it was extremely we’re like, ‘Hey man, nobody messes important that the details about with my stuff.’ The way we love the bond act be explained and our children makes it magnified 10 communicated to the public. People times over when we think about your would likely support it, the senator children’s information being misused said, if the rewards of the act were or improperly used.” distributed equitably and in a timely John King Jr., the state education fashion. commissioner, applauded Cuomo's “I had a school group in, and I said, education agenda. ‘Listen, if I told you there was $2 billion “The governor framed the key issue, more but none of it is going to your which is that our state’s economic schools, then you’re going to think it’s future depends on the college- and the worst plan in the world,’ ” he said. career-readiness of our students,” he “If they think that this is going to go said. “We are, as he described, in the to extravagant expenditures, the public process of, really, the transformation won’t support it. But if you say, ‘There of our education system to reflect those are going to be iPads and tablets, that higher expectations of the 21st-century kind of stuff, in every school,’ that’s a economy. I was pleased to hear the big difference.” governor talk about the evaluation The governor’s Education Reform system and the way in which that is Commission announced several new supporting better teaching and better initiatives that were included in the leadership in school districts across the budget last year, and elements of the state, and I look forward to continuing group’s final report are likely to be to work with him on these initiatives.” on the table again this year. Among Others offered a more lukewarm the recommendations included in the response to Cuomo’s proposals. final report is a Teacher Excellence Richard Iannuzzi, the president of New Fund to provide $20,000 bonuses to York State United Teachers, offered top-ranked teachers. The commission support for the governor’s emphasis also called for new on early childhood efforts to help college education and access students transition LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES to technology. into a career after •School funding “I think graduating, including •Education bond act the governor the governor’s •Common Core acknowledged the proposal to provide •Universal prekindergarten issue of the wealth full scholarships at gap in New York SUNY or CUNY State and how the schools for the top 10 percent of high wealth gap creates and really advances, school graduates, provided they pursue sad to say, the achievement gap,” he a science- or math-related career and said. “How we’re going to address agree to work in the state for five years. that can’t be with grants; it can’t be Common Core, the set of rigorous with dabbling around the edges. We education standards being adopted need to really look at how we finance around the country, is still supported education, and we need to find an by many in the education world, but aggressive approach to that financing in New York the controversy has so that we really address equity in the centered on its implementation. way that we all want it to happen.” Flanagan and other state senators Iannuzzi was also struck by the held a series of hearings on Common governor’s silence on Common Core Core last year, and submitted a during the State of the State. package of recommendations and bills “That’s what concerns parents, aimed at improving the standards. The teachers, students,” he said. “The legislation bans standardized testing for governor is the political leader of the students from preschool to the second state. He has an opportunity to take grade, scales back other assessments, charge of that. I would have liked to bolsters protections ensuring the have seen it today. I’ll keep my fingers privacy of student data and requires an crossed that we’ll see it soon.” audit of the effectiveness of Common Core tests. The privacy issue has been With reporting by Matthew Hamilton