Thanks Katie Kleinpeter for pointing out that the NYSUT MAC site can now be accessed via the NYSUT MAC app on both iOS and Android platforms. Click here to download it for your mobile devices so that you can be an activist for public education while on the go!
ALBANY, N.Y. February 20, 2013 – New York State United Teachers,
seeking to protect public schools and students from an inescapable
cycle of cuts and ensure the state’s poorest and most vulnerable
children are not further harmed by grossly inequitable education
funding, today challenged the state’s property tax cap in court.
“We believe very strongly in the principle that every student, no
matter where they live or go to school, should have the opportunity to
receive a quality public education,” said NYSUT President Richard C.
Iannuzzi. “In challenging the constitutionality of the tax cap, we are
fighting for that principle, just as we are fighting for the
democratic principles of one-person, one-vote and for the right of
citizens, through local control of their schools, to determine for
themselves how much they want to spend on their own community’s
schools.”
NYSUT’s lawsuit filed today in state Supreme Court in Albany charges
the tax cap enacted in June 2011 is unconstitutional because it
arbitrarily caps property tax levy increases, under a complicated
formula, at about 2 percent and, thus, locks in and perpetuates
funding inequities between affluent and low-wealth school districts.
The union said the tax cap unconstitutionally limits the ability of
school districts and their taxpayers to address these inequities by
exercising substantial local control, a concept enshrined in the state
Constitution and which the Court of Appeals has ruled is the only
“rational basis” for allowing unequal distribution of state aid to
schools.
Among seven causes of action, the suit also defends the principle of
one-person, one-vote in arguing that the 60 percent supermajority
required to override the tax cap is unconstitutional. Under the tax
cap, a citizen who casts a ballot in favor of exceeding the tax cap
has only two-thirds the voting power of one who votes against the
proposal.
“We need to have a meaningful conversation in the public arena about
what equity in public education really means,” Iannuzzi said. “We can
no longer accept an education funding system which denies poor
students the same life-enriching educational opportunities provided to
students in more affluent communities, sometimes just a few miles
away. The state’s undemocratic tax cap is exacerbating glaring
inequities in funding while pushing many school districts to the brink
of educational and financial insolvency.”
Iannuzzi added, “There is an unmistakable connection between poverty,
the achievement gap and persistent shortfalls in state education
funding. The state’s ill-conceived property tax only widens those
gaps. NYSUT’s motivation, in going to court and in its continuing
advocacy efforts, is to force difficult conversations in Albany’s
corridors of power about how inequitable funding and this tax cap
dooms generations of students to lesser educational opportunities.”
Iannuzzi stressed the union’s 600,000 members are also taxpayers who,
too, feel the burden of rising local taxes and sympathize with efforts
to control property tax hikes. Yet, he said, the most effective way to
curb local school tax increases is through dramatically increased
state support for public education as well as income-based
circuit-breaker legislation, which would provide tax relief when
property taxes rise beyond a homeowners’ ability to pay.
NYSUT said the state has failed to invest adequately – and equitably
– to address decades of educational neglect, as affirmed by the
Campaign for Fiscal Equity case.
NYSUT’s suit notes that New York State agreed in April 2007 to
address the court’s decision in the CFE case by investing $7 billion
in additional state aid in low-wealth school districts. Instead, the
state has repeatedly reneged on its funding commitments, pushing more
and more of education costs onto the backs of local taxpayers. NYSUT
underscores that state aid to public schools is virtually flat
compared to 2007 and, despite a state increase in the proposed
executive budget, is still projected to be about $300 million less in
2013-14 than in 2008-09, five years earlier.
NYSUT said, for example, the state’s share of education funding,
which once neared 50 percent, dropped to 39.7 percent in 2011-12, the
lowest percentage since 1992-93.
The suit contains seven specific causes of action (see attachment.)
In addition, the suit contests “poison pill” language designed to
discourage school budgets from exceeding the tax cap as a violation of
voting as free expression under the state constitution and First
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. And, the suit charges school
district budget voters and education funding are treated unequally, in
violation of equal protection clauses of both the state and U.S.
Constitutions, compared to non-school budget voters and non-education
voting proposals. The suit notes most towns, villages and cities are
comprised of a mayor, and four council members or trustees. Thus, the
overwhelming number of local governments can exceed the tax cap with a
3-2 vote that satisfies the supermajority requirement mathematically,
but in reality is nothing more than a simple majority.
A number of education, civil rights and faith leaders immediately
signaled strong support for the union’s fight for equity, democratic
voting and a strong public education system.
The Rev. Edward Smart, vice president of the Albany African-American
Clergy United for Empowerment and senior pastor of the First Israel
AME Church said, “In an effort to close large deficit gaps and to
provide a premium education to at risk children, school districts in
Albany, Schenectady, Troy and Hudson have been ignored and left
behind. Under New York’s tax cap, school districts can only raise
taxes by a limited percentage. Overriding this cap is almost
impossible for urban centers and for those communities who are most
needy. The African American Clergy Fighting back and the Fellowship of
Black Methodist stand with and support our children.”
“The property tax cap is limiting communities’ ability to fund their
schools, and is increasing inequity in school funding,” said Karen
Scharff, executive director of Citizen Action of New York. “New York
State already has a huge disparity between districts — a difference
of $9,000 per pupil between the top spending districts and the lower
spending districts. In New York State, your zip code determines your
educational opportunities. The property tax cap is adding to that
economic and racial inequity by further limiting the ability of
communities to fill the gap when state aid goes down.”
Billy Easton, executive director of the Alliance for Quality
Education said, “New York State has imposed a tax cap on local school
districts that locks inequities in place and takes democratic control
away from the local voters. The local school budget cap is
undemocratic because 41 percent of local voters have more power than
59 percent of local voters. It undermines the quality of education
because the state has cut funding levels in school so severely, our
classrooms are on a starvation diet and local voters are unable to
make up the difference due to the cap. This combination of policies is
particularly damaging for students in high need districts, including
districts with high concentrations of students of color.”
David Sciarra, executive director of Education Law Center, on behalf
of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, said, “The tax cap is another part
of the State’s ongoing failure to provide the funding necessary for
all New York children to receive a constitutional, sound basic
education, as determined by the Court of Appeals in the landmark CFE
ruling. The hard 2 percent cap has its harshest impact on high-need
school districts, deepening the cuts in core staff, programs, and
services made over the last several years. The cap, when coupled with
massive shortfalls in state foundation aid, operates as a ‘double
whammy’ on the budgets of our poorest schools, depriving students of
the opportunity for a meaningful high school education, as guaranteed
by the New York Constitution.”
NYSUT, the state’s largest union, represents more than 600,000
teachers, school-related professionals, academic and professional
faculty in higher education, professionals in education and health
care and retirees. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of
Teachers, National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.
A few links for your reading pleasure…
Fred LeBrun from the Albany Times Union on how the “tax cap denies a sound basic education system”.
The Bedford Central School District, in Westchester County, New York voted a resolution against the overuse and misuse of standardized testing.
Diane Ravitch with how you can help the courageous Garfield High School teachers in Seattle.
Ravitch on how Pearson cheated a blind student.
Reality Based Educator on why lobbyist for the students anti corporate lackey Andrew Cuomo will never be president.
Thanks to EdNotes for this…
Interested in earning some extra money? Pearson is advertising on Craigslist in Texas. They are looking to pay $12 an hour for test scorers. While one may think you need some sort of background in education in order to evaluate the high stakes tests that will determine the fates of teachers across the great state of Texas, that person would be wrong! You need only a bachelor’s degree in any field whatsoever in order to qualify for this low paying, no benefits, temp job. Pearson, who bribed New York’s State Ed officials with overseas trips and was rewarded for such behavior by Governor Cuomo, has a contract for nearly $500 million over five years in Texas. They must not want to waste money on test scorers when they know that they’ll have to help bankroll Cuomo’s push for the presidency in 2016.
If you are on Facebook you can show your support for the Garfield High School teachers here.
Colleagues of Garfield’s teachers show their support.
Ed Notes with a letter to Seattle’s superintendent.
If you are a parent and wish to have your own children opt out of standardized testing, this webinar may be for you. One of the Garfield teachers will be one of the guest speakers.
Even statistics guru Nate Silver, the guy who accurately projects election results, doesn’t believe is test-based teacher evaluations.
Imagine we had a governor who said things like this about education…
In the right order of things, education—the early fashioning of character and the formation of conscience—comes before legislation. Nothing is more determinative of our future than how we teach our children. If we fail at this, we will sow growing social chaos and inequality that no law can rectify.
In California’s public schools, there are six million students, 300,000 teachers—all subject to tens of thousands of laws and regulations. In addition to the teacher in the classroom, we have a principal in every school, a superintendent and governing board for each school district. Then we have the State Superintendent and the State Board of Education, which makes rules and approves endless waivers—often of laws which you just passed. Then there is the Congress which passes laws like “No Child Left Behind,” and finally the Federal Department of Education, whose rules, audits and fines reach into every classroom in America, where sixty million children study, not six million.
Add to this the fact that three million California school age children speak a language at home other than English and more than two million children live in poverty. And we have a funding system that is overly complex, bureaucratically driven and deeply inequitable. That is the state of affairs today.
The laws that are in fashion demand tightly constrained curricula and reams of accountability data. All the better if it requires quiz-bits of information, regurgitated at regular intervals and stored in vast computers. Performance metrics, of course, are invoked like talismans. Distant authorities crack the whip, demanding quantitative measures and a stark, single number to encapsulate the precise achievement level of every child.
We seem to think that education is a thing—like a vaccine—that can be designed from afar and simply injected into our children. But as the Irish poet, William Butler Yeats said, “Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.”
This year, as you consider new education laws, I ask you to consider the principle of Subsidiarity. Subsidiarity is the idea that a central authority should only perform those tasks which cannot be performed at a more immediate or local level. In other words, higher or more remote levels of government, like the state, should render assistance to local school districts, but always respect their primary jurisdiction and the dignity and freedom of teachers and students.
Subsidiarity is offended when distant authorities prescribe in minute detail what is taught, how it is taught and how it is to be measured. I would prefer to trust our teachers who are in the classroom each day, doing the real work – lighting fires in young minds.
My 2013 Budget Summary lays out the case for cutting categorical programs and putting maximum authority and discretion back at the local level—with school boards. I am asking you to approve a brand new Local Control Funding Formula which would distribute supplemental funds — over an extended period of time — to school districts based on the real world problems they face. This formula recognizes the fact that a child in a family making $20,000 a year or speaking a language different from English or living in a foster home requires more help. Equal treatment for children in unequal situations is not justice.
With respect to higher education, cost pressures are relentless and many students cannot get the classes they need. A half million fewer students this year enrolled in the community colleges than in 2008. Graduation in four years is the exception and transition from one segment to the other is difficult. The University of California, the Cal State system and the community colleges are all working on this. The key here is thoughtful change, working with the faculty and the college presidents. But tuition increases are not the answer. I will not let the students become the default financiers of our colleges and universities.
Those words were really spoken by California’s Governor Jerry Brown during his state of the state speech today.
Instead we are stuck with this buffoon, the “lobbyist for students” who has done nothing but harm NY State’s students…
Michael Powell with a great read in the New York Times about Mayor Bloomberg’s fight with the UFT. Julie Cavanagh, a teacher in Red Hook, Brooklyn, who is running for UFT President this year as the MORE caucus’ candidate, was quoted several times in the story, including this gem…
“The ‘bad teacher’ narrative as a way of explaining what’s wrong with our school system gets really old,” Ms. Cavanagh said. “Our union has taken a stance that we will collaborate and compromise and that is shortsighted when the other side seems bent on destroying you.”
More news from Seattle where Garfield High School teachers have decided to boycott standardized tests that they were to be evaluated on…
“Today is a defining moment within the education profession as educators at Seattle’s Garfield High School take a heroic stand against using the MAP test as a basis for measuring academic performance and teacher effectiveness. I, along with 3 million educators across the country, proudly support their efforts in saying ‘no’ to giving their students a flawed test that takes away from learning and is not aligned with the curriculum. Garfield High School educators are receiving support from the parents of Garfield students. They have joined an ever-growing chorus committed to one of our nation’s most critical responsibilities—educating students in a manner that best serves the realization of their fullest potential. “Educators across the country know what’s best for their students, and it’s no different for our members in Seattle. We know that having well-designed assessment tools can help students evaluate their own strengths and needs, and help teachers improve. This type of assessment isn’t done in one day or three times a year. It’s done daily, and educators need the flexibility to collaborate with their colleagues and the time to evaluate on-going data to make informed decisions about what’s best for students. “If we want a system that is designed to help all students, we must allow educators, parents, students and communities to be a part of the process and have a stronger voice in this conversation as they demand high-quality assessments that support student learning. Off-the-shelf assessments that are not aligned with the curriculum or goals of the school are not the answer.”
If you are a parent who is interested in having your child opt out of standardized testing this year (because, you know, it is destroying the profession you work in) you will want to take a look at this site…
United Opt Out National, The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform
Recently we told you about the teachers at Garfield High School in Seattle who were refusing to give the standardized tests that they were supposed to be evaluated by. Today we bring statements of support for them.
60 noted educators show their support.
Matt Damon and his mother, early childhood educator Nancy Carlsson-Paige released this statement:
We are writing to support all of the teachers at Garfield High School. We admire your strong and unified stand against the district mandated standardized test. Teachers, students, and parents do not have to accept practices that are harmful to them and to the whole meaning and purpose of education. We know it takes courage to risk your jobs in order to stand for what you know is right. But your example holds the promise of inspiring teachers in school districts all over the country to take similar action. Thank you for your strength and courage. We admire you and are behind you all the way.
The AFT’s Randi Weingarten:
Dear Garfield High School Teachers:
Thank you. Thank you for taking a courageous stand against the fixation on high-stakes testing and its harmful impact on our ability to give our students the high-quality public education they deserve.
Your actions have propelled the national conversation on the impact of high-stakes testing. Every educator understands that appropriate assessments are an integral part of a high-quality education system. But an accountability system obsessed with measuring, which punishes teachers and schools, comes at a huge cost to children. This fixation on testing has narrowed our curriculums and deprived our students of art, music, gym and other subjects that enrich their minds and make learning fun. Teachers have been forced to spend too much time on test preparation and data collection, at the expense of more engaging instruction. Ironically, this fixation on high-stakes testing actually does the opposite of what its proponents tell us it will do.
Learning is more than a test score, and teaching and learning—not testing—should drive classroom instruction. We need to be focused on growing and nurturing the minds of our students—to ensure that they can think creatively and analytically. It’s no longer enough to teach kids to memorize a bunch of numbers and terms; they must think critically and be able to absorb and interpret knowledge. We must ensure that our children are able to not only dream their dreams but also achieve them. At the same time, we must prepare students for civic engagement and to value that we all have a collective responsibility to one another.
The AFT and tens of thousands of educators, parents and students stand with you in this effort. The AFT passed a resolution at our national convention last summer focused on rebalancing our national education priorities and ensuring that teaching and learning drive our education policies. And we are focused on uniting communities across the country around this issue.
Thank you for leading this conversation.
Randi Weingarten
AFT President
The Official Website of the PJSTA 