Tag: Budget

State Budget Fallout

Tuesday evening was a night that will live in infamy for public education advocates in New York State.  It was a night that saw the New York State legislature pass legislation that will certainly prove to be more damaging to our state’s public schools than any other legislation passed in our history.

The governor is certainly the chief villain in all of this, but numerous others emerged as well.  Senator Ken Lavalle, for example, is one of many legislators with blood on his hands.  Lavalle, who along with John Flanagan represents portions of the Comsewogue School District, was one of the dozens of legislators who ignored the pleas of his constituents in order to vote for the budget.  For legislators like Lavalle it was a grand betrayal.  One that is abusive to children, will ruin the careers of educators, and strips local control from our communities in order to pass it off to people who have never once stepped foot in Port Jefferson Station.  These legislators surely assume that it was early enough in their new terms to stick a knife in the back of their communities.  “The people will certainly all forget by the fall of 2016!” they are telling themselves.  This is clearly one of the many places they have gone wrong.  Because people won’t forget this.  Voters won’t forget the day their state government overstepped their bounds and forced it’s way into school districts.  Parents won’t forget the day their elected officials responded to calls for less testing by doubling down on high stakes testing.  Teachers won’t forget the day that tenure was obliterated and they were given a mandate to “teach to the test.”  Our brothers and sisters in other labor unions certainly took note as the state eroded due process rights and the collective bargaining rights of public employees.

Dozens of these legislators will pay the price in November 2016.  Many of the senators and assemblymen who haven’t yet been arrested for corruption will certainly be voted out by communities.  However that won’t help us in the short run.  Now we are left to pick up the pieces and figure out what direction to go in next.  Parents in our community have already done that as the “Comsewogue Parents in Action” group has not only formed but swelled to over 100 in just two days.  Local teachers unions will begin to configure their next steps while refusing to allow their own children to take the tests.

A few more take aways from this week…

  • One point that can no longer be argued is that Mike Mulgrew is clearly either actively working against his own membership or is the most incompetent labor leader in history.  I am not sure which would be worse.  Mulgrew, who declared the budget a “victory” will be up for re-election next spring.  When he is re-elected an enormous spotlight will shine on the rigged system of “democracy” that governs the UFT, the nation’s largest teachers local.  That can only be a good thing.
  • NYSUT Executive Vice-President Andy Pallotta, whose legislative record impresses nobody, got crushed again.  His failure to prevent this atrocity seriously calls into question the votes of the NYSUT delegates who last year re-elected him, deeming him the only incumbent officer worthy of re-election.  Pallotta, whose only legislative victory this term was securing a double pension for Karen Magee, Martin Messner, and Paul Pecorale (at what was possibly an enormous price) earns a large salary and a healthy number of perks from our membership dues.  The NYSUT officers even helped themselves to a 2% raise last August.  These are things that should stick in the minds of NYSUT delegates when they vote in 2017.
  • A local hero emerged this week.  Several legislators cast their vote against the budget this week.  These are the legislators with a conscience.  The elected officials who will at least be able to sleep at night as this debacle is rolled out over the next few months.  We thank these members of the legislature for standing for their communities, our children, and our profession.  From a local standpoint, Steve Englebright was chief among the supporters.  Not only did Englebright vote against the budget deal, he bucked his party in the process.  While most Assembly Dems were busy sticking a knife in the back of their community, Englebright stood tall for ours.  It was a vote that took courage and conviction and the Comsewogue community is fortunate to have such a devoted public servant as a representative.  We will fondly remember his vote when we head to the polls in November 2016.

I will leave you with an extraordinary video created by one of our students.  Chelsea Smith is a Junior at Comsewogue High School.  As part of her video production class she created a short film called, A Common Voice- Cutting to the Core of What’s Important in Education.  It features appearances by Dr. Rella and several PJSTA members.  Share it widely.  Enjoy…

Cuomo Lays Out Plan to Destroy Public Education

We have seen this coming for a while, but that didn’t lessen the sting of Governor Cuomo’s plan for public education that he laid out in his 2015 State of the State and budget proposal today.

Via Capitol Confidential…

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s combination State of the State and budget proposal includes tough reforms that would overhaul the teacher evaluation formula, require two more years on the job for a teacher to attain tenure, and make it easier to fire ineffective educators.

On evaluations, Cuomo wants to see the current formula — 20 percent based on state testing, 20 percent on a local standard, and 60 percent based on qualitative measures such as classroom observation — swapped out for a system that gives equal measure to state testing (or, in certain cases, some other standard that measures work over an academic year) and 50 percent based on at least two observations performed by an administrator, an independent evaluator or an appointed faculty member at a SUNY or CUNY school of education.

While teachers can now attain tenure after three years, Cuomo would push that to five years and require them to maintain ratings of “effective” or “highly effective.”

On teacher removal, Cuomo would reform the “3020-A” hearing process by creating a presumption in favor of administrators in cases of educational incompetence, and an expedited 60-day process for teachers accused of physical or sexual abuse of a child.

In another shot across the bow of state teachers unions, Cuomo wants to increase the current cap on charter schools by 100 schools (to 560), and dissolve the regional caps to make that number a statewide tally. New York City has only two dozen charter slots remaining under the current inventory.

To summarize the overall education proposal…

  • Cuomo wants the APPR revamped so that 50% of a teacher’s evaluation is based on standardized test scores.  The other 50% will be based on observations which could be conducted by an administrator, an “independent observer,” a SUNY or CUNY professor, or a “trained independent evaluator.”  Of course if the state test score shows you to be ineffective the observation doesn’t matter and you are judged to be “ineffective.”  Two consecutive such ratings results in your dismissal.
  • Cuomo wants to extend tenure for probationary teachers.  In order to receive tenure probationary teachers would now need to earn five consecutive “effective” or “highly effective” ratings.
  • The charter cap has been increased to allow 100 new charter schools to steal money from public schools.
  • The tax cap becomes permanent under Cuomo’s budget proposal as well.
  • Schools that are “failing schools” for three consecutive years would have their control turned over to “turnaround experts.”
  • The establishment of a backdoor voucher plan pushed by the Catholic Church described here by Reality-Based Educator.

Overall Cuomo called for an increase in state aid of $1.1 billion.  However, there is a catch.  If the legislature does not pass Cuomo’s reform agenda the budget will only include an increase of $377 million.  In other words Cuomo is bribing the state lawmakers to pass an agenda that is abusive to children and that seeks to eviscerate our profession.

Plenty more to come on this…

News, Notes, and Links

A big week coming up PJSTA!

First, we will need volunteers to put up “Vote YES” signs tomorrow, as well as volunteers who can head to the phone banks after school at the NYSUT Regional Office in Hauppauge.

On Tuesday every member of the PJSTA needs to get to the polls in their home school districts and VOTE YES for their school budgets.  If you need to know who are the candidates being endorsed by your district’s teachers union local contact Beth Dimino or myself at wogteacher@gmail.com and we will happily provide you with that.

If you live in Comsewogue the PJSTA encourages you to vote for incumbents Alexandra Gordon and James Sanchez along with newcomer (though a gentleman who has been incredibly active in our school community for years) Rick Rennard.  Gordon and Sanchez have worked tirelessly to defend public education in the Comsewogue School District and have shown a willingness to work cooperatively with the PJSTA as we fight passionately together for the students that we serve.  Mr. Rennard is no stranger to anybody who regularly attends school board meetings or rallies in support of public education!  They represent the voices that Comsewogue needs to continue advocating for our community!

On Wednesday is the latest and greatest rally and opportunity to show Governor Cuomo and the rest of the state’s Democratic elected officials that we will “Remember in November!”  If you go to one event per year, this is the one to be at!  If you go to every other event throughout the year, you don’t want to miss this one!  The importance of this event cannot be overstated.  Bring your kids, your spouses, and who ever else you need to.  Quite possibly it is the most important event of many of our careers.

Finally we want to thank Beth Dimino, Maurizio Milana, Sue Niver, Rob Pearl, and Brian St. Pierre for attending Saturday’s “Take Back Our Schools” rally in Manhattan, which the PJSTA helped organize.  Organizers estimated a crowd of 750+ people who turned out to stand up for public education.  Groups from Long Island, New York City, New Jersey, and other parts of New York State joined together for the event.  Enjoy the pictures below…