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Timothy G. Kremer Greetings, fellow members of the "education monopoly." Have you heard about the new game invented by our governor? Ironically, it's called "Cuomo-nopoly." When you pass go, you have no idea what you will collect. There is a cap on what you can spend unless you convince a supermajority of players to allow it. Other players don't build hotels; they build charter schools. They are on your properties, but you have to pay them rent. Don't land on the corner square or you'll be sent to jail, I mean, "receivership." Then you sit back for the next five turns as someone from Massachusetts throws the dice for you. Jokes aside, public education is dealing with some very serious issues right now. And although he calls himself "the students' lobbyist," our governor does not seek to persuade but to dictate. He can't seem to decide what he feels more passionate about - improving public education or bad-mouthing it. |
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| On Board Online • March 2, 2015 By Paul Heiser What causes some school districts to be in significant fiscal stress one year but not the next, and vice versa? If you talk to Tupper Lake Superintendent Seth McGowan, it's all about the fund balance. Tupper Lake used nearly all of its fund balance in the 2012-13 school year to make up for shortfalls in state aid and the tax levy cap, only to find itself on the comptroller's list of schools under 'significant' fiscal stress. The comptroller flagged the district for - you guessed it - low rainy day funds. "The district did exactly what Gov. Cuomo had encouraged - use fund balance," McGowan told On Board. "But because we did that, the comptroller labeled us as highly stressed." |
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| On Board Online • March 2, 2015 By Cathy Woodruff Facing a plethora of potentially paralyzing policy ultimatums and financial question marks embedded in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's 2015-16 executive budget, state legislators and local school officials are finding ways to move forward with their work, anyhow. Senate Republicans are among the first to ignore, at least for now, a list of conditions the governor said the Legislature would have to meet before he would agree to an education budget. The GOP lawmakers even are choosing to overlook a lack of preliminary state aid runs, which normally form a basis for negotiations and illuminate how a governor's aid proposals would play out in practice. "This year, we are in a unique situation. We don't have school runs. But that's not going to dissuade us," Senate Education Committee Chairman John Flanagan told reporters at a Capitol news conference. "In fact, in a weird way, it helps us to prioritize." When he released his executive budget in January, Cuomo offered lawmakers two budgetary options. |
| On Board Online • March 2, 2015 By Paul Heiser After three years of experience with the state's property tax cap, a statewide advocacy group that includes NYSSBA has issued a report recommending dual ballot measures and other changes designed to improve rules on how school budgets are drafted and approved. The recommendations of the New York State Educational Conference Board (ECB) include changes that voters will see and behind-the-scenes technical adjustments to how districts' tax caps are calculated. The ECB is composed of the seven leading educational organizations that represent key stakeholder groups including school board members, superintendents, principals, teachers and parents. The recommendations apply to school districts outside the five biggest cities in the state (New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers) and do not represent the position of the Conference of Big 5 School Districts, an ECB member. |
| On Board Online • March 2, 2015 Cathy Woodruff The Educational Conference Board, a group that includes NYSSBA and other organizations representing school officials, teachers and parents, has sought clarification from Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders on what baseline state aid figures school districts should use in developing their budgets. While the governor publicly advised using a 1.7 percent projected aid increase, a figure tied to personal income changes and a statutory school aid growth cap, the ECB's Feb. 9 letter pointed to bill language that would bar any increase. The group also noted that the overall statewide increase would not assure every district a 1.7 percent increase and that the state Budget Division projected a higher growth cap of 3.9 percent in October. |
| On Board Online • March 2, 2015 By Kenneth Hilton I guess we'd all like to believe that 12th grade provides the "finishing touches" to K-12 schooling, ensuring that students are successfully prepared for college, meaningful employment and lives as adults. But a lot of grim data suggest that this may not always be the case: Only 56 percent of four-year college students graduate within six years. Only 29 percent of two-year college students earn diplomas or certificates within three years. More than half of all college freshmen must take non-credit, remedial classes, requirements that discourage students and often derail graduation plans. |
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| On Board Online • March 2, 2015 By Cathy Woodruff The frosty air and shamrocks of March are sure signs that it's almost time for kindergarteners in the Greece school district to start learning about Christopher Columbus and the Pilgrims. While the Columbus Day and Thanksgiving holidays of autumn might seem to be more sensible times for those lessons, the 15th Century Italian explorer and Plymouth Colony settlers actually are right on schedule to sail into many kindergarten classrooms around New York this month. It's a change inspired by the Common Core and the concept of "core knowledge," which was conceived at the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia during the 1970s. Rather than building their curriculums around holidays, teachers in early grades are covering topics in sequences designed to build on each other. Using state-developed curriculum modules as guides, teachers in Greece spent the fall and early winter months leading kindergarteners through lessons on topics such as plants, farms, Native Americans, kings and queens, seasons and weather, said Suzanne Pettifer, literacy coordinator for the district. |
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| FOR RELEASE: February 26, 2015 CONTACT: David Albert Gov. Andrew Cuomo unleashed his latest diatribe against New York's public schools today, this time releasing a 200-page report comparing the results of "priority schools" to their state aid allocations. We need to engage in a constructive approach to improving our schools. A Siena Poll released this week pointed to three areas most in need of improvement in our public schools: overcoming poverty, providing adequate education funding, and increasing parental involvement.
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On Board Online • March 2, 2015