FOR RELEASE: June 10, 2024
The New York State Legislature valued the voices of local school leaders in a number of important bills that were passed this year. We would highlight four bills dealing with schools that passed this legislative session that will improve public education, if signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
- School representation on IDAs. The Legislature would require each Industrial Development Agency (IDA) board to have representation from at least one school board member or superintendent, as well as require representation from at least one local labor organization. This representation is appropriate because IDAs have the power to exempt businesses from paying local school taxes by negotiating PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes). S.4040B (Mayer)/A.7532B (Solages)
- Local control of teacher evaluations. Legislation would return the responsibility for designing evaluation criteria to local school districts and BOCES, halting a mandate to use a state system that requires student test scores to be a factor in evaluation ratings. Districts and BOCES will have until 2032 to create local evaluation systems. S.9054 (Mayer)/A.9849 (Benedetto)
- Updating civil service exam content. The Legislature would require the state Department of Civil Service to review and update the questions contained within civil service exams no less than every five years. This will help align exams to job requirements that evolve over time. S.8551 (Jackson)/A.9349 (Pheffer Amato)
- Useful life of electric buses. Instead of providing transportation aid for school districts that purchase or lease zero-emission buses over 12 years, aid would be provided over eight years under this legislation. This would be a more realistic timeframe and would help districts fulfill a state mandate to transition to zero-emission buses by 2035. S.9292A (Mayer)/A.9238A (Woerner)
NYSSBA will ask the governor to veto other bills that would lead to unnecessary costs or burdens for school districts. Finally, NYSSBA and local school boards are looking forward to contributing to a re-evaluation of the state’s method of calculating Foundation Aid. The study of the Foundation Aid formula was authorized when the state budget was passed in April. See NYSSBA’s news release about the budget here.