EDUCATION VOTERS OF NEW YORK

Joint Legislative Public Hearings on 2010-2011 Executive Budget Proposal

February 2, 2010

Greetings. Thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding the Governor’s Executive Budget.

New York stands at a crossroads. Our quest to fully provide all students with the resources they need to succeed in school and strengthen our economy and communities is in jeopardy. Instead of getting us back on track to educational equity and excellence, the governor’s proposed budget would unconscionably cut education funding by 5%, the largest school-aid cut in two decades, and delay the phase-in of the constitutionally-mandated Foundation Aid for our underresourced districts and most vulnerable students. In last month’s State of the Union address, President Obama identified a world-class education as the best tool to fight poverty. A quality education is also the most effective means to fight economic stagnation and decline, which impact all New Yorkers.

Education Voters strongly opposes the governor’s reckless cuts and encourages members of the legislature to work towards enacting a strong, sensible budget that sustains our investment in our children and a stronger and more prosperous New York.

While some states are slashing their education budgets and cutting school staff and other essential resources, others are maintaining an even keel. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, for one, realizes that an investment in education today will produce great dividends tomorrow. While he has proposed cuts to most state programs, a series of proposed tax revenue initiatives will help maintain education spending at last year’s level. Like New York, his state is grappling with overwhelming fiscal hardship, but its leadership is protecting education funding in order to maintain Massachusetts’ standing as a national model for educational excellence. New York must show the same resolve.

Governor Paterson is attempting to portray education cuts as fiscally sound practice, but we all know that wise investments are the hallmarks of fiscal responsibility. There is no smarter investment than our children’s future. By fulfilling the state’s constitutional obligation to uphold our children’s educational rights, members of the legislature are fulfilling their fiscal responsibility by refusing to gamble away New Yorkers’ tax dollars and future with shortsighted funding cuts.

The Executive Budget errs on two major counts. First, the governor’s proposal would directly result in the loss of essential educational resources, including teachers, staff, and programs. New York children should not have to choose between an art teacher and an English teacher, or between a guidance counselor to help guide them along the path to college or a supportive and enriching after-school program that keeps them on the path to academic and life success. And yet, these are precisely the choices the governor is asking our children to make.

Second, the governor’s proposal would roll back the clock on educational equity and justice. In 2007, the legislature made a valiant and wise stand to ensure all children their constitutional right under CFE by providing the court-mandated funding increases. Due to the subsequent extension of the Foundation Aid phase-in from four to seven years, three additional cohorts of students—hundreds of thousands of New York children—will be deprived of the educational opportunities to which they are entitled. Now, the governor’s budget would extend the phase-in to 10 years, representing six years of denied constitutional rights and millions of students robbed of the basic resources they need to achieve their full potential. Constitutional rights cannot be simply tossed aside or continually delayed, even in tough economic times. Moreover, New York can ill afford to waste even one iota of human potential. We cannot continue to place hundreds of thousands of our least advantaged students in the discard pile; further delays in implementing Foundation Aid would do just that. Yet, with bold leadership and creative budgeting and policymaking, the legislature can ensure that our schools not only weather the economic storm but are equipped with the resources needed to fully develop New York’s most valuable resource—its human capital.

In light of the current budget constraints, Education Voters urges the legislature to reduce spending by identifying and supporting cost-saving measures, enact revenue enhancers, and explore where and how federal stimulus money is being used. We encourage the legislature to explore the regionalization of procurement and other services, develop a plan to consolidate school districts, build and renovate school buildings to make them more efficient, and pressure the Executive and the Division of Budget to reexamine the distribution and use of federal stimulus funding. We recognize that closing the budget gap is no easy task, but let it not be said that when faced with great challenges, our legislature folded on our young people.

Funding is no panacea for our educational challenges. It must be accompanied by sound education reform, and we should constantly seek innovative policies and practices to allocate funding more effectively in order to maximize student achievement. However, adequate funding is the baseline. You courageously stood up to the governor to stave off midyear cuts. Together we won that battle, but now New York’s children are counting on you to go the distance and win the war for high quality educational opportunities for all. Sustaining the state’s investment in our children is not only the moral, constitutional, and economically sound choice—if you stand by New York’s children today, your constituents—current and future—will stand by you.

On behalf of New York’s children, we ask you to avoid following the governor’s path to educational inequity and economic stagnation that would result from funding cuts and further Foundation Aid delays. Instead of balancing the budget on the backs of our children, we urge you to blaze a more sensible trail—one that leads to educational excellence and collective prosperity. New Yorkers are counting on you to shield our children from harm and safeguard their futures as we weather the economic crisis.

Thank you again for your leadership. We look forward to working with you to develop and pass a budget that puts children first.

Equity Symposium Asks: Where Is $100 Billion in Education Aid Going?

States Are Using Education Stimulus Money for Budget Gaps Instead of Equity, Teachers College Study Suggests

States are using federal stimulus money intended to promote innovation and equity reforms in schools to instead plug holes in education budgets ravaged by the economic recession.

That’s the finding of at least one major study that will be presented at “Stimulating Equity? The Impact of the Federal Stimulus Act on Educational Opportunity,” a symposium that will be held at Teachers College, Columbia University on February 8th and 9th.

The event convened by the College’s Campaign for Educational Equity, is the first major national symposium to analyze the impact of The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), which is enabling the U.S. Department of Education to distribute $100 billion to states over the next two years for public schools suffering from the effects of the recession.

The symposium will discuss whether this windfall of federal cash – more than double the Department’s 2009 budget – will improve equity and opportunity for low-income students.

Click here to read more.

For Immediate Release

Parents and Advocates Protest Governor’s $1.4 Billion Cut to Schools On Top of The Broken CFE Promise

Deliver Over 1000 Broken Pencils to Governor Symbolizing Broken CFE Promise

(Albany, NY) The Alliance for Quality Education (AQE), the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE), Citizen Action of New York (CANY), New York City Coalition for Educational Justice (NY-CEJ), and Education Voters of New York called Governor Paterson’s 2010 executive budget a colossal step in the wrong direction. The governor’s budget proposal would slash $1.4 billion in funding from schools and stretch the original four-year CFE phase-in to ten years. This cut is the biggest cut proposal to education in the history of the state of New York. These cuts come on top of the state’s failure to deliver any of the promised CFE funding for the current year.

“Today in 2010, we know that preparing all students for success in college and their career is the educational justice issue of our day, and the Coalition for Educational Justice has a clear proposal for redesigning and expanding the school day that would bring our school system to the 21st century. With the Governor proposing the biggest cut in our state’s history, we would be taking a huge step backwards, that will not only be more expensive later down the road but would instantly hurt our children across the state,” said Gail Gadsden, Parent leader with AQE and CEJ.

“The Governor’s budget would make a record funding cut to our schools.  The Governor has called for a 21st Century knowledge-based economy, which we need, but these cuts would push knowledge to the back of the class.  $1.4 billion in cuts will mean larger class sizes, less programs to get students prepared for college, cutbacks in the arts. The legislature must say no and we are confident they will say no,” said Billy Easton, Executive Director, AQE.

“In 2007, the governor and legislature set out a four year plan to remedy the insufficient and inequitably distributed education resources and provide for the constitutional right to a sound basic education. Instead of making good on that original IOU to our children that was to be paid in full this year, Governor Paterson proposes $1.4 billion dollars in cuts to schools this year and stretching out fulfilling the Campaign for Fiscal Equity promise to 10 years.  This means six more years of insufficient resources which will fall most heavily on the neediest schools and students.  The increase in school spending referred to by the Governor was catch-up money to begin to address chronic deficiencies.  In New York City alone, the sad facts show:  254,603 students attend a school identified as low-performing by the state.  That’s more students than the Houston School District enrolls;  215,278 students did not meet ELA and/or Math standards.  That’s more students than the Philadelphia School District enrolls; According to CFE Maxed Out report, 167,274 students attend overcrowded schools designated as low performing by the state.  That’s more than the Dallas School District enrolls; Class sizes are the largest in the state.  On the key classes needed for a NYS Regents diploma: HS students in classes of 34 or more – 21.6% English; 21.2% Math; 23.4% Science and 24.8% Social Science.  Citywide – more than 25% of Kindergarten students are in classes of 25 or more.  In the middle school years – some of the most challenging years of schooling – more than 80% of 6th, 7th and 8th grade students are in classes of 25 or more.  These facts are mirrored throughout the state.  While the Governor cites high per capita spending for students, averages mask the critical truth that New York has one of the largest gaps in the nation in per capita funding between high and low wealth schools.  In 2005-06, the gap was $2576.  Only fulfilling the CFE promise by equitably distributing funds sufficient to provide the instrumentalities of learning will solve this problem.  New York cannot afford this proposal that condemns another generation of students to an inadequate education,” said Helaine Doran, Deputy Director, Campaign for Fiscal Equity.

Last year, the legislature delivered flat-level school aid payments forcing school districts across the state to cut vital teaching positions and proven educational programs. Due to the size of the governor’s proposed cuts, it is expected that this year even more program and teaching positions would be eliminated.

“Yes, we agree with the Governor, these are indeed some of the hardest economic times many of us have ever lived through.   Even before this current fiscal crisis hit, there were far too many barriers to lifting families out of poverty and too many were struggling to make ends meet.  A quality education has been a life line for many but the reality is that the Governor’s proposed budget will take vital resources from the neediest students.   What is lacking in the Governor’s Executive Budget is a plan to not only address the state’s fiscal reality but also to fully address the resources needed to transform the way we educate every child regardless of race, ethnicity or socio-economic background…  If we are going to recover from the failures of Wall Street and prepare a workforce ready for a knowledge based economy, we must reignite the engines of economic prosperity by providing every child with an excellent public school education,” said Glynda C. Carr, Executive Director of Education Voters of New York.

“The Governor’s ‘Recovery Budget fails to provide the most important ingredient for economic recovery – investment in New Yorkers.  School cuts are not only a huge step backward for our kids — they will also drive our economy even further down. Our children can’t wait ten years for a quality education, and our state can’t afford the economic impact of layoffs and failing schools,” said Karen Scharff, Executive Director, Citizen Action of New York.

AQE has previously endorsed a set of cost savings and revenue alternatives which include; an elimination of the Empire Zone program, bulk purchasing of prescription drugs, and energy saving programs in schools and state agencies. After a full review of the governor’s proposed budget as well as his cost savings package, AQE will issue a new set of cost saving revenue options for the 2010 budget in the coming weeks and call on the legislature to adopt them.

The press conference was one of five press events being held simultaneously across the state including; Buffalo Rochester, Syracuse, Albany and Long Island. In Albany over a thousand broken pencils symbolizing the state’s broken CFE promise to school children were delivered to the governor’s office.

Broken pencils used to protest Paterson education cuts

Posted: Jan 20, 2010 05:53 PM

ALBANY, N.Y. — Advocates dumped thousands of broken pencils during a press conference in Albany’s Legislative Office Building on Wednesday in a protest over Governor Paterson’s plan to cut more than a billion dollars from education in next year’s budget.

The demonstrators said the damaged pencils symbolize the broken promises to children.

The Governor says, in this economy everyone needs to make sacrifices, and New York spends 60% above the national average on each student.

But advocates say children shouldn’t suffer.

“It’s unacceptable in the downturn in the economy that we don’t invest in our future,” said Glynda Carr of Education Voters of New York.

Click here to read the full article.

We look forward to gathering this group again with the addition of participants from across the city when we reveal the outcome of the dialogues in our Citizen’s Blueprint in 2010.

But Governor Paterson is withholding 10% of school funding in his effort to fix the state’s budget. Call Governor Paterson today at 518-474-8390 and tell him that holding our kids hostage is never an option.

The legislature has already rejected the governor’s original plan to cut $686 million from classrooms across the state. Those cuts would have been devastating, eliminating programs and faculty in the middle of the school year.

Over the last month, New Yorkers like you have taken action, and given our elected officials the political will to stand up and reject the governor’s plan. You made phone calls, you emailed the governor, and you sent faxes to your state senator and assembly member. You sent a clear message that cutting school funding is not the right answer to the state’s budget shortfall.

But the work is not over. Governor Paterson is now planning to delay funding to school districts. Education Voters will keep up the fight to ensure that the funds needed to keep our schools open are delivered to local school districts and classrooms. We need your help.

Call the governor today at 518-474-8390 and tell him to send funds to our schools on time and in full. Now is not the time to be holding back on our kids.

• eliminate after-school programs
• lay off teachers
• reorganize classrooms in the middle of the term

Join Education Voters and tell Albany to stop taking resources from our schools!

Click here to take action!

This event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited.  Click here to RSVP

EDUCATION VOTERS OF NEW YORK

Executive Proposed Deficit Reduction Plan

October 26, 2009

Good morning. I am Glynda Carr, Executive Director of Education Voters of New York.  I would like to thank Senator Carl Kruger, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee and other members in attendance this morning for the opportunity to testify regarding the Governor’s proposed Deficit Reduction Plan.

I think we can all agree that education is one of the most important social and economic determinants in the life of an individual.  By all measures – from the well-being of individuals and families to the health of our communities and country – education is the engine of America’s social progress and prosperity.  An educated citizenry can support a participatory democracy, a strong and growing economy, and a vibrant, inclusive society. Regardless of where or to whom a child is born, all American public schools should serve as the launch pad of opportunity.  We must engage and connect that child with the educational resources needed to access and contribute to our country’s vast social, economic, and civic opportunities.

The Executive proposal before us would cut state aid to education by $686 million in the current state and school fiscal year. Of the $686 million in proposed cuts, over half, $350 million, are to high need districts including:

• New York City — $223 million;
• Big 4 cities (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Yonkers) — $30 million;
• high need small cities and suburbs — $56 million; and
• high need rural districts — $41 million.

The Governor’s proposed mid year cuts threaten to eliminate the resources our schools, classrooms and teachers need to effectively prepare students for success.

Governor Paterson recently stated that he believes that New York State is ground zero of the fiscal crisis.  I agree.  But, if we are going to recover from the failures of Wall Street and the collapse of the financial industry, we must re-ignite the engines of economic prosperity.  That means:

• Investing in our future workforce and preparing New York’s young people to compete in the 21^st century knowledge economy
• Protecting vital programs for the most vulnerable New Yorkers
• Preventing layoffs
• Providing the resources need to CUNY and SUNY so that every student who is willing to work hard and wants to attend a post secondary institution can afford to do so
• Defending the commitments we made to CFE, to ensuring that adequate resources are available for every k-12 student in the state
• Developing a Comprehensive Economic Recovery Plan for the State.

Before this current fiscal crisis hit, there were far too many barriers to lifting families out of poverty and too many were struggling to make ends meet.  We were living with crumbling school buildings, shortages of school books, overcrowded classrooms and low performance scores.  To have a stable and thriving economy in the future, we must start in the classrooms in Buffalo and Syracuse, Long Island, Johnstown and New York City.

It is imperative, before we slash the education budget in the middle of the school year, before we cut this well proven path out of poverty and into economic prosperity, that we consider three important factors:

1. Mid year cuts mean double the effect of the reduction and represent approximately a 4.5 percent cut in a six month period.
2. In 2007, the State made a multi-year commitment to providing adequate resources to educate the nearly three million public school children whom the courts had determined were not receiving even a sound basic education.
3. Although the state has a growing budget deficit and there must be a reduction in spending, we need to consider cost saving avenues and potential revenue enhancers as vital alternatives to budget cuts.

Real Solutions Exists

We do not deny that the current fiscal crisis is real and that the state simply is running out of money. The DRP would propose to cut K-16 education and health care in the current year by over $1 billion dollars. The Governor has also proposed disproportionate cuts of $246 million to SUNY and CUNY funding.  These cuts will eliminate the resources necessary to ensure that every New York State student receives a sound basic education and has the opportunity to enter a post secondary institution.

We understand that tough choices will have to be made to close this budget gap and to balance next year’s budget.  But before the Governor and the Legislature decide to close the gap by simply cutting vital resources -let’s pause for a moment.   Education Voters urges the legislature to consider where we can reduce spending by identifying and supporting cost-saving measures, identifying and enacting revenue enhancers, and exploring where and how federal stimulus money is being used.

• NOW is the right time to tap the $1.5 billion “rainy day fund” and use a portion of the funds to offset the budget reduction plan.

• NOW is the right time to invest in building and renovating school buildings that are energy efficient.

• NOW is the time to explore regionalization of procurement and other services and to develop a plan to consolidate school districts.

• NOW is the time to ask tough questions of the Executive and the Division of Budget about how the federal stimulus monies are being used and distributed.

Keeping the Promise

We cannot turn our backs on the gains the state has made in public education reform and funding equity. In a year when the education budget was threaten with deep cuts, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act allowed the State to flat line funding levels in the 2009-2010 budget and delayed the phase-in of CFE funding. The Governor’s proposed Deficit Reduction Plan will unravel the fundamental principles of CFE and defer closing the opportunity and resource gap for children attending historically underfunded schools.

The Executive proposal cuts school aid with the largest percentage of the cuts going to the wealthier districts, giving the poorest districts exponentially smaller cuts.  At first glance, this proposal looks progressive.  But, the fact is that the poorest school districts’ budgets rely heavily on state aid to meet their operational needs and have few or no alternatives to fill budget gaps. They will be forced to lay off personnel and cut programs.

This is unacceptable.  Our students’ dreams, especially the dreams of those with the fewest advantages to start with, cannot be deferred or put on hold while our leaders hide behind claims of fiscal responsibility because they lack political courage to invest in our economy’s future, NOW.  We only have one chance to get this right and budget cuts alone are the wrong approach.

Conclusion

We at Education Voters of New York challenge the Senate and the Assembly to work in concert with Governor Paterson to develop a better plan, a plan that works rather than just one that reacts.  It is time for New York to develop a comprehensive Economic Recovery Plan that includes significant investment in education and a strategy to reshape the way our state educates our children.  We cannot continue to plan from crisis to crisis and cut our way out.   There needs to be a clear road map on how we protect the gains we have made from CFE and to build on the Federal stimulus funds received.

I am inspired by the possibilities and believe that real solutions do exist, because of leaders like you who are committed to ensuring that our children receive their constitutionally mandated sound basic education.   We look forward to the continued dialogue and discussion of innovative strategies to eliminate any cuts to the classroom.

Thank you.

A new player set to enter city education politics tonight
by Maura Walz
GothamSchools.org

A New York non-profit whose political action committee supports critics of mayoral control is making its debut into city education politics tonight. But its strategy is to hold off supporting city candidates this election year and instead spend the fall collecting community input.

The effort kicks off tonight with two “neighborhood dialogue” meetings in Brooklyn and Queens, said Glynda Carr, executive director of Education Voters of New York, a three-year old branch of the national Education Voters of America.

The group has previously supported some of mayoral control’s staunchest opponents in Albany. But Carr said that she aims to launch a public conversation about schools freed of political agendas, including her own. “These neighborhood dialogues aren’t going to be framed,” she said.

Carr said she planned to use the fruits of the fall meetings to map out an agenda for future local campaign work.  If she succeeds, her group could become a key player amid a crop of new lobbying groups directing their dollars with education issues in mind.

In 2008, NY EdPAC, Education Voters of New York’s political action committee, considered candidates’ positions on increased accountability under mayoral control in their criteria for endorsements. According to campaign contribution records, among the list of candidates the group supported in 2008 are Senators Eric Adams, Kevin Parker, Velmanette Montgomery and Ruben Diaz, Sr., four of the eight who voted against mayoral control today. The group gave a total of just over $69,000 to 43 state legislature candidates around New York state in 2008. The group piloted its legislative strategy in New York in 2006 and 2007, supporting the winning campaigns of three candidates in Westchester, Syracuse and Nassau County, Long Island.

Carr has also been a critic of mayoral control and has testified to the State Assembly urging a more autonomous Panel for Educational Policy, the school board under the mayor’s tenure. She is the former chief of staff to State Senator Kevin Parker, a sponsor of the Better Schools Act, which would have removed the mayor’s control over the Panel for Educational Policy and was defeated in July.

Click here to read the full article.