EdVANTAGE Blog

In this post:

• Blog posts over the past week (NCLB waivers, An interview with the Commissioner, 2-year School Aid funding)
• Newsday on teacher evaluations
• More on test security
• Governor Cuomo vetoes school district bills
• GOP candidates on education
• “Other” property tax issues Read the rest of this entry »

State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos today announced that John Flanagan will serve as Chair of the Senate Education Committee.

Senator Flanagan, a member of the restored Republican majority, represents most of the northwestern corner of Suffolk County (the Town of Smithtown and portions of Huntington and Brookhaven).

Newsday reports,

“I’m very happy to be given the opportunity; I understand the importance of it,” said Flanagan, ticking off property taxes, mandate relief, school assessments and charter schools as some of his priorities. He also acknowledged that, with New York facing a $10-billion budget shortfall, the committee might be in the position of school-aid freezes or reductions rather than increases.

“I will stick to the principle that we need to incorporate fairness and equity” for all regions in whatever funding decisions the legislature makes, said Flanagan, who led the Corporations, Authorities and Commissions Committee until Democrats took over the chamber in 2009.

Outgoing Chair Suzi Oppenheimer will serve as the ranking (i.e., leading) Democrat on the Committee.

We congratulate Senator Flanagan on his selection and look forward to working with him.

We also thank Senator Oppenheimer for her efforts over the past two years to reduce mandates on schools and to enable wider use of BOCES services.

I was on the statewide Capitol Pressroom radio program last week.  Property tax caps were the scheduled topic but we wound up spending more time on Andrew Cuomo’s education agenda, School Aid, and pending state action on the Education Jobs Fund approved by Congress and President Obama in August.

You can listen here.  My part starts about 25 minutes in and runs 10 minutes.  I was followed by Buffalo superintendent James Williams.

On back-to-back days, the New York Times published articles based on 90 minute interviews with the two major party nominees for Governor in next Tuesday’s election — Democrat Andrew Cuomo and Republican Carl Paladino.

Monday’s article carried the title, “Cuomo Vows Offensive Against Labor Unions.”

“Paladino Threatens Shutdown if Budget Is Late” is the title of today’s article.

The Times also presents audio clips from each interview, including their thoughts on education

As recited below, Mr. Cuomo offers some specific ideas on a new approach to education funding.  He expresses enthusiasm for the incentive approach in the federal Race to the Top program. Read the rest of this entry »

Education has not been getting much attention in the race for Governor this year, except for the fixation on capping property taxes.

Here is a document which recites what the two major party candidates have said about education and related fiscal issues on their websites – paladinoforthepeople.com and andrewcuomo.com.

Democrat Cuomo’s passages are excerpted from his 252-page “New NY Agenda” which can be downloaded here.

Republican Paladino’s items are pulled from the Issues section of his website.

Because Mr. Cuomo’s proposals are more extensive and more detailed, the summary below gives more space to his platform. Read the rest of this entry »

A forthcoming movie promises to stir up education politics across the country when it begins appearing in theaters on September 24.

“Waiting for Superman” is the latest effort from Davis Guggenheim, director of “An Inconvenient Truth,” the film about global climate change that helped Al Gore win both an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize.

New York Magazine has a preview that is worth reading for its insights into national education politics.

I’ll probably write more on this some day soon.

UPDATE:  Here is a comment on the movie from New York State United Teachers.

Property tax caps, deteriorating rigor in Regents Exams, releasing student data for individual teachers, political endorsements… Read the rest of this entry »

New York Post Albany Bureau Chief Fred Dicker writes today,

Tomorrow’s special legislative session will be an all but certain flop because nervous Democrats, eyeing last Tuesday’s suburban voter revolt, are refusing to back Gov. Paterson’s plan to slash school and health-care spending.

He continues,

“If Paterson had a chance of getting the cuts he wanted, that chance ended last Tuesday,” said a prominent Senate Democrat, adding that there is now “widespread fear of defeat next year” among many Democrats in the wake of the stunning election results.

And adds,

“If any of our ‘marginals’ voted for those school cuts they would be dead next November,” said the Senate Democrat, referring to a half-dozen “marginal” Democrats, including two on Long Island, who have been targeted for defeat by Republicans.

Mr. Dicker also reports that support for the cuts in State Assembly may not be as solid as previously suggested:

While Assembly Democrats, unlike their Senate counterparts, have been publicly supportive of Paterson’s efforts, they privately tell a different story.

Insiders said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) is “unwilling” to go along with the size, scope and distribution of Paterson’s proposed school-aid and health-care cuts because he considers them to be too sweeping and out of fear of their impact on suburban Democrats.

For more on the implications of the election see my weekend post, “Election tea leaves.”

Tuesday’s election results are being interpreted as evidence of a “tax revolt” and possible Republican resurgence in New York State.

But an under-analyzed aspect of the election is that Democratic losses in many regions resulted from a steep fall-off in their voter turnout, not a surge in GOP votes. Read the rest of this entry »

Late last week, we received phone calls from superintendents across the state seeking advice on how to handle calls from parents about the Obama Administration’s plans to offer a webcast speech tomorrow (Tuesday, September 8th) by the President to schoolchildren.  Some parents threatened to keep their children out of school if the speech is to be shown.

As the administration promised, the text of the speech was posted on the White House website a day early.  You can read it here.

More on on the speech and the controversy… Read the rest of this entry »