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Winter 2000 (v4#1)

Gov's "Schools 2000" Falls Far Short

Governor Pataki's 2000-01 Executive Budget includes a set of education initiatives referred to as "Schools 2000." Touted in his State of the State message as "a renewed commitment to our children's education," the Governor's January budget proposal includes an overall increase in school aid of $355 million statewide, a 2.8% increase over last year's education budget. Astoundingly, the Governor's budget actually reflects a substantially reduced commitment to education, for if current aid formulas and scheduled program phase-ins were allowed to continue we would see almost a $1.2 billion increase over last year, triple the Governor's proposed increase! "Schools 2000," which focuses on four main areas (school choice, school safety, teacher recruitment and accountability) would be funded by reducing or eliminating other key programs, including class size reduction, Universal Pre-K, Bilingual education and Minor Maintenance. According to the Governor's press release, "Schools 2000 would empower parents, children, and families, create safe schools, ensure that all our children have qualified teachers, and insist that failing schools are held accountable." The reality falls somewhat short of those lofty goals.

"Teachers of Tomorrow"
Probably the most talked-about initiative is Pataki's $25 million "Teachers of Tomorrow" proposal which includes funding for 5,000 scholarships of up to $3,400 per year for prospective teachers who agree to teach "in designated shortage areas." To reduce the number of uncertified teachers, the plan would provide reimbursement of up to $2,000 per year to unlicensed teachers for required course tuition or test preparation workshops. However, the state would foot the bill for only half of the tuition reimbursement cost, with local school districts required to pay the remaining cost. This amounts to a large, unfunded mandate for New York City, where 14% of the teachers are uncertified, whereas the number of uncertified teachers elsewhere in the state is minimal.

The plan also offers "alternative credentialing routes" (to the present Master's degree in education requirement) in an attempt to recruit those with "appropriate life experience" to a second career in the field of teaching. Alternative credentialing has been used to great success in New Jersey, so New York State officials would do well to investigate their program. The Governor also proposes to grant a waiver to retired police officers, firefighters and other public employees willing to teach in shortage areas. These waivers would exempt public employees from the cap on public salaries that can be earned by those already collecting a public pension.

The problem with these "Teachers of Tomorrow" initiatives is that the Governor projects that they will attract approximately 50,000 new teachers over the next ten years, if the programs were to remain in place that long. Unfortunately, projections for the number of new teachers needed by New York City alone exceed 50,000 in the next five years.

Worse yet, two of the Governor's other budget proposals will make it even harder to attract and retain qualified teachers, especially in the Big 5 cities. Once again, Pataki proposes to eliminate the $67.5 million Teacher Support Aid, a salary supplement for teachers in the Big 5 cities where low salaries already impede efforts to recruit good teachers. If he succeeds, New York City and the four other large cities would have only two options: cut teachers' salaries (an impossibility) or find the money in the local budget, which means taking funds away from some other program. The Governor also proposes to eliminate state funding for the 130 teacher centers across the state, which provide needed professional development and other assistance, essential for developing and retaining good teachers.

School Choice and Empowering Parents
Pataki reiterates his support of public school choice, claiming passage of his Charter School legislation has already empowered families of nearly 1,000 students "to decide where and how their children will learn." He proposes to devote $6 million in state funds, including $3.85 million for capital needs, to the Charter School Stimulus Fund to cover start-up costs of charter schools. His described expansion of the program, to include an additional 5 charter schools slated to open in September 2000, would impact on a mere handful of the state’s 3 million plus students. His school choice plan would also allow any student attending a SURR (School Under Registration Review) school, the lowest performing schools in the state, to transfer to another school in the same district.

The Governor further proposes to empower parents by requiring that schools report directly to parents on performance of all students attending that school, in addition to their own child’s performance. New York City public schools already send home a "school report card" in addition to individual student report cards. Pataki also recommends that every school board be required to add a parent representative selected by the PTA as an "ex-officio," or non-voting, member. Lastly, in a move to bolster "family values" the Governor would require Civility, Character and Citizenship Education to instruct children in grades K-12 on "honesty, tolerance, personal responsibility, respect for others, observance of laws and rules, courtesy and dignity." His budget provides state funding of $500,000 to support this program.

School Safety
Several recommendations on school facilities are also lumped under the heading of school safety. Included are: permitting State Building Aid to be used to purchase portable metal detectors and video surveillance cameras; empowering the State Education Commissioner to close unsafe schools in the Big 5 cities (as he can now do in all other districts); requiring pre-approval of New York City facility plans (a practice in the rest of the state); allowing districts to use the State Dormitory Authority’s construction management services; and granting exemption to Wicks Law requirements on all school construction projects.

Greater Accountability?
Governor Pataki has proposed a number of governance changes that he believes will improve school accountability. In the Big 5 cities, Pataki plans to grant control over public schools to the mayor and city council. This reform would be accompanied by a new maintenance of effort provision to ensure minimum levels of local fiscal support for schools. In a bid to preserve taxpayer savings from his STAR property tax relief program, Pataki would place a cap of 4% (or 120% of the prior year’s Consumer Price Index) on annual school spending increases. He would also require disclosure of information prior to school budget votes on how the proposed budget would affect STAR savings.

The Governor is also seeking to curtail the powers of the Board of Regents, by stripping them of unilateral authority to impose regulatory mandates on school districts. At the same time, he is looking to have a greater say in their appointment, a naked attempt to wrest control from the Democratic majority in the legislature. Currently, candidates for the Board of Regents are interviewed by both the Senate and Assembly Education Committees, which nominate candidates for joint election by both houses of the legislature. Since the Assembly outnumbers the Senate, and Democrats are now the majority in the Assembly, it is generally acknowledged that Democrats presently control selection of the Regents. Instead, the Governor is seeking to nominate candidates for the Regents from a list developed by a "blue ribbon panel" for final approval by the legislature. He further seeks authorization to select the Chancellor of the Regents and the Commissioner of Education.

Reaching Higher Standards
In his State of the State message, Pataki proclaimed his strong support for higher standards, "In every aspect of our educational system, we must set the highest standards for student success, and settle for nothing less. We must expect every student to succeed, and we must provide them with every opportunity to do so." However, the tangible support he offers students to meet the Regents’ higher standards is strictly limited. Instead of earmarking funds to help students reach higher standards, he offers an overall increase of $140.7 million in Operating Aid statewide and will allow districts "flexibility" in how they spend it. Instead of providing additional support to low performing districts, he would institute a "set-aside" requiring those districts to devote a portion of their Operating Aid to provide the needed extra services. The Governor also offers an increase of $5 million for after-school programs, bringing total state support to $10 million.

Just as he attempted last year, Governor Pataki would cut the promised expansion of pre-k and class size reduction, programs proven to improve student achievement, in favor of his own, unproven, reading programs. Reading for Results would redirect $40 million of this funding into reading programs scheduled during school breaks. Once again, the Governor wants to eliminate Categorical Reading and Improving Pupil Performance grants that benefit students at many levels and replace it with his Reading 2000 initiative targeted at students in grades 2-4 only.

More Broken LADDER Promises
The Executive budget hits LADDER programs especially hard, slashing nearly $225 million from the previously scheduled allocation. LADDER includes much-needed funding for Universal Pre-Kindergarten, Early Grade Class Size Reduction, Full-Day Kindergarten (for districts that still provide only half-day programs), Minor Maintenance (to repair school facilities) as well as moneys for some "shared services" among the Big 5 cities. The LADDER education initiatives were passed in 1997 as part of a deal to end the protracted budget negotiations that resulted in the latest budget in state history. In essence, the Assembly, led by Democrat Sheldon Silver, was able to win a large investment in education programs for high needs school districts in return for consenting to Governor Pataki’s STAR tax cut program, which primarily benefits affluent school districts. Under the Governor’s proposed 2000-01 budget, he would eliminate altogether the funding for Full-Day Kindergarten ($7 million); Shared Services for the Big 5 ($10 million); and Minor Maintenance Aid ($50 million), a real travesty given the poor condition of much of our school facilities.

Universal Pre-K and Class Size Reduction, the largest LADDER programs in cost as well as potential benefit, slated to be phased-in and expanded each year, would also be seriously curtailed. Universal Pre-K, funded this year at $85 million, would receive an increase of $35 million bringing the total to $120 million next year. However, as originally enacted, the program was scheduled to increase by $140 million next year to a total of $225 million, a net loss of $105 million from the promised funding level. Further, the minimum $2,700 per-child allocation would be reduced to $2,000, a recipe for failure when you consider that the cost of running Pre-K programs in the large cities averages about $3,700 per child.

Governor Pataki and other critics point to the fact that only 99 out of 241 eligible districts initiated pre-k programs in 1999-00. This is not so surprising, when you consider that 1) the lateness of the budget (August) gave them very little planning time, and 2) most of the districts that didn’t apply would only have received funding for 25 or fewer students. More important is the fact that the participating districts contain 90% of the eligible students.

The program to create smaller classes in grades K-3 fares even worse under the Governor’s budget plan. Instead of the $125 million originally scheduled for 2000-01, the Governor would continue funding of the class size reduction program at this year’s level of $75 million, a net loss of $50 million. What’s more, the class size reduction program would serve fewer students next year despite receiving the same amount of funding, due to plans to allow "flexible" use of up to 25% of the funding (for professional development, for example). One rationale given by the Governor’s office for withholding additional state funds for this program is that it is not needed because there’s now Federal funding to reduce class size. However, since the $50 million increase in state funding had already been slated, failure to provide those funds could jeopardize full funding for New York from the Federal class size initiative, which specifically prohibits supplanting planned local support with Federal dollars.

Other Significant Changes
Governor Pataki would raise Building Aid by $210 million to a total of $1.1 billion statewide next year, proclaiming that New York has "one of the most generous building aid programs in the nation." Impressive-sounding, until you find out that Building Aid was scheduled to increase by $428 million next year, and that $1.1 billion is approximately the amount that New York City alone spends on school facilities in a year and it comes nowhere close to meeting the city’s tremendous needs.

On Special Education Reform, the Governor pushes back the clock a year, postponing until 2001-02 financial incentives for including children with disabilities in regular classes when cost projections ballooned from $13 million the first year to almost $80 million. Pataki does include an increase of $119 million, or 6.9%, in funding for public school special education programs (public excess cost aid), however, this is nearly $100 million less than is called for under present law. Private excess cost aid, for disabled students placed in private schools, in contrast, is being cut by $56 million in order to bring costs in line with those in public settings and reduce incentives to refer students to high cost private schools.

Equity Not Addressed
One of the biggest disappointments is that the Governor’s budget makes no effort to direct a greater proportion of state school aid to the neediest districts, leaving in place existing inequities. In fact, as part of his plan to increase Operating Aid by $140.7 million, the Governor would guarantee an increase to all districts, including wealthy ones, from a minimum of 1.25% up to a cap of 2.25% (or 10% of the increase they would have received under the formula, whichever is greater). In particular, Pataki’s cuts to pre-k, kindergarten and class size reduction programs, as well as his failure to invest significant new funding to help students reach higher standards, will disproportionately hurt the neediest districts and students.

The Regents, on the other hand, have proposed some genuine reforms in school aid that would result in a much more equitable funding system. The Regents have created a five-year plan which includes: phasing out the "transition adjustment" (a manipulation that either caps the size of the increase a district can receive or "holds harmless" any district from receiving a cut in aid); adding a regional cost factor (which takes into account the higher costs in areas like New York City, Long Island and Westchester); and directing significantly more aid to high need districts. In fact, these are some of the very reforms sought by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity’s lawsuit against the state (see article on p.12). Unfortunately, neither the Governor nor Legislature seems disposed to follow through on the Regents recommendations, at present, reinforcing the need to persist with the lawsuit in order to get them to change their mind.

Now You See It, Now You Don't: Children Lose In Three-Card Monte Game Of State Aid
Class Size Reduction Has Finally Come to NYC!
Gov's "School 2000" Falls Far Short
Ambitious Plans To Reform State Funding Of Schools Emerge In Albany
The Pluses and Minuses In The Different Plans
Fight For Fair School Funding Moves To Court
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