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Early Childhood Education: Frozen Funding Leads to Cracks in Foundation
February 7, 2012Early childhood education is the cornerstone of our educational system. With benefits that include higher academic achievement, higher earnings as adults, a more productive civic life, high quality early childhood education is a proven-to-work strategy for all children. Yet, New York State's investment in early childhood programs and specifically in the Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) program has decreased over the years.
No One Wins When Our Children Lose: Key Challenges to the 2012 New York State Budget
February 1, 2012In 2007, New York State made a commitment to finally close the funding gap between rich and poor school districts and to give all students access to the quality education that is their right under the New York State Constitution. This was done as a result of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit. But, this promise of educational opportunity for all remains far from fulfilled. For two years, as a result of the 2007 school funding reform, the state kept its obligation to our students and over $2 billion in new classroom aid was invested in classroom improvements. Over the past two years the state has cut $2.7 billion from our schools and these cuts have widened the educational opportunity gap between wealthy and poor districts. These cuts have come directly out of the classroom, hurting students' educational opportunity by raising class sizes, eliminating over 30,000 positions of teachers and other educators, cutting arts, music, sports, advance placement and career and technical courses, tutoring programs and in some cases reducing kindergarten from full-day to halfday. The 2012-13 Executive budget proposes $805 million more in school funding than was contained in last years' budget. But only $555 million are allocated to restoring cuts because $250 million is diverted to competitive grants. As a result the Executive budget would restore only 1 in 5 of dollars in classroom cuts. Reprogramming the competitive grants into classroom funding would restore 1 in 4 dollars of the classroom cuts as well as restarting New York's commitment to prekindergarten as called for by the Board of Regents. Plain and simply the $805 million is a step in the right direction, but are not adequate. The state legislature needs to redistribute the competitive grant funds as classroom aid and add additional funding to get New York back on track with the promise of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity.
Unequal Opportunity = Unequal Results
January 25, 2011Governor Andrew Cuomo is right: New York State has a dramatic contrast in the quality of education available in different school districts. Nowhere are these lines of contrast clearer than in the Schools In Need of Improvement (SINI). While the majority of our students are in schools with high rates of student success, too many students in SINI schools are not succeeding. Across the state 92% of students in the highest income districts graduate on time (these districts are classified by the State Education Department as Low Need Districts) and 81% in average need schools, while only 57% graduate on time in SINI schools. Every year, the New York State Education Department publishes a list of SINI schools as an accountability measure to make the public aware. But putting out a list is not enough, where is the plan to improve these schools? Governor Cuomo has warned that he plans to make large cuts to education. This is on top of $1.4 billion cuts last year -- the largest cuts in the history of the New York State. Will large cuts two years in a row improve our schools or undermine schools that are succeeding and increase educational inequity?
Race Matters: Impact of the 2010-11 Executive Budget Proposal
March 23, 2010While many New Yorkers of all races enjoy great educational, professional and social success, the majority of people of color in the Empire State remain perilously stranded in the shadows of the American dream. Although both the nation and state are led by accomplished people of color, the overall condition of people of color in New York is distressing, and the current national economic crisis and cuts in government programs only serve to further harm our communities.
Accountability Equals Quality: From Pre-K to Graduating High School
February 1, 2009The move to standards-based education reform created a set of federal and state standards by which student performance is defined in an attempt to create more accountability. The intent of these high-stakes test is to promote accountability and learning. Student success on standardized testing is meant to be a measure of the quality of education and student learning, an assumption that is also not always accurate. Students do better on standardized tests when they have had quality education from the time their academic characters are formed, from the age of three (Perry preschool Study; Abecedarian Study). Students do well when they have high quality teachers that can help them overcome potential obstacles they may face (Illinois experience). Students do well when their teachers, schools, and school districts use methods and techniques that have been proven successful (NYSED). And lastly, students do well when their schools are adequately funded and their teachers well paid. A comprehensive approach to accountability using all of these components has the best chance of closing New York State's achievement gap. This report summarizes laws and programs that have been implemented in other states, which could be used to achieve a more comprehensive accountability system in New York. There are three interrelated parts to the present report. The first presents accountability laws and systems from the states of Maryland, New Jersey, and New York. The second part describes the North Carolina preschool program More at Four, the Abbott Preschool in New Jersey, and the New York Universal Pre-Kindergarten program. The third part describes initiatives to hire and retain high-quality teachers that have been implemented in Illinois.
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