ENGAGE NEW YORK UDPATE - May 2004
Thank you to all who attended the
Engage New York session in your region. As a result, we hope
you will become more involved in letting school leaders, your colleagues,
and your legislative representatives know how important high standards
and accountability are to educational improvement. And, in
turn, how important educational improvement is to the economic success
of New York State.
We would like your feedback. Was
the information provided useful to you? If you left more confused
than enlightened let us know! Where you able to make any contacts
with colleagues or community leaders? If you wrote any letters,
can we share them with others to provide further encouragement to
become engaged?
Business historically as played
an important part in the call for higher standards for all students. As
such standards have been implemented, resistance to measuring student
achievement, and establishing consequences for not meeting standards,
has been growing.
We are at a critical time in education. There
are constant calls to go back to the old ways. We believe we
must stick with the higher standards and assessments and work through
the related issues. Much is happening in New York State and
we want to continue to share information with you that builds on
our Engage New York seminars. This is the first of what will
be regular communications from The Business Council Education Task
Force about what is transpiring on the state policy level regarding
education. The list of task force members and the staff work group
is at the end of this message.
Engage New York's mission is:
To unite New York State's
business community to speak with one voice on promoting public school
reform. And to join with others to help raise the level of
academic achievement of all students in New York State.
To date five Engage New York sessions
have been held. The first was in New York City with the Partnership for New York City, next,
we traveled to the mid-Hudson region to meet with the Greater Southern
Dutchess Chamber of Commerce, then to Syracuse to meet
with the Greater Syracuse Regional Chamber of Commerce. The
last two were in Buffalo and Rochester with
the Buffalo Business Education Alliance and with the Rochester Business
Alliance, respectively.
Regent Robert Johnson spoke at
the New York city session
and provided the audience with an overview of New York State's
experiences with higher standards and how they came to be required
for all students. He strongly urged business to keep articulating
the need for a well-educated workforce.
Commissioner Mills spoke to both
the Engage New York Seminar participants and at the Greater Southern
Dutchess Chamber of Commerce monthly dinner. "Never before
have the issues of education quality and economic vitality been so
close," Mills told the audience.
At the third Engage New York session in Syracuse the
Commissioner opened by exhorting businesses to be vocal about the
opportunities and challenges students will face in order to succeed
in the business world. He drew examples from the advances in
technology illustrated by the Mars mission. He talked about the progress
that was being made, but he emphasized the urgency of and the need
for greater and faster improvement. He also relayed similar
messages in Buffalo and Rochester.
Legislative Update
The chairmen of the Senate and
Assembly Education Committees are considering introducing legislation
which would supercede the policy-making authority of the Board of
Regents by forcing alternatives to the exams.
Whatever their faults, the Regents
exams represent an improvement in core subject matter standards. They
not only help measure a student's command of a subject, but
they also serve to hold teachers and school districts accountable
for classroom performance. There was no such accountability
under the old system that allowed school districts to issue local
diplomas to students who were unable to pass Regents exams. The
local diploma varied from district to district. In some instances,
a local diploma might have reflected hard work on the part of the
student. But in other instances, it might have represented
little more than social promotion.
Now would be a good time to let
the chairs of both committees know that statewide tests measuring
whether or not students have met standards are a key feature of school
improvement that the legislature should not supercede the education
policy making body that they elected.
Education Budget Updates
The Campaign for Fiscal Equity
(CFE) law suit has forced major changes in school financing to be
considered. Below are the most significant recent developments.
The Governor's budget called
for an overall net increase in education aid of $147 million which
would bring state aid to education up to $14.6 billion. $100 million
of this amount is allocated to New York City as a
matching grant.
He also proposed to reserve $325
million of expected revenues from Video Lottery Terminals in anticipation
of reforms related to the State Court of Appeals ruling requiring
the state to ensure (for New York City) that
every child has the opportunity to receive a sound basic education.
Subsequent funds (expected to grow to $2 billion over the next five
years) from an expansion of Video Lottery Terminals will be used
to provide a "sound basic education" to students with
the greatest needs. He also proposed to combine seven
funding categories into flex aid.
The Campaign for Fiscal Equity
(CFE) recently reported that, as a result of its costing out study,
the cost of providing a sound basic education to every public school
student in New York State will
require an additional $7 billion to $9.5 billion of which $3.62 billion
would be needed by New York City.
The Board of Regents have proposed
the consolidation of 28 aid categories into a foundation aid to drive
more aid to needier school districts. They recommend a $6 billion
increase in that aid over seven years.
Standard and Poor's conducted
a Resource Adequacy Study for the State Commission on Education Reform
(Zarb Commission). This study analyzed the spending of better-performing
schools using four different options to identify successful school
districts. Their methodology generated a range of additional costs
of improving education from $2.5 billion to $5.6 billion over the
next five years. The CEF and Zarb Commission have made numerous recommendations
that inform, but do not resolve the education funding discussion.
For more information and commentary on the Zarb Commission report
go to .
No matter how the legislature (or
the courts) change school aid formulas, accountability and high standards
for all students must be kept at the forefront of current and future
education reform discussions. Business is the only voice pushing
for accountability and effectiveness of school reform in conjunction
with education spending.
Members of the Education Task Force
Linda Sanford, IBM, Chairman of the Task Force
William Allyn, Welch Allyn Ventures, LLC
R. Carlos Carballada, M & T
Bank
Robert Catell, KeySpan,
Heidi Naulau, The Aarque Companies and current chairman of The
Business Council Board of Directors
Paul Ganci, CH Energy Group
Andrew Herbert, Ford Motor Company
Ginger Cannon Bailey, Racemark International,
Inc.
Douglas Robinson, Utica National Insurance Group
Companies represented on the Engage
New York work group are IBM, KeySpan, CH Energy Group, Welch Allyn,
The McGraw-Hill Companies, and State Farm.
