With the adoption of the controversial Common Core learning standards and increased student evaluation testing, the educational climate in New York State schools has changed considerably in recent years. However, at the Feb. 4 Farmingdale School District Board of Education meeting, it was revealed that those changes might only have been the harbingers of things yet to come.
Superintendent of Schools John Lorentz noted that the New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo reveal of this fiscal year’s executive budget threw a proverbial curveball to school districts when it comes to the possible amount of state aid available.
“At this time of the year, I would normally give a summary of what is included in the governor’s announced executive budget, and what impact it might have on our schools…the news is not always good, but at least it gives us something to work with,” he said. “But this year, the governor is using his executive budget as a political tool to reform education…he has refused to release any information about state aid to school districts unless he gets certain things approved by the legislature.”
The measures the governor wants approved by the state Legislature, Lorentz said, essentially involve an entire overhaul of the evaluation of teachers in the state of New York, enacting far stricter guidelines than ever seen before.
“Essentially, 85 percent of teacher evaluation would be based on state criteria in order for a teacher to be rated as ‘effective;’ 50 percent based on student tests, and 35 percent
based on an evaluation performed by an observer appointed by the state,” he said. “He also wants a change in the tenure system to effectively eliminate it, because teachers would have to get ‘effective’ ratings five consecutive years according to this system. If you thought testing was high-stakes before, you can’t imagine how it will be if this happens.”
Hanging in the balance is the sheer amount of state aid that the governor is offering to dole out. Potentially, it could either be a little or a lot, depending on how circumstances play out, Lorentz said.
“If the governor gets what he wants, he will distribute $1.2 billion of aid to school districts,” he said. “If he doesn’t, it could be as meager as $300 million. It’s a dramatic change…this is what he’s put on the table for bartering, essentially a carrot on a stick.”
Other demands being made by the governor, according to Lorentz, are requirements regarding how teachers can be removed or terminated, an overall increase in the number of charter schools, and the ability of the state to be able to appoint a not-for-profit third party agency to take over school districts deemed as “failing.”
Lorentz voiced his opinion that Governor Cuomo’s teacher evaluation overhaul demands may be politically and perhaps monetarily motivated; however, regardless of the outcome he noted that the Farmingdale School District was nonetheless on solid financial ground in regards to maintaining staff, programs and services. But the future of education in New York,
Lorentz said, is currently a frighteningly unknown entity.
“We’ll be okay from a budget standpoint regardless of what the state does for the next year,” he said. “But if any of these things happen, we’ll have a dramatically different public school system…the criteria that this governor is using to determine what a failing school system is not acceptable from our viewpoint. We don’t have a failing school system, and these changes will damage what public schools are all about.”
Appealing to the local residents in the audience of the meeting, Lorentz asked them to stand together and make their voices heard to Governor Cuomo, noting that the parents who took part in the “Opt-Out” movement to protest increased student evaluation testing succeeded in making a strong statement to lawmakers in the state capital. Together, Lorentz said, the community might be able to achieve similar results this time as well.
“Parents have to weigh in on this,” Lorentz said. “We have to stick together on this so that we can continue to provide the kinds of services that you’re really entrusting us to carry out as the board of education. There are heinous things coming out of Albany these days, things I never thought would happen….things that will not serve our children or our society.”
The first public presentation of the in-progress 2015-‘16 budget of the Farmingdale School District is slated to take place at the board of education’s March 11 meeting.
