Hundreds of educators, parents and students from Levittown, Wantagh, East Meadow and all over Long Island gathered at Westbury High School March 12 to defend public education.
The crowd, which spilled from the Westbury High School auditorium into the gymnasium, rallied against what they called Governor Andrew Cuomo’s “anti-public education propaganda.” A hot button topic that has been taking New York by storm, the “opt-out policy” has become the number one discussion among concerned parents and teachers, especially on Long Island.
“The Levittown School District does not have an official opt-out policy when it comes to the state tests,” said a representative for Levittown schools.
The opt-out policy refers to Cuomo’s NYS proposed educational reforms in which he is proposing shifting teacher assessment scores to 50 percent solely based on the state assessment results coupled with 35 percent independent evaluators observations and 15 percent direct supervisor observations.
Marie Festa and her family moved to Massapequa in the 1970s, looking for a school district with a strong special education department for her daughter.
“Nowhere can you get a better education than in public school,” said Festa. “Today’s public schools educate the whole child, every child.”
Other parents too, have joined the fight, saying they would stand united with educators.
“When you reduce teachers to a single test score, you’re taking away their ability to teach. And when you do that, our children lose,” said Marianne Adrian, a parent of three young children in the Levittown School District. “Governor Cuomo’s proposal is not only hurting our teachers and schools, but it’s hurting our children. But together we will fight and give our children what they deserve.”
Other parents agree with their school’s policy of not allowing children to opt out of the test, reasoning that they do not want their children to grow up thinking that they can choose to remove themselves from situations.
“If parents want their children to opt out of the third through eighth grade testing, we respect their wishes,” said Charles Murphy, Superintendent of Schools for Island Trees. “I heard some districts require the students to ‘refuse’ at their desks. Again, we respect the parents’ requests and do not ask children to do this.”
Island Trees School district does not participate in the “sit and stare” option either, in which a child may not take the test, but they need to be present at their desk and throughout the duration of the test without any reading or schoolwork materials.
“The district does not put children in that situation,” added Murphy. “Most students stay home during testing, but if the students do report to school, we make sure they are engaged in some other manner.”
Read more about the battle for public education on page 10A.
