Kensington Educators, Parents & Students Slam Governor Cuomo’s Proposed Education Budget & Reforms

Clasping their hands together, educators, parents and students formed a human shield outside PS 130 (70 Ocean Parkway) this morning to send a message to Governor Andrew Cuomo: they are standing strong in the face of his proposed education reforms, which teachers across the state are slamming for

“We need to make sure our voices are heard,”PS 130 Principal Maria Nunziata told a cheering crowd that wrapped around the front of the school’s building around 8am Thursday morning.

PS 130 joined schools across the city that are protesting Cuomo’s proposals today, including PS 217 in Ditmas Park, PS 230 in Kensington, PS 295 in South Slope, and many others. The protests were organized by Class Size Matters, NYS Allies for Public Education, and the Alliance for Quality Education.

The governor announced in January a major overhaul of the state’s education policy,which need approval from the state legislature to be implemented, including significantly increasing the weight of students’ standardized test scores in teacher evaluations and boosting the number of charter schools in New York.

“Our education system needs dramatic reform, and it has for years,” Cuomo said during January’s address. “This is the year to roll up our sleeves and take on the dramatic challenge that has eluded us for so many years and for so many reasons.”

The governor also announced a $1.1 billion increase in state education funding, which is far less than what groups like the United Federation of Teachers and the Alliance for Quality Education say is needed. Cuomo’s numbers are not final – the budget needs to be voted on by the Assembly and state Senate, and lawmakers are hoping to reach a deal by the April 1 deadline.

Additionally, the Alliance for Quality Education recently called on Cuomo to also disburse billions of dollars it says is owed to the city’s public schools.  The Alliance for Quality Education issued a document saying that “Cuomo’s chronic cuts to education and his noncompliance with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity” lawsuit  has resulted in the state owing about $2.5 billion to the city’s public education system – an average of about $2,667 to every student in the city’s public education system.

“We are a Title 1 school that would be directed impacted by Cuomo not giving back to the New York City public schools the funding that’s so necessary,” Nunziata told us in an interview today. “We are a 94 percent Title 1 school – 94 percent of our students are below poverty level, and they need state assistance.”

Teachers at today’s rally held particular vitriol for the governor’s plan to base 50 percent of teacher evaluations on students’ standardized test scores – currently only 20 percent of the evaluations are tied to the test results.

“Only 15 percent would based on what our actual boss has observed,” Grace Loew, who teaches first and second grade at PS 130, said of the proposed reforms ” … I’m all for accountability, but we need a more fair evaluation system.”

Dawn Pagliaro-Newman, a third- and fourth-grade teachers at PS 130, said teachers have been outraged over the fact that Cuomo is also calling for  an assessment by an “independent evaluator” to play a large role in a teacher’s evaluation.

“This is an evaluator who’d come one time – they wouldn’t know the school; they wouldn’t know our staff,” Pagliaro-Newman said.

Parents echoed many of these concerns.

“I got involved with this because I’m angry that Governor Cuomo is holding our public school budgets hostage and pushing a high stakes testing agenda,” said neighbor and PS 130 parent Meema Spadola. “The things I value about my son’s school– encouraging learning through inquiry, a diverse student population, a focus on social-emotional learning– aren’t reflected in tests. And holding back the more than $2 billion that is due NYC public schools is in direct opposition to the Campaign for Fiscal Equity decision. PS 130 is owed over $1.7 million!”

According to the Alliance for Quality Education, the state owes PS 130 $1,720,160.73 because of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit. To see how much the AQE says your school is owed, you can go here.

Legislators too have joined the rallying cry against Cuomo’s education budget – in our area, Assemblyman Jim Brennan launched a petition calling on the governor to amend his proposal.

In the petition, Brennan wrote:

The New York City public school system needs and deserves increases in state aid for education to further improve the schools,” Brennan wrote in the petition. “Class sizes should be reduced, after-school programs expanded, and enrichment programs in academics, the arts, sports, health, and other services should be strengthened. The State government has still not addressed the Campaign for Fiscal Equity court decision, which said New York City schools and other school systems are not adequately funded, and the State should add $2.2 billion in funding statewide to the schools to make progress on this vital concern.

Instead of recognizing these basic needs, your budget provides no increase to New York City schools unless the legislature approves increasing the use of test scores to fire teachers, principals, and close schools, and allows tens of thousands more children to be diverted from the public schools by adding 100 more charter schools. These proposals will damage the school system by demoralizing staff, students, and parents, and destabilize schools as more families leave.

If you’d like to add your voice to the protest, you can sign Brennan’s petition, email Governor Cuomo at gov.cuomo@chamber.state.ny.us, and add your name to the New York Teacher’s Letter.