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ECC Statement on Mayoral Control Extension

6/2/2022

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On Tuesday May 31st, the State legislature released the bill to amend and renew Mayoral control of the city’s school system (A10499/S9459). The bill has some important changes that are responsive to our advocacy efforts, such as enabling CECs to interview a minimum of 3 candidates for superintendency, requiring a CEC representative on the District Leadership Team and adding an elected parent member with a child in a D75 program to every CEC. The bill also extends Mayoral control by two years, rather than four, and tasks the NYS Education Department Commissioner with reviewing and assessing school governance. 


We appreciate tremendously the legislators who communicated with us throughout this process and fought for changes supported by the ECC.  However, we are deeply dismayed by some of the amendments in the bill.  In an effort to be responsive to as many stakeholders as possible, the law seems to have become a hodgepodge of disparate ideas without a cohesive vision for what this system should be.  We share our concerns below. 


Changes to City Board of Education (a.k.a., the Panel for Educational Policy or PEP)
  • Citywide Councils are excluded from electing a representative to the PEP. Citywide Councils were mistakenly left out from this process when the law was amended in 2019.  We have asked for this simple fix for the last three years, yet, instead of making the fix, there will now be five PEP members elected by CECs - one member from each borough - without Citywide Councils. 
  • PEP members will serve one-year terms. This is a terrible idea that will prevent PEP members from developing professionally to become effective policy makers. The annual turn over will create disruptions and instability.  Having all new PEP members every year will likely empower the Chancellor to make decisions without adequate consultation with the PEP. 
  • PEP will have 23 members. This seems unnecessarily large even for the nation’s largest school district.  
  • Only 4 of the 13 Mayoral appointees are required to be parents of children in the public school system. The amended law requires at least one parent who has a child with an Individualized Education Program, one who has a child in a bilingual or English as a Second (sic) Language program and one who has a child in a District 75 program.  We support requiring these representations, but believe the majority of Mayoral appointees should be parents with children in the system.
  • Although PEP members can no longer be removed for voting against the appointing authority’s direction, they can still be removed for “good cause,” a term so undefined that it could mean anything.

Changes to Community District Education Councils (CECs)
  • With the addition of the D75 parent member,  CECs will have 12 members.  Boards that make decisions by a vote normally have an odd number of members to avoid ties.  
  • Every school is now required to have a parent coordinator and principals are required to consult with CECs in hiring of parent coordinators.  Parent coordinators can be important facilitators to parent engagement at the school level and can have a significant impact on parents’ experience with the school system.  However, this particular change came out of the left field.  If a school has an active PA/PTA, then it should be the PA/PTA, with the Title 1 PAC, that is involved in hiring the parent coordinator.  CEC should only be consulted if a school does not have an active PA/PTA.  We also believe it would be more meaningful for the CECs to have a role in hiring of the principals. The law is also unclear what high school principals must do when hiring a parent coordinator since the Citywide Council on High Schools is not mentioned.  
  • There will be two non-voting student members, who must be high school seniors. We welcome the addition of another student member but believe juniors should be eligible to serve. 

Powers & duties of PEP and CECs 
We requested enhancing powers and duties of the PEP and CECs to create more checks and balances.  Unfortunately very little has changed. Here are some changes that were not included in the amended law. 
  • Requiring the Chancellor to seek approval from the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) on policies and initiatives. Most of the controversial decisions in recent years - G&T, admissions, school reopening, AP for All, the Bronx Plan, etc. - did not require a PEP vote.  In fact the PEP was not even consulted before these initiatives and plans were announced. 
  • Requiring the DOE to provide data and information upon request by CCECs and elected officials without going through the FOIL process. CCECs do not always receive data and information in a timely manner and sometimes must resort to submitting a FOIL request which may take over a year. Yet, CCECs are mandated by law to review educational programs and student outcomes and issue reports. 
  • Giving CECs authority to approve or reject proposals on significant changes to school utilization.  PEP now must respond within 30 days if it votes against a CEC resolution on significant changes to school utilization.  However, CECs are not required to pass a resolution on these proposals. 
  • Clarifying school zoning to include school phase-out, closures, grade expansions and grade truncations.  These changes affect school attendance zones and we believe they must be approved by CECs.  

Task Force to develop a democratic alternative to Mayoral control
We are pleased that there will be a process for a thorough review of the school governance.  The law tasks the NYS Education Department Commissioner to review and assess school governance and to contract with an institution of higher education in doing this research.  It is unclear if there is any funding set aside for this purpose.  The Commissioner is also required to hold one hearing per borough to engage the rights holders. 


We hope the Commissioner will create an advisory committee, working with the institution of higher education.  Public hearings are welcome and necessary, but they are rarely the appropriate platform for thoughtful and in-depth dialogue among rights holders to consider and vet ideas.  

​Conclusion
This amendment process illustrated why we needed a task force.  Some of the changes made are not in alignment with the realities of the roles in which we serve. As we feared, legislators ran out of time to have thoughtful and deliberate discussions regarding which immediate tweaks should be implemented to create more checks and balances, and which should be decided after the thorough vetting of a commission.  We will continue to advocate for a better school governance system because this is about our children and the future of our City.

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We need you writing and calling your state legislators!

5/17/2022

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First watch this video to understand why Mayoral control is undemocratic. 
The State legislature is poised to extend Mayoral control for three years. Please send emails and call your legislators today and every day for the next week. Please keep sending letters by clicking here.
After you email, please call your legislators and tell them:
  1. Do not extend Mayoral control for three years (one year is enough)
  2. Give us a Task Force to develop an alternative
You can do this at night and leave a message.
Tweet and tag your legislators. Post on Facebook and Instagram. Tell your friends to take action.  Here is the toolkit.

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G&T or SEM - Fight for Equity

4/24/2022

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On April 14, 2022, the Mayor and the Chancellor released their plan for the Gifted & Talented program. We are deeply disappointed by their lack of commitment to create an equitable and anti-racist school system as evidenced in their willingness to continue segregating students. The Mayor claims he is “expanding equity” and how this new plan will end parents fighting for a small number of seats. The Chancellor says he is moving to “end the era of scarcity” by offering two entry points: Kindergarten and third grade. These declarations ring hollow to the vast majority of families whose children will not be served by the G&T program.


The numbers simply do not support the claim of equity or ending scarcity. There are more than 70,000 students in each elementary grade in NYC. Kindergarten G&T seats of 2,500 amount to about 3% of the Kindergarteners. For third grade, the plan calls for identifying the top 10% of second graders in every school and inviting them to apply. The plan also adds 1,000 seats to the third grade G&T program. If we assume the number of G&T seats is relatively stable as it moves up the grade from Kindergarten, then the total number of G&T seats for third grade will be approximately 3,500 - about 5% of the total third graders and half of eligible students. We want to know how a segregated program serving 5% of the children is equitable.


The DOE press release states the “expansion is the result of the DOE’s engagement with parents and community stakeholders.” Considering the very small number of families served by the G&T program, we are left wondering with whom the DOE engaged. We know who was NOT engaged in the conversation.


Black, brown, immigrant and low income parents have been forced to fight for crumbs for decades. Parents of children with disabilities are not even given crumbs in the current system of segregation. We must not be duped into believing that adding a few more crumbs to a slightly larger pool of historically marginalized students is equity. The ECC supported the School Diversity Advisory Group’s recommendation to implement a School-wide Enrichment Model (see below) to replace the current segregated G&T program. The DOE, under the de Blasio administration, was in the process of developing Brilliant NYC as the new program (the DOE website for Brilliant NYC has been taken down). Yet, the new administration has disregarded this equity work and is rolling back what little progress we have made.

We must continue to fight for equity and advocate for the School-wide Enrichment Model (SEM), which is widely implemented as both an enrichment program used as an alternative to gifted and talented programs and as a magnet theme/enrichment approach for all students. The purpose of the SEM is to develop the strengths and talents of all students.

The SEM provides enriched learning experiences and higher learning standards for all children through three goals:

  • developing talents in all children,
  • providing a broad range of advanced-level enrichment experiences for all students, and
  • providing advanced follow-up opportunities for young people based on their strengths and interests.
The SEM focuses on enrichment for all students through high levels of engagement and the use of enjoyable and challenging learning experiences that are constructed around students’ interests, learning styles, and preferred modes of expression.

Many schools in the City are using this model, either as all day cluster class events, across a whole grade, or on rotating semesters.

If you would like to learn more, watch this SEM presentation (start at 11: 15:00) and read about Ms. Halley Potter's Strategies for School Leaders and Educators. With questions about SEM, you can reach out to Halley at potter@tcf.org
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Contact your state legislators today!!

2/18/2022

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We need to  demand democracy and equity for NYC public schools. We want an end to Mayoral control and inequitable funding for traditional public schools.


We demand the State legislature to:
  1. Take Mayoral control out of the State budget
  2. Begin planning for ending Mayoral control by creating a task force to develop an alternative to Mayoral control of public school governance
  3. Revise funding formulas to more equitably fund traditional public schools, instead of diverting resources to charter schools.
It is critical you reach your legislators before the budget is settled in mid-March! 

Participate in the letter writing campaign here. 



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New York, NY 10013
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