No more education cuts to our schools! our children can't afford them

Over the last few years, public school budgets in New York City have been cut at least four times – and our children are suffering. The results have been sharp increases in class size, and the loss of many valuable afterschool, arts and tutoring programs. In the early grades, classes are now larger than they have been in more than a decade.

The Governor has proposed to cut education by $1.5 billion statewide, on top of last year’s cuts of $1.4 billion. More than half a billion dollars would be slashed from NYC schools. These would amount to the largest education cuts in state history. The mayor has proposed eliminating over 6,000 teaching positions, which would likely increase class sizes to levels not seen in a generation or more.

These education cuts are opposed by 60% of NY state voters. In order to protect our children from more educational damage, please sign a petition now, urging the Governor, the State legislature, the Mayor and Speaker Quinn to adopt the following proposals:

• The state income tax surcharge on the wealthiest New Yorkers should not be allowed to lapse. Even after keeping the surcharge, the wealthiest one percent of NY households would still pay a smaller share of their income in state and local taxes than other New Yorkers. Retaining the surcharge on individuals making more than $200,000 and households over $300,000 would yield an extra $1 billion in state revenues this year, and an extra $5 billion next year – and prevent the need for any cuts to education.

• ·There should be an additional NYC tax surcharge on households earning over $1 million a year. Over the past thirty years, the top NY State income tax rate has been cut in half, and the income distribution in NY State and New York City is now the most unequal in the nation. Millionaires can afford to contribute their fair share, so that no further damage is done to our children’s futures.

Thanks!

Thursday's protests of school closings and the mayor's response

See video below of Thursday's night rally and Panel for Educational Policy meeting at Brooklyn Tech before the mass walkout. More information about the protests and the way the Panel rubber stamped the school closings and charter takeovers at NY1.

The Mayor responded on Friday with comments about how the vocal opposition of parents, teachers, students, and elected officials was "embarassing" and "undemocratic." See my response at the Brooklyn Eagle, Gabe Pressman's column, and the Wall Street Journal.

It is the height of arrogance for Bloomberg to criticize us for being undemocratic when he has treated our schools as his personal fiefdom, to do as he likes without any attention to our priorities, or the damage he is doing to our children.

And what is really embarrassing is the usual spectacle of the Panel for Educational Policy, in which he insists that all of his appointees vote lockstep according to his will, month after month, no matter how destructive and wasteful the proposals are. Their unthinking and unbending behavior is shameful; and rivals the worst excesses of the old Party Congress meetings under the Soviet Union.

In the video below, see students from the closing Metropolitan Corporate Academy singing "the DOE don't care about us"; remarks from Michael Mulgrew of the UFT, State Sen. Tony Avella of Queens, who called for a revolution to take back our schools, and City Council Member Jumaane Williams.

Teaching experience matters!

Even as Mayor Bloomberg, Chancellor Cathie Black and Michelle Rhee are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters.

In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it's ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.

Generally speaking the corporate reformers argue that only the first few years of experience matter, though you can see from these charts from a study by Thomas J. Kane [now at the Gates foundation] Jonah E. Rockoff [DOE consultant] and Douglas O. Staiger reveal that at year five, effectiveness is still going up for all categories other than uncertified teachers. (see charts to the right.)

Of course, most Teach for America recruits are gone by then, which is why their dotted line vanishes at year three.

Actually, there are many studies that show that teaching experience matters, for 15-20 years – with each year in the profession leading to more student gains, especially in reading.

In fact, the importance of experience may be clearer in the teaching profession than any other, as shown in a recent re-analysis of the STAR Tennessee experiment, showing that Kindergarten students had higher achievement and earnings as adults, depending on how long their teachers had been in the profession, with gains for every year up to twenty.

Another study of low-performing, high poverty schools, shows that years of teaching experience at the 2^nd grade level was associated with higher reading achievement, for up to 20 years.

“A teacher who had been teaching at a particular grade level for more than 5 years was positively and significantly associated with increased student achievement (effect size=.27)…grade level experience was sizable compared to race (minority status effect size = -.33) and SES (economically disadvantaged effect size= -.08)….Teachers constantly improved teaching effectiveness until the 21^st year and declined beyond that.”

See also this study of Florida, showing that for 4^th and 5^th grade teachers, "in elementary school reading there may be student achievement returns to as many as 15 years of additional teacher experience."

Actually their graph (to the right) shows gains in reading for up to 30 years!

So when people who claim to care about kids advocate for laying off experienced teachers, don't believe them.

Private schools and well-funded public schools don't have to choose between having experienced teachers and smaller classes, and neither should our public schools.

Bloomberg's double standard

Is the mayor guilty of a double standard, as he defends the performance of the sanitation workers and fire department, whose ability to fulfill their duties were hampered by the blizzard, and yet he continues to blame teachers for conditions out of their control, and is pushing to release the unreliable teacher data reports? Lynne Winderbaum makes the case.

No one should say that our mayor is not understanding of how unique challenges can affect the statistical measurement of one’s job performance. And so it was that I listened to Mayor Bloomberg explain with a bit of impatience and annoyance that the city’s performance in the wake of the snowstorm was not up to par because of a series of unique challenges.

He begged for understanding because, you see, there were a large number of city agencies and personnel involved, there were near white-out conditions, and hundreds of city buses and dozens of ambulances were stuck in the snow.

But the mayor should be aware that all that matters is the outcome, not the difficulties inherent to the job. The data shows that the average response time to structural fires in 2008 was four minutes 33 seconds. The average response time for medical emergencies in 2008 was four minutes 30 seconds. However, in this case, data released today show that the Fire Department had a 3-hour delay in response to critical cases, like heart attacks, and 12-hour delays for non-critical calls. A five alarm fire in Elmhurst raged for 3 hours when firefighters were delayed by the blizzard conditions.

Surely, firemen and EMT’s are to be judged “ineffective” when it comes to a response time so far below the city standard.

Extraordinary challenges notwithstanding, emergency responses to all calls should be within five minutes. It is incumbent on the news organizations, for the sake of our citizens, to FOIL a list of all firemen and EMT’s that were on duty during this time period and to identify them by name in the newspapers. The mere fact that response time data was influenced by so many factors beyond their control, as detailed by the mayor above, is no excuse to fail to reach or exceed the standard of response time expected by the city. It is also unfounded to excuse the longer response times from any engine companies who were impacted by the increased demands created by the closure of firehouses in their neighborhoods.

It is commendable that the FDNY receives the gratitude of the citizenry and the satisfaction of knowing they have saved lives and property. But these things are not measurable as are response times.

Perhaps there should be merit bonuses for the fastest responders to ensure that firefighters show more dedication to their work and our citizens’ welfare. Those who take on the most challenging conditions are no exception. Data is king and the statistics are the only objective way to measure the value of the workers.

It is incomprehensible that in the face of this disappointing data the mayor would excuse FDNY performance by saying, ““And I want them to know that we do appreciate the severity of these conditions they face, and that the bottom line is we are doing everything we possibly can, and pulling every resource from every possible place to meet the unique challenges…”

Oh wait. Nobody wants to privatize the Fire Department or find reason for it to be run by corporate interests who have scant experience improving performance in fire and medical emergencies. Never mind. -- Lynne Winderbaum, retired teacher

Conflict of Interest? That's for the Little People

All pretense aside, Cathie Black's qualifications for the Chancellor's job boil down to the fact that she's a friend of Mike. He wants her real bad. No one else will do. So it's perplexing to say the least that Commissioner Steiner should stack his advisory panel with people whose professional and/or personal connections with Mike or his twin Joel render suspect their ability to voice an independent opinion on Ms. Black. But if there was a plan, it backfired--no waiver from that panel, at least not now. The bad publicity ("the fix is in" was pretty much the consensus) may well have stiffened some members' resolve to at least avoid embarrassment (I'd like to see a serious academic defend the notion that tireless selling of Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, House Beautiful, vel sim. is the "substantial equivalent" of a superintendent's license and a master's degree!). Still, I'm dumbfounded that Commissioner Steiner would pick the panel members without regard to well-established conflict-of-interest rules.

As a member of the Citywide Council of High Schools (CCHS), I can attest from my own experience--both in applying for the position and in seeking candidates for a more recent vacancy--that candidates for CECs and citywide councils are screened carefully and at length to avoid not just actual conflicts of interest, but also the appearance of even the tiniest bit of impropriety. It takes several weeks for DOE’s ethics office to investigate a candidate, and not just because these appointments aren’t a front burner issue for them. They really do investigate. I got not one but two phone calls from someone inquiring whether I receive any kind of compensation for my contributions to this blog (!) and emphasizing I was not to post as a CCHS member. There you have it: parent volunteers for powerless councils are screened more carefully than people charged with advising the Commissioner on whether an obviously unqualified person should nevertheless become NYC’s schools chancellor.

And I also know that DOE takes conflict-of-interest rules for PTAs very seriously—you need to tread carefully if your uncle owns the deli that supplies the bagels for parent breakfasts.

But all these bothersome rules are for the little people only. Let’s not forget His Imperial Highness sets the tone (or, the fish rots from the head, as some might say)—and he sees no conflict of interest in anything he does, including having deputy mayor Patricia Harris run the Bloomberg family foundation. And she didn’t even bother to get a clearance from the Conflict of Interest Board first, as the Daily News reported way back in 2007 (Cathie Black would understand, though—she's all for not asking permission if you already have your mind made up, according to one of her widely-quoted nuggets of business wisdom). And then there are the City Hall staffers who have been cleared by CIB to help with the Bloomberg foundation, using city resources, because it would “ultimately serve city goals.”

Nothing sticks to Teflon Mike and, by extension, to his friends. Though it stinks to high heaven.

Today's press conference re Black nomination; and other events this week

We had a great press conference this afternoon to oppose Cathie Black’s nomination as NYC school chancellor, with a turnout of about 50 parents and teachers, and reporters from nearly all the major news stations and papers.

Civil rights leaders Norman Siegel and Michael Meyers spoke about how the selection by the mayor of such an unqualified individual made in secret violated principles of diversity and transparency and reeked of cronyism.

NYC Council Education chair Robert Jackson, parent leaders Tina Schiller from Manhattan, William McDonald of Queens, Philip DePaolo of Brooklyn, and teachers Julie Cavanagh and Justin Wedes spoke eloquently how the mayor’s choice of someone without any educational experience or credentials is a betrayal of our children.

The Siegel/Meyers letter, signed by more than 100 teachers and parents is posted here; news stories are already up at NY1 and AP/Wall St. Journal, AP photo above. Thanks to all who came!

If you didn’t make it to our event, you have two more chances this week to attend rallies opposing Black’s nomination:

Monday, November 15 at 10:00 AM at Brooklyn Borough Hall Sponsored by Chris Owens, Democratic district leader. For more info, call 718-514-4874/ /chris@owensforchange.com.

Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 4:45 PM in front of Tweed, 52 Chambers Street. For more info, contact William McDonald at whm6363@gmail.com

Please be sure to sign onto our online petition, if you haven’t already, which has already generated more than ten thousand emails to Commissioner Steiner, the Regents, and state legislators. And then follow up with a phone call to Steiner at (518) 474-5844.

Finally, come to the PEP meeting and make your voice heard! Tuesday, Nov. 16 at 5:30 PM at Brooklyn Tech HS; map here. Just think, it’s one of the last chances you'll have to let Joel Klein know how you feel.

WHY FIGHT?

Stunned by the appointment of a friend-of-Mike with no qualifications for the job and resigned to the possibility of her getting it in spite of protests from all corners, some parents have suggested finding ways to work with Ms. Black. They reason that, given Bloomberg's penchant for appointing business people to run things in any event, someone who is tabula rasa on education may be a better bet than someone with a bit of experience since the latter would have instant legitimacy to finish the wrecking job begun by Chancellor Klein.

BUT.....Accepting a pig in a poke because the alternative might be worse is not responsible citizenship. Why is the fight worth fighting no matter what the outcome? Because the issue goes beyond Cathie Black herself—she could be good, she could be bad, who knows? (though from all that’s been made public about her, the odds of her making a good chancellor are pretty long).

It’s about our petty despot simply calling one of his friends for a job on which the future of the city’s children depends.

It’s about the stunning arrogance of presenting someone with no apparent interest in education as the best qualified person to run our schools.

It’s about not even bothering to prep her before the press conference, so that she might at least pretend to have a vision beyond “100 more charter schools” and “technology” in the classroom.

It’s about peddling as self-evident the proposition that a business person supported by educators will make a great chancellor although the converse—an educator supported by business people—is at least equally plausible.

It's about passing off the appointment of a non-educator as necessary to alter the status quo when our schools have been"managed" by non-educators for the past ten years--in reality, that is the "status quo" that needs to be "shaken up."

It’s about reducing education to a business dedicated to the production of a workforce instead of educated citizens who value curiosity, knowledge for its own sake, artistic expression and all that makes life worth living in addition to the technical competence required to hold down a job.

To all this we must say “no.”

If thousands speak up, they can’t be labeled “the disgruntled few.”

PLEASE SIGN BOTH PETITIONS to make your voice heard:

The quick-and-easy KidsPAC petition , which will automatically send letters on your behalf to Commissioner Steiner, the Board of Regents and the entire NYS legislature without you lifting a finger. Of course, you may follow up with a call to Commissioner Steiner's office (518) 474-5844.

The Online Petition that's been getting all the attention in the press because it's growing like wildfire (closing in on 8,000 signatures as of this post).