UPDATED: C4E round 2

Posted by Tanner Kroeger at 9:00 AM

The DOE has set dates for a rapid second round of Contracts for Excellence (C4E) public hearings, where parents, community leaders and advocates can speak out on C4E funding, which by law must go to students with the greatest needs, particularly students living in poverty and English Language Learners (ELLs).

Chancellor Joel Klein's initial push to persuade Albany to redirect portions of C4E money incensed advocacy groups, including the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which stresses that C4E funds are meant to support and not replace city spending. But since the forceful resolution of the 2008-09 schools budget, the $63 million once in question is now budgeted "entirely within the mandates" of the law, according to the DOE.

This second round will take up school-based plans for spending developed by principals and school leadership teams. DOE sources say revised proposals will post to the DOE website next week; we'll let you know when the links are live, so you can see what's on deck at your child's school.

The second round is scheduled as follows:
* Staten Island on Tuesday, July 29
* Queens on Tuesday, July 29
* Bronx on Wednesday, July 30
* Brooklyn on Wednesday, July 30
* Manhattan on Wednesday, July 30

Got any questions? Let us know.

Budget restores cuts, primes city for C4E debate

Posted by Tanner Kroeger at 11:25 AM

The City Council agreed with the mayor on a $59.1 billion budget last night that restores $129 million in proposed education cuts. The agreement comes days away from the July 1 deadline. The teacher’s union, which had been vocal in its opposition to proposed budget cuts, applauded the agreement.

“I’m very proud of the education community,” said Sarah Morgridge, of city council education committee chair Robert Jackson’s office. “People moved beyond their own school. They stood together and looked at the bigger picture.”

On the funding front, many will now turn their attention to Contracts for Excellence (C4E). Morgridge said she wonders if Bloomberg et al are posed to push City Council and the state “to take the strings off C4E funding.” C4E funding is the fruit of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) settlement with the state, and therefore, protected by law.

With the city's budget now on the books, keep track of the C4E debate with our calendar, and, of course, this blog.

MORE BREAKING NEWS: State restores money to NYC schools

Posted by Philissa at 6:16 PM

After months of bad budget news from both the state and the city, here's a big piece of excellent news: the State Assembly just passed a budget that restores all of the cuts the state had made to the city's schools!

The city's schools are now set to receive a $643 million budget increase as part of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity settlement; previously, Governor Spitzer announced he would reduce that increase by $350 million. The restoration of aid, which comes after months of intense lobbying and protest, should let principals who are deciding which services to eliminate breathe a little easier. But Mayor Bloomberg's cuts, which could amount to as much as 8 percent of next year's budget, still stand.

What does the governor's resignation mean for our schools?

Posted by Philissa at 12:37 PM

As the excitement of Governor Spitzer's resignation wanes and the state prepares for next week's leadership change, we can start to think about the practical implications of the leadership shakeup upon the city's schools. Upon taking office in January 2007, Spitzer promised to equalize funding disparities statewide in accordance with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, and last April, the state legislature approved the budget he proposed, which included a $7 billion increase in school aid over five years, of which $5.4 billion would go to New York City. Recently, citing budget woes, Spitzer delayed the payment schedule, reducing the amount of money going to the schools next year.

Now, his departure could complicate the battle to win back state and city school funding -- or at least change its tone. Parents and advocates are planning to take to the steps of City Hall next Wednesday to demand that the mayor and governor restore the funding they promised to the city's schools -- but the governor who made the promise now will not be the same one who must decide whether to keep it.

Instead, that decision will fall to David Paterson, who will become governor on Monday afternoon, so it's good news that Paterson has supported the Campaign for Fiscal Equity since his Harlem state senator days. In addition to supporting equitable school funding, Paterson also has a reputation for championing the rights of the physically disabled; he has been legally blind since childhood. And charter advocates who were thrilled by Spitzer's lifting of the cap on charter schools will be pleased to note that Paterson is a fan of school choice.

New coalition asks state and mayor to keep their promises to NYC's schools

Posted by Philissa at 5:19 PM

Photo by Philissa Cramer/Insideschools

Everyone who's anyone in the fight to improve the city's schools stood on the steps of City Hall this afternoon for a press conference announcing the creation of the "Keep the Promises" Coalition. The coalition of teachers, principals, advocates, elected officials, and community groups, formed during an emergency meeting held Thursday in response to the mayor's mid-year budget cuts, is calling for state lawmakers as well as the mayor to follow through on their promises to fund the city's public schools at the level agreed to in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit.

CFE Executive Director Geri Palast explained today how the state agreed to pay $2.35 billion to the city's schools in four years and how the mayor committed $2.2 billion to match. Now that times are tough in Albany, however, the state reduced the amount it plans to pay the city in the first year of the deal, and the mayor not only reduced schools' budgets for next year but took money back from them for this year as well, forcing principals to cut after school programs, tutoring, and other services.

"This is ridiculous," said the UFT's Randi Weingarten today. "At the drop of the Dow, kids become the last priority again." The coalition plans to hold a larger rally sometime in the near future.

Slashing schools budget, Bloomberg shows he doesn't get it

Posted by Philissa at 7:09 AM

The Campaign for Fiscal Equity ruling this summer raised our hopes that the city's schools would finally receive equitable and more adequate funding, but it's turning out not to be quite the banner year for school funding that some had hoped. First, Governor Spitzer reduced the amount of new money flowing to the city's schools. Now, Mayor Bloomberg has proposed a $324 million reduction in the city's education budget, representing a 1.3 percent cut.

According to the Post, Bloomberg sees the cuts as an inducement for principals to spend more efficiently. Speaking as the business leader who amassed a fortune of nearly $12 billion (or $324 million, 37 times), Bloomberg said,

"I'm sorry. You can always cut 1.3 percent. In fact, it's healthy to go and say let's cut a little bit and force the principals and the teachers and the administrators to say, 'Is this program worth it?'"

Bloomberg's sentiment is, of course, offensive to principals and teachers and administrators who are struggling to provide high-quality educations under difficult circumstances and who certainly don't think anything they're doing is worthless (except maybe confiscating cell phones and administering standardized tests under DOE orders). And more than that, it's offensive to children for whom every art class, field trip, and ounce of enrichment means something, even if those expenditures don't always immediately translate into improved "performance."

Elected leaders often have to make difficult decisions that adversely affect their constituents. We understand. But they don't have to sound happy about it.

State reducing amount of new money to city's schools

Posted by Philissa at 12:02 PM

Speaking of scaling down big plans, it looks like the state will be giving the city's schools $100 million less this year than originally planned in new money. Citing budget constraints, the state is backing down on the amount of money, secured as a result of the 13-year Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, awarded to the city's schools. Yesterday at the middle school equity rally, CFE Director Geri Palast said, "Committed funding increases for education must be immunized from claims of tight budgets and economic downturns." Unfortunately for kids in New York City and other communities around the state, that immunity doesn't exist.

Parents: DOE's spending plan in "bad faith"

Posted by Philissa at 2:09 PM

Above: Parents at the press conference demonstrate the minor effect of reducing class size by less than one kid per class. Philissa Cramer/Insideschools.org

At this morning's press conference on the steps of City Hall, Robert Jackson, chair of the City Council's education committee, and small class size advocates railed against the DOE's "bad faith effort" to reduce class size, as outlined in the city's proposed spending plan. They also took aim at the DOE's "lack of transparency" with the hard numbers behind this initiative and others; in particular, they noted that it's unclear just how many of the 1,300 new teachers the DOE says it is hiring will have their own classrooms. Here are some sound bites from the press conference:

Jackson: "We said, where's the rest of the plan? ... You question [DOE officials], and most of the time they will not come up with answers. ... There's so much lack of transparency, I cannot tell [what's true] as chair of the education committee."

Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters: "We asked [DOE officials] how many new general education classes will there be? They couldn't tell us."

Noreen Connell of the Educational Priorities Panel: "What is the advantage of this bad faith effort? What can be gained by not reducing class size?"

Several people who spoke also decried the mid-summer timeline for responding to the DOE's spending plan, which could prevent people from being able to get information quickly and weigh in with their feedback. You can give feedback on the plan at five public hearings on the Contracts for Excellence this week. See the Insideschools calendar for details.

BREAKING NEWS: CFE press conference Sunday

Posted by Philissa at 6:45 PM

City Council Education Committee Chair Robert Jackson will be holding a press conference on the steps of City Hall at 11:30 a.m. Sunday to address the DOE's proposal for how to spend the long-awaited Campaign for Fiscal Equity money. Jackson was an original plaintiff in the case. According to the NYC Public School Parents blog, Jackson will be joined by representatives from a variety of other educational organizations, and all parents and children are welcome. Map

Does more state money really mean more accountability?

Posted by Unknown at 3:39 PM

Elizabeth Green at the New York Sun reports today about the City's use of the upcoming dramatic increase in state education funding, which are supposed to be used in accordance with Governor Spitzer's "Contract for Excellence" initiative. (For more on the Campaign for Fiscal Equity's lawsuit behind the increase and the details of the Contract for Excellence, see Green's article or the recent Insideschools piece on the parent letter to the Board of Regents.)

The city will see an increase of about $700 million for the 2007-2008 school year, and, in principle, this money must be spent on one of the five priorities outlined in Spitzer's Contract for Excellence, including reducing class size, providing after-school programs, and lengthening the school year. However, there are a number of loopholes that allow the money to be used for other purposes, such as charter schools and "experimental programs."

Green writes:

The state had reported in April that $317 million of the new funds would be governed by Mr. Spitzer's accountability plan, called the Contract for Excellence. But new numbers released Thursday will likely leave just $228 million to be governed by the contract's restrictions, a city spokeswoman, Debra Wexler, said.

Some are disappointed with this change, including Michael Rebell, one of the attorneys who brought the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, Green reports.

For an alternative view, check out the dissent by Joe Williams on the Dems for Ed Reform blog.