Your position on the Mayoral control

Yes

No

Would you support discontinuing Mayoral control of the public school system and replace it with a new system that is neither Mayoral control nor the old school board?

X

If you answered "no" to the above question, would you support working with education stakeholders to amend the existing Education Law to create more checks and balances?

Which of the following changes to the Panel for Education Policy (PEP) would you support? Please check as many as you like.

Yes

No

• A directly elected PEP, instead of the current appointed members?

X

• A reconstituted PEP with a majority not appointed by the Mayor?

X

• Allowing Community Education Councils (CECs) to select parent representatives to the PEP?

X

• Having PEP members serve with set terms, who cannot be fired at will by the Mayor or the other officials who appoint them ?

X

Which of the following measures to ensure that parents and community members have a say in their children's schools would you support? Please check as many as you like.

Yes

No

• Expand the authority of Community Education Councils, including the approval over school closings and co-locations?

X

• Authorize municipal control; i.e., the NYC Council with the power to pass laws regarding schools and educational policy, as they do in other areas?

X

• Provide authority to School Leadership Teams (SLTs) to develop school based budgets and select principals?

X

• Have CEC members elected by all district public school parents, rather than as currently solely by PTA officers?

X

• Support the hiring of a DOE Ombudsperson to investigate and settle parent complaints?

X

In addition to the proposed measures, above, to ensure stronger parent voice and democratic decision making in our public schools, I would propose an examination of processes and practices for school communities to discuss, such as development of meeting norms and common understandings around establishing anti racist spaces.

Parents must be equal partners in decision making. The current system involves an incredibly undemocratic and frustrating situation, in which decisions have been made prior to any public forum. Time and time again, the Panel for Educational Policy has been merely a protest space. We have a top down pyramid structure that needs to be inverted. Issues at the school level need to be raised from the bottom (parents in collaboration with the school) and the role of the Department of Education should be of supporting the communities' needs. When there are issues that span a region, such as a district, parents should have clear avenues of connecting with one another at a local level where they can communicate and have the power to problem solve collectively. Again, the role of the DOE should be of support and collecting information on where patterns are emerging to draw experiences and strategies from different communities. They should not be a centralized policy enforcement agency whose purpose has been to dictate very political and privatized interests.

Mayoral control has been a signature strategy of the privatization agenda. Centralized control is disastrous in maintaining sound public education for our communities. Simply, mayoral control must be abolished.

Would you support:

Yes

No

• Repeal APPR and de-link teacher evaluation to student test scores? (the current moratorium ends in 2019-2020)

X

• Expand the use of computerized state standardized exams?

X

• Create a Commission composed of public school parents, administrators and teachers to create a more fair and meaningful accountability system?

X

• Shorten the number of questions in the state exams while setting a time limit on these exams?

X

• Expand the number of schools that substitute performance assessments for Regents exams?

X

• Make the Regents exams fully optional and no longer required for high school graduation?

X

• Approve a law emphasizing parents' right to refuse the state exams and that the state and the districts must annually communicate this right to parents?

X

• Require that admissions to all high schools, including specialized NYC high schools, cannot be based upon a single standardized exam?

X

• Improve transparency in testing, by requiring the release of all test items after the state exams are given?

X

• Mandate an independent audit of the state exams, including their scoring methodology and alignment with grade-appropriate standards?

X

• Require that the state exams as well as the NYC specialized HS exam be analyzed for gender and racial bias?

X

The issue of accountability feeds into the rhetoric of a privatization agenda. The real questions is: how can we make all of our public schools places where anyone would want to send our children. Accountability based on metrics is based on a market competition system that does not apply to education. To improve schools, we must look to the school community, ask what the issues are and what ways they feel the problems could be solved. Often, the answers are in the school community.

Factors that need to be included in determining how our schools are faring as a system should include:

• Extent of teacher and family collaboration

• Adequate funding and access to resources

• Varying levels of teacher experience

• Class size

• Level of diversity along race, class, special education and ENL

• Developmental appropriateness of pedagogy and cultural competency

• Student engagement

• Level of collaboration and democratic decision making within the school

Satisfaction of all members of the school with these factors

The current standards are not much different than the Common Core standards. There continues to be concerns about the early childhood standards which require kindergartners to be reading at a level that was once expected for first graders. Early childhood experts understand that forcing children to read before they are ready fosters disengagement. As a special education teacher of seventeen years in the NYC department of education, these standards, along with funding formulas that have decreased our ability to adequately support our students, have had a negative impact on teaching and learning.

The current accountability system that is attached to the system of high stakes testing linked to these standards has meant that teachers are forced away from teaching to the student. Instead, we are forced to teach to the standards and to the tests. This is educational malpractice. Teachers and related service providers need to be able to do their jobs.

The role of state standards once served as a framework for educators across a large state. Developed by educators (not under the influence of outside interests as they are now), they helped inform certain content and skills; however, the Common Core and the new standards have a decidedly different function. It has worn down the professional nature of a teachers' work and narrowed the ability for many schools to respond to the emergent curriculums that come from the students themselves. Now, it is the norm to hear that teachers have had to abandon student led inquiries because of the pressure to cover more ELA and math. This is a huge disservice to the the students and our ability to foster independent, critical thinkers. What we need is a vision that debunks the accountability rhetoric and builds on the collective expertise of educators in New York.

More specifically would you:

Yes

No

• Support full funding of schools at originally agreed upon CFE levels?

X

• Strengthen the Contracts for Excellence law, to ensure that DOE follows through on its obligations to reduce class size in all grades?

X

• Require that the state and NYC reduce class size particularly in struggling schools?

X

Currently, most schools are unable to adhere to the basic standards for arts and physical education as outlined by the state. Schools need to be able to return to the funding formula prior to Fair Student Funding. Schools once received separate allocation of funding for staffing because of contractual salary steps. This ensured that there was enough funding for the staff necessary to fulfill those mandated positions, services and programs. The other funding line was for building operations and materials.

Schools should be able to have a process for identifying the basic needs and requirements for programming, develop with transparency the necessary budget and then be given the amount needed. One of the DOE's single largest expenditure is on special education lawsuits. Outside consultants and contractors also take up a large percentage of the budget. Because budgeting decisions are centralized, there is gross inefficiency and wasteful spending. Understanding that school communities can identify their own needs eliminates the likelihood of special education compliance and other building operation issues. An audit is needed but it takes the department of education much too long to release its internal budgeting- this needs to change and greater transparency, I suspect, will reveal that the money is there but it is misspent. In addition, organizing school communities to demand the CFE funding is absolutely necessary and dire.

Joel Klein, under Bloomberg, eliminated this funding formula as part of a lean production model. The current Fair Student Funding formula does not account for teachers contractual salary steps and thereby disincentivizes or makes it impossible to retain more experienced staff.

A leadership academy principal once boasted to me that she should get two new teachers for the cost of the one experienced teacher. The funding formula, as I stated above, needs to return to one that respects our contract and salary steps based on experience. Studies have shown conclusively that, besides, small class sizes, teacher experience is a major in-school factor that impacts student outcomes.

Teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve are overwhelmingly mid to late career educators who've fallen victim to the current lean production system of funding. They are the first to get squeezed out of schools where student numbers are falling (due to the inaccurate use of test based accountability) and they are the first to get targeted by administrators pressured to adhere to extremely tight budgets. If we are to maintain an experienced and high quality teaching force, we must get to the root of the problem and that is the current accountability system under the privatization agenda.

In district one, where I teach, our community education council worked with people who have done extensive research and programming in North Carolina around Controlled Choice models. The premise of this model is that ALL schools are where we want to send our students to. https://cecdistrictone.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/michael-alves-diversity-conscious-choice-based-student-assignments.pdf

The resistance to this program must be addressed, however. The reality is that we are in a highly competitive school placement system that needs to be completely shaken. Schools are inequitably funded and systemically under resourced. The focus of schools, based on a high pressure climate impacts the ability for schools to focus on student accountability/compliance rather than on student engagement.

The answers to desegregation are rooted in a history of systemic and institutionalized racism and inequity that need to be brought to the forefront, confronted as a community and only then, can we truly work to dismantle segregation.

As a special education teacher, I can attest to the increasing stories by colleagues who are confronted with overwhelming caseloads, as well as, lack of funding because of Fair Student Funding. Again, the answers can be resolved by returning to school based decision making. Schools can identify their own special education needs. Because we have little ability to advocate for necessary funding to acquire the necessary related service providers, based on the current formula, some schools have resorted to changing mandates in order to stay in compliance. This is unacceptable and schools should not be forced to do this. Instead, funding should be based on the needs in the school instead of funds being spent on the numerous special education lawsuits!

Do you support any of the following measures? Please check all that apply.

Yes

No

• Require the city annually release transparent needs assessment for new school capacity that takes into account current overcrowding, loss of seats through TCU removal, lapsed leases and other causes, and updated enrollment projections?

X

• Require that developers provide space for schools in overcrowded areas or pay "impact" fees into a fund for school construction?

X

Would you:

Yes

No

• Support the continued expansion of charter schools by raising the cap on charters?

X

• Support repealing the law requiring that NYC pay for charter school facilities or provide them with space inside DOE buildings?

X

• Strengthen the 2010 charter law to require that before charters are renewed or allowed to replicate, they must show they've actually enrolled comparable numbers of high needs students as in their districts, i.e. ELLs, SWDs and free lunch students, not merely that they've made an "effort" to do so?

X

• Require that the State Education Department and/or SUNY post data for every charter school's suspension, enrollment and attrition rates, including for students in each of the high-needs categories?

X

• Require that charter schools and Charter Management Organizations be fully subject to open meetings law and post their board meeting times and locations in advance, as well as board minutes, budgets etc. ?

X

• Oppose the Education Investment Tax Credit bill, which would award tax credits to donors who give to private and parochial schools?

X

• Amend the charter law to include a citizen right of action to ensure charter schools are complying with all the provisions cited above?

X

• Enable the state and./or city comptroller to carry out performance audits on NYC charter schools?

X

The PEP, the city government and the DOE should not have mayoral control and full rights to enter into any contracts. The DOEs role should be to conduct a needs assessment through the network of districts and schools. Based on those needs assessments, a system of problem solving and delivery of services should be collaborated on at the district/school level.

There needs to be a complete halt to all new/proposed charter schools, and systems for oversight and transparency need to be in place.

Which of the following measures to decrease the influence of private interests would you support?

Yes

No

• Close the LLC loophole, which allows large donors to circumvent contribution limits and disclosure requirements?

X

• Implement public financing for state elections, including matching funds for candidates and lower contribution limits, with even lower limits for corporations and individuals engaged in business with the state?

X

• Limit legislators' outside income to 15% of total income while raising their salaries to more reasonable levels?

X

• Require more detailed financial disclosure on contributors from legislators?

X

Would you support:

Yes

No

• Require that any classroom app or computer program require parent consent before a child's personal data can be collected and shared with any organization or company, including data pertaining to behavioral conduct, disabilities or other sensitive information?

X

• Require that information be provided to parents before their children's personal data is collected and shared, including the types of personal data collected, the security provisions employed to protect against breaches, and citing which other companies, service providers, or other third parties will be given access to this data?

X

• Prevent the state, districts or schools from providing access to the personal data of public school families or students to charter schools for marketing or other purposes without the prior consent of parents?

X

As a public school teacher, I have worked with other parents and teachers, at the grassroots level to organize informational and strategizing forums. We acknowledge that much of what has rolled out has been do to the lack of information, feelings of division and fear that have taken over many of our school communities. It has been my goal to help develop localized networks of empowerment through information gathering, organizing of communities to combat authoritative administrators, high stakes testing, school closures/colocations, etc. As a teacher, we formed a caucus within our union (which has gone along with many of the policies that have led us to where we are today), and have connected with teacher groups such as NYCORE and Teachers Unite. I have also been a parent member of Change the Stakes and NYCOPTOUT, as well as, organizing at the school level in various districts across the city. In 2015, I testified before the U.S. Health Education Labor and Pensions committee on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, testing and accountability. I spoke out against the privatization strategies and crippling underfunding. I will continue to organize for a more democratic system in our city and state.

As stated, I've worked alongside parents to fight against high stakes standardized testing, colocations, school closures and in advocating for greater democracy. I have spoken out at community education council and panel for educational policy meetings.

The role of the Lt. Governor is to preside over the senate. I will work to bring constituents to the space to make transparent the influences that take hold of each of our elected officials. Private corporate interests have in educational policy and there is no reason our elected officials should be paid to convey those interests over the interests of their constituents who live and send their children to the schools they represent.

The top educational priorities, to this end will involve democratizing our senate and to repeal the reign of horrific educational policies under Cuomo.

Yes

No

Would you agree for a member of our group to interview you in person, if we have follow up questions?

X