Teachers unions and school officials have answered Gov. Cuomo’s pro posed cut of $1.5 billion year-over- year in state school aid with one doomsday scenario after another.
No matter that Cuomo put the cut in context: It’s less than 3 percent of the $53 billion spent by New York schools annually — and school districts across the state have $1.2 billion in reserves, as well as hundreds of millions in unspent federal dollars.
Also, the proposed cutback pales in comparison with the $7 billion increase in state support for public schools over the last decade.
But the debate about education shouldn’t even be about money at this point.
Despite billions in added spending and considerable talk of reform and higher standards, the number of students left in bad schools hasn’t changed much. That’s because money isn’t the answer and because most of the reforms are either too small or have been suffocated by union obstacles (like the 150-page master union contract in New York City).
After all this spending, literally hundreds of thousands of students are enrolled in district schools to which no politician would ever send his or her own children or grandchildren.
Finding a way to provide high-quality schooling for these children — now, not 20 years from now — is the central educational issue of our day.
What should be done?
First, clear away obstacles to the growth of charter schools. More than 40,000 students remain on charter waiting lists around the state, yet bureaucratic and political obstacles have started to slow charter-school growth.
For example, the process for siting a charter school in New York City is becoming Kafkaesque. Just witness the travails faced by two high-performing charter networks — Success Charter Network and Public Prep.
A fast-track process — with set deadlines — must be instituted for locating charter schools in available public space.
Second, empower parents who want a private or religious education for their children to make that choice. Moving children from overcrowded district schools to lower-cost private schools could save state and local school districts hundreds of millions of dollars in averted expenses. (The mechanism for this empowerment could be education tax credits or tax credits for scholarship donations.)
Although charters have created 52,000 seats since 1999, this progress has been undermined by the loss of even more private-school seats over the same time period, many due to Catholic-school closures.
Third, use layoffs as an opportunity to change the mix of teachers standing in front of classrooms, removing deadwood and protecting the best and the brightest.
Unfortunately, the state’s “last in, first out” law will mean that many burned-out teachers will keep their positions and some of the most talented and dynamic teachers will hit the street. This makes no sense. Cuomo needs to push through a law giving districts the authority to weed out the worst and retain the best teachers.
Fourth, modernize the substance of what we teach. Most schools continue to deliver instruction based on a factory model and on a school calendar from an agrarian era. Students need longer school days and school years, and greater use of virtual learning. At the same time, curricula must place greater emphasis on world history, international economics and the teaching of languages such as Mandarin Chinese.
Cuomo is doing what he must to clean up the fiscal mess created before he arrived. But we should not lose sight of the very real need to rescue those children being denied educational opportunity in our midst. Both are important — and the goals are not contradictory, no matter what the special interests claim.
Thomas W. Carroll is president of the Foundation for Education Reform & Ac countability.