Merryl Tisch, chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents, and David Sciarra of the Education Law Center, have written an excellent opinion piece about why the East Ramapo school board needs a state fiscal monitor. Frankly, in light of the facts they lay out, they make a good case for a state takeover of the district.
They write:
East Ramapo is a divided community. Of the roughly 32,000 school-age children enrolled in schools in the district, about 24,000 attend private schools, nearly all of them Orthodox Jewish yeshivas. Of the more than 8,000 children in the public schools, 43 percent are African-American and 46 percent are Latino; 83 percent are poor and 27 percent are English-language learners.
The East Ramapo school board, dominated by private-school parents since 2005, has utterly failed them. Faced with a fiscal and educational crisis, the State Education Department last June appointed a former federal prosecutor, Henry M. Greenberg, to investigate the district’s finances.
Mr. Greenberg’s report, released in November, documented the impact of the board’s gross mismanagement and neglect. Since 2009, the board has eliminated hundreds of staff members, including over 100 teachers, dozens of teaching assistants, guidance counselors and social workers, and many key administrators. Full-day kindergarten, and high-school electives have been eliminated or scaled back. Music, athletics, professional development and extracurricular activities were cut.
The Greenberg report also detailed dismal outcomes for East Ramapo students. In 2013-14, only 14 percent of students in grades 3 through 8 were proficient in English Language Arts, and only 15 percent were proficient in math, according to the most recent statistics from the State Education Department. The graduation rate, 64 percent, is far below the state average of 76 percent.
While slashing resources in its public schools, the school board vastly increased public spending on private schools. The cost of transporting children, including gender-segregated busing, rose to $27.3 million in 2013-14 from $22 million in 2009-10, a 24 percent increase. Public spending on private school placement for special education students grew by 33 percent between 2010-11 and 2013-14, and the district placed students in private schools when appropriate spaces were available in public ones.
The report also exposed disturbing practices by board members. The board conducts 60 to 70 percent of its meetings in closed-door executive session. It does not tolerate, and is overtly hostile to, the complaints of public school parents, students and community members. Public protests against the board are now commonplace.
There is now a bill that has been introduced in the legislature to enable the appointment of a fiscal monitor to make sure that the children in public schools in East Ramapo to ensure that public money is spent appropriately in the best interests of the children in the district.
Critics of the legislation have said that those who want to limit and supervise the East Ramapo school board are anti-Semitic. This is ridiculous. The authors say that the legislation is not about acting against the interests of one group, but “acting to make sure that the civil rights of a community of overwhelmingly low-income minority children are not denied and that their constitutional right to a sound basic education is enforced.”
The legislature must act by June 17, when the session ends, or nothing will happen, and the minority children in the East Ramapo district will continue to be denied their right to equal opportunity in education.
Seems like conservatives of all kinds play the civil rights card when it suits them. If politicians focus on issues instead of campaigns perhaps the issues can be discussed.
The East Ramapo school board has been fleecing the public schools for over a decade since they have taken control while firing anyone that stands in their way. It is a shameful situation, but democracy does not work in this case. I don’t trust anything that Cuomo and Tisch will devise. They should most definitely bring in an independent auditor, and they should see if they have the basis for a civil rights lawsuit. East Ramapo has always been diverse, and it used to send many middle class students to college and even some of the poor as well. In fact, Regent Judith Johnson’s son graduated from Ramapo High School.
Really? Judith Johnson has roots in East Ramapo? That’s good to hear!
I just received a robocall from investined.org telling me to call my state assemblyman to tell him to vote for the Education Investment Tax Credit. Once that passes, won’t that mean that the shenanigans of the East Ramapo School Board can just be done legally? Instead of paying taxes, just pay it directly to the Yeshiva, or the non-public school of your choice.
Not all Orthodox Jews support the actions of the East Ramapo school board. See this editorial. The writer lives in Rockland County where this drama is playing out.
http://forward.com/opinion/national/309145/in-east-ramapo-an-immoral-use-of-jewish-power/
There’s got to be a better solution than state take-over. Once that happens, local control is never restored. I’d even be leery of a financial overseer because that’s just a foot in the door toward state take-over.
On the other hand, I certainly understand the situation from the point of view of the Black and Latino parents, so something needs to be done. But the problem seems to come from the combination of the different racial/ethnic groups that have wildly divergent interests and the fact that the group that controls public education doesn’t even utilize it. The solution has to come from there. Maybe re-dividing/re-aligning the district somehow so that the Black and Latino parents have a voice and control over their own schools.
Dienne, to clarify, this is not a state takeover at all. Not in the least!
It is a monitor to oversee the decisions of the East Ramapo Central School District’s board (ERAM) who’s best interests lie in the private, yeshiva, school community.
Millions of dollars have been have been diverted to the private, yeshiva, schools under the guise of special ed placements, text (religious) books, and (segregated) transportation at the cost of programs for the children or East Ramapo.
This “scheme” is engineered by a very shifty lawyer (is shifty libel, it might be, so I won’t mention a name) who has found a way to divert public money to private yeshivas. He was successful in Lawrence, NY and the board of ERAM hired him at 3x the cost of their long time, alumni, counsel after much, much protest by parents teachers and the superintendent at the time.
Dienne! There is NO solution “within” at this time. There MUST be a monitor in the East Central School District to ensure the children who, I know and love, are availed their constitutional right to a fair and equitable education.
Yeah, I get all that. It was Diane who said, “Frankly, in light of the facts they lay out, they make a good case for a state takeover of the district”, which is what I was reacting to. But even just a monitor, I have to urge you to be careful what you ask for. New York as a state is not friendly to public education right now, so I don’t know that you have any guarantee that this monitor would be better for you than the current school board, especially in the long run.
Yes, the situation is wrong on so many levels as it currently stands, but I’d hate to see something happen that even further disenfranchises the Black and Latino families. The monitor may be a necessary temporary step (I’d emphasize that “temporary” part), but the only solution is to get true voice and control for the minority families who actually utilize public education.
I think the state should appoint a monitor and an auditor, but not dissolve the board. I was just looking at the school’s website. Unlike almost every school website I’ve ever looked at, it is VERY hard to find the list of the East Ramapo board members!
Also of interest, the school’s 2015-16 budget passed, but not by a wide margin, and a Hispanic man won one of the three seats on the board that were up for election this year. So, progress maybe?
Sharon:
Yes, the budget passed, not by a wide margin, however, the body of voters is huge, 9,500+ larger that most districts in the area.
The Hispanic man is in the pocket of block vote.
The progress lies in oversight.
The public school community is trying so hard to overcome that barrier.
Pablo, thank you for the additional information. I’m curious to know, what was the voter turnout in terms of % of registered voters? Also, are community members opposed to this *regime* organizing to get out the vote?
My best wishes to your community!
Sharon, The last budget vote numbers enormous compared to other districts in the area. 9,393 votes! 5,200 yes – 4193 no. As Susan Lee mentioned below, residents of the “private school community” bus people in from all over the county (and probably beyond).
https://twitter.com/pcasa14/status/606958967143559170
The actions of the Ramapo School Board are disgraceful, and let’s be honest, racist. Unfortunately NYS law does not permit the removal of a school board. The current board has vigorous lobbied the legislature, threatened to fund opposing candidates, and, it looks like the pending bill will not pass. Perhaps the US DOE Civil Rights division can intervene.
Are you sure about NYS law not permitting the removal of a board? The Kenmore-Tonawanda district was threatened this spring with all kinds of sanctions, including the removal of its Board of Education, when it voted to consider not administering the state tests.
Vigorously lobbied the legislature?! OMG! LOL! You have no idea the sway they hold there! It’s Enormous! Cuomo…Sliver, I mean Silver…
Fortunately, the public school community overcame a major hurdle today (6/315), the NY assembly education committee agreed to bring it to the assembly floor.
This is what happens when religious fundamentalists gain political power, and then use democracy to destroy democracy.
You are correct sir
This is jaw-droppingly unreal: “Of the roughly 32,000 school-age children enrolled in schools in the district, about 24,000 attend private schools, nearly all of them Orthodox Jewish yeshivas.” And to top it off, the school board is dominated by parents or residents whose kids are not even in the public schools. Thank goodness this is not a very common situation. I did a duckduckgo.com search and wow, the hostility between the public school, parents and the religious school parents is intense, to say the least. This situation is a no win hot potato for any politician. However, it is totally wrong that religious schools, whether they are Catholic, Protestant or Jewish, should be sucking public funds from the real public schools.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/534/a-not-so-simple-majority
This American Life had this piece a while back about what’s happening in East Rampo–worth a listen.
Great Piece!
I have been accumulating info about East Ramapo on my website http://www.poweroften.us
Previous attempts to get the state to takeover have failed because of resistance from the school board association. Because this legislation does not remove the school board, it has the support of the Rockland School Board Association.
“Accumulating info about east Ramapo” is an understatement!
Power of Ten has stood at the forefront of advocacy for the students in the East Ramapo Central School District along with the student alumni advocacy group @StrongERamapo.
Kudos to the dedication and diligence of all the parents, students, teachers over these past many years.
The NY State Education Commission convened to discuss the dire circumstances at the East Ramapo School District. The state appointed monitor expressed his strong disapproval of the board’s handling of the district, and many Regents shared parent’s suspicion that fraud and criminal activity may be an ingredient.
Videos of several Regents concerns can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX80zqzzRSyzHCHVTzzEdBQ
Please peruse the videos linked to gain a better understanding of the severity of the situation within the East Ramapo Central School District.
The bills approaching the senate and assembly committees are NOT advocating a state take-over of the board of ERAM, rather the bill advocates for simple oversight of an existing board membership.
I live here. I taught here when there were 70,000 students and my son’s high school was rated third in the state….now there are 17,000 students, and the orthodox community busses their people to the polls to vote down any and all budgets.
I cannot tell you how I feel when I go to board meetings and see the e men in yamulkas (and I am JEWISH) who send their kids to private schools, deciding what the children of our police, our firemen, our workers should receive in the schools.
I know how the political Christopher St Lawrence, that corrupt piece of poop, plays to this group, and I have witnessed the corruption that has mangled our wonderful schools. Next door, in Clarkstown, and in Ramapo, kids get a good education, but here, as this community multiplies like rabbits, and monstrous cement buildings that house religious institutions go up every few blocks along roads that once were the wooded lots of homeowners, I see what happens when THERE IS NO OVERSIGHT.
The local papers today, say the issue of oversight, in the bill, is still up for grabs… and in NY state, which is corrupt and ineffective in doing anything for its people, there is little hope…. THANKs Diane, for shining a light here. I wish you could see the devastation to the schools in which I taught for 15 years.
http://www.lohud.com/story/news/education/2015/06/03/assembly-committee-oks-east-amapo-oversight/28406531/
http://www.wrcr.com/2015/06/03/state-assembly-education-committee-approves-state-oversight-bill-for-east-ramapo-schools/
http://nymag.com/news/features/east-ramapo-hasidim-2013-4/
“From what I’ve Heard and what you’ve said, I believe we cannot trust good behavior from the existing school board, period. And therefore some mechanism whether under existing law or a new piece of legislation to have a different decision making authority, at that district at least for the next three years, as to how money is being spent, is absolutely required. I have no confidence that this board is going to change” Bob Bennett, Regent, NYSED https://youtu.be/9lmlNwGLZ08
NY Regent shares parents and community members concern that the Board of East Ramapo is deliberately sabotaging the public schools in the district “I struggle to see this as a product of poor governance, I think there’s much more here, and I join the concern of Regent Rosa. I question whether or not this reaches to the level of fraud and even, perhaps, criminal conduct.” NYSED Regent Brown https://youtu.be/aeewWpWpGx4
The Regents of the State Education Department share the suspicions of the public school parents; that the actions of the Hasidic board are fraudulent and perhaps even criminal. Video clip ft. Regent Rosa https://youtu.be/oAmLEVIhvFQ
5/26/15: More broken promises and the students continue to suffer for YEARS now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFtvYkBJ7zc
Minute 3:07 see how they react to parent with special needs child in High School. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1P-BWF5X4shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1P-BWF5X4s