Update! A few minutes ago, I posted that the budget lifted the charter cap by 100. There are differing reports; this one says there will be 180 new charters.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders reached a deal on the budget that included major education issues.
The budget does not include the “education tax credit” for private and religious schools (vouchers), but does include $250 million for religious schools. That should satisfy Mr. Cuomo’s friends in the religious communities whom he courted.
The deal includes 180 new charter schools, 50 in Néw York City and 130 outside the city. That should please the hedge fund manager who gave millions to the Governor’s re-election campaign, while providng Eva Moskowitz plenty of room to grow her chain.
The deal extends mayoral control in NYC for only one year, despite Mayor Bill de Blasio’s request to make it permanent. That should remind the Mayor who is in charge.
The deal retains the tax cap on school districts. Regardless of their needs, they won’t be able to raise property taxes by more than 2%, unless they are able to win 60% approval by voters. It may be undemocratic, but it is popular, especially among GOP legislators.
It is amazing how much education policy is now being made during budget negotiations, with no educators in the room.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
To me it is not amazing at all. That is there policy, no educators in the room. That might slow down their political agenda. . No matter the consequences they try to stay in office by pandering to the lowest common denominator.
Hypocrisy? Either that or profound, abysmal ignorance.
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Incredible–$250 million in public tax levies for private religious schools. Despite several decades of sexual abuse scandals, the Catholic Church is apparently still impt for the status quo politicians. The Hasidic community in NYC votes in very large numbers as a bloc, so it’s endorsement matters to status quo politicians, even though this community has also seen some sexual scandals in recent years. Still wondering to what extent Cuomo will need to buy a dispensation from Cardinal Dolan vis a vis his divorce and cohabitation with his female partner to legitimize his run for the White House after Hillary. The powerful buy forgiveness for their dalliances with our taxes. It will be wonderful when we get a chance to live in a robust democracy and climb out of this toxic oligarchy now looting our public schools.
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I think it’s wild. Just a straight up public funds transfer to religious schools? Wow.
Why not just give it directly to churches? Funding is fungible and if they’re subsidizing the schools with church funding the public funding will essentially go to the church anyway.
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This may well be unconstitutional…Heastie got steamrolled giving on several major areas just to fight off Parochial Tax Credit. Light up phones tonight or this thing will be passed by the Heavy Hearts club tomorrow AM–just before your legislator leaves town for vacation.
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This deal gives renters the shaft while giving $1.3B back to homeowners–that equals the size of the education aid increase in the budget adopted in March. Affluent homeowners get a rebate–renters get the shaft. Approval for Heastie got steamrolled!150 more Cheater Schools–
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Where are we going to find the space or money for 50 new schools in NYC? Any increase for the NYC education budget just got hoovered up by charter school rent. Even when we give an inch (small budget increase for draconian evaluation systems) they come back and take the pittance they gave us plus some with a private school bonanza.
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“The deal retains the tax cap on school districts. Regardless of their needs, they won’t be able to raise property taxes by more than 2%, unless they are able to win 60% approval by voters. It may be undemocratic, but it is popular, especially among GOP legislators.”
In poll after poll, with broad support that crosses all parties, regions, races, and income levels, about 70% of New York State residents. It’s wildly popular with everyone, not just Republican state senators (see bottom of page 4): https://www.siena.edu/assets/files/news/SNY0115_Crosstabs_012015.pdf
But speaking of things that actually are undemocratic, it is a huge victory that mayoral control in NYC was extended by only a year, and if GOP senators are responsible for that, I for one thank them.
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And how do you think they would have polled if a bill was proposed that cut federal income taxes in half? Free money always plays well among the electorate.
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That’s a terrible analogy. The cap is slowing down the rate of increase in the huge amounts of property tax New Yorkers pay; it isn’t anything like halving their tax or “free money.”
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By now, this reflects a classic conservative strategy: Propose radically conservative ideas to so-called liberal democrats, who then “compromise” to give the conservatives most of what they wanted all along.
On another note, until legislators, nationally and in states, have the courage to abandon local property tax as the means to fund education, inequity will continue and citizens will support tax cap proposals.
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What they do with the tax cap in Ohio is put it in and then cut state funding. That way they’ll reach a more equitable result with a race to the bottom.
NY is just starting this journey. It looks identical all over the country. “Innovative” they’re not.
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NY is starting the journey at $20,000 per child. The districts that spend $28, 30, or even more are funded almost entirely by property taxes. It is and was unsustainable, and it is hardly surprising that the cap levy is resoundingly popular.
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Tim, people want services but don’t want to pay for them
What happened to the millionaires’ tax? With so much Wall Street money going to Cuomo and the Tepiblicans in the Senate, the billionaires won’t have to pay to educate other people’s children.
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Tim schools don’t get $20,000i a year but charter schools will get practically that much. Public school students get charged for all the charter school freebies, as you well know. Apparently, only children who go to public school are responsible for the cost of teachers who retired 20 years ago and more. And the more students that get into charter schools, the fewer public school students there are to be charged for all the pensions of retired teachers, making it look like public schools spend even more. Why you think such dishonesty is okay is beyond me.
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You continue drawing attention to a very misleading dollar value per pupil. The operating budget of a school district cannot simply be divided by the number of students. This implies that one kindergarten teacher with a class of 30 students gets (@ $28K) $840,000 to run her program for the year. And out of the other side of your mouth you will tout the charter pirates that continue to skim public money for privately (and selectively) run schools.
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The latest Census data taken from FY 2013 shows that New York State spends $19,818 per student. A more recent analysis based on individual district budget data puts the median at $22,552. New York’s district schools indisputably spend more than any other state’s, even when adjusted for the high cost of downstate housing. You can look up individual districts with this tool: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2014/05/new_york_state_schools_ranked_by_spending_per_pupil_look_up_compare_any_district.html?appSession=18854736828649
There is nothing misleading about these numbers or in presenting them as a per-pupil average. Of course every penny isn’t passed through straight to classrooms. But even with school districts soaking up a lot of the money, NY is still at the top of the heap in instructional spending.
New Yorkers have the highest state and local tax burden in the nation, and this is largely tied to school funding. The tax cap is so popular not because people aren’t willing to spend a lot of money on schools (there is ample, incontrovertible evidence that they are), but because the tax increases were unsustainable and because people had had enough of their $25,000 or $30,000+/student district telling them disaster would strike if they didn’t approve the latest 6 or 8 or 12% rate hike.
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So you are advocating public education on the cheap?
What do you suggest NY should reduce the per pupil spending to?
Utah ($6,555)? Idaho ($6,791)? Arizona ($7,208)?
Is that really what you want for your own children?
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Instead of engaging in strawman arguments (I didn’t say anything at all about cutting funding), how about telling us how much funding you think is sufficient to provide a child living in a typical NYS district with a sound education? Is it $25,000 per kid? $35,000? $50,000? More?
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Your 6% to 10+% tax hikes were a thing of the past long before Cuomo’s tax cap. Most district were approving de-facto contingency budgets because that’s how democracy actually works. Giving taxpayers a vote wasn’t enough for Cuomo. The democratic checks and balances provided by publicly elected school boards that control the purse strings which had worked forever, suddenly needed additional government constraint. A bigger squeeze on the less affluent districts because the 60% super majority was a practical impossibility. Throw in the GAP elimination, failure to reimburse NYC per the CFE law suit, charter piratization, and help whatsoever with unfunded mandate relief – and we are left with a defunded public school system in all but the most affluent districts.
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Cost per pupil? You tell me. With or without unfunded mandate relief?
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A strawman argument requires a declaration. I only asked the question. What exactly is your point regarding per pupil spending?
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It is very telling that you can’t or won’t answer my question: how much, in 2015 dollars, is enough to operate the average NYS school district? Factor in enough to fund these unfunded mandates you are always talking about, and whatever else that you feel is currently underfunded.
I don’t think it is accurate to say that there had been a de facto tax cap prior to the passage of this legislation, at least when it comes to downstate districts. Annual increases in most districts here were well above the current cap, especially taking into account that enrollment was essentially flat. It also isn’t accurate to say that charters are skimming funding from district schools–to whatever extent money leaves district schools when parents choose a charter, it is because the students are leaving as well.
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Tim, give it up. 90% of the kids in NYC go to public schools, not charter schools. 97% in the state go to public schools, not charter schools. You are a perfect example of charter divisiveness. Your constant trumpeting of their virtues and of whatever is wrong in public schools exemplifies what is wrong with charters. It is non-stop me-me-me. Your antagonism towards the public schools that accept ALL students makes reAders antagonistic towards charters. We know about Eva’s $500,000 salary. We know about Deborah Kenny’s $450,000. We know you don’t care. You just want to scoff at the public schools. Give it a rest. Some of us oppose a dual school system.
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Tim always has to lie to make his points (oops, I mean, mislead). The ONLY children who pay for the pensions of retired teachers from decades ago are public school students! The ONLY children who pay for the high costs of MORE than their fair share of severely disabled children are public school students! The ONLY children who pay for buses and crossing guards and state tests, and every other cost of having education in this city and state that ISN’T directly spent inside a school are public school students! They pay for THEIR share AND the share of the growing number of very low-needs charter school children who the charter chains “deign” to educate for twice as much money as any public school gets to educate the high needs ones.
Tim, I don’t believe you are a parent because even charter school parents don’t want their own children’s education to be at the expense of the most vulnerable kids. Only people who are greedy little people who want to enrich their own coffers would pretend that public school children are NOT charged for costs that benefit all students, and that public schools don’t spend far LESS for the current, average, low-needs child than charter schools spend. Tim, why do you? How low are you to want at-risk kids starved of money so charter schools awash in millions can “get” what you think is rightfully theirs. How do you look in the mirror?
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I wonder how much of an increase of services to religious schools this really is. When I taught in New York, we were always required to provide psychological and educational screenings, library services, nurses and transportation to private schools within our borders.
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A states’ – usually the governor’s – budget is how education policy – and any other pet initiative – is enacted because it’s not open to public vote. Sure the legislatures invite witness testimony, but really that’s just a required, but empty, appeasement move and nothing more. And unless a lot more people pay attention, big buck donors and ALEC will always get what they want.
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Is this a deal to add to the cap on charter schools, which is 460 with approximately 248 already granted, or is a redistribution of the available charters so that Eva Moscowitz — sorry, I mean New York City — can continue to open charters? Right now, SUNY has no more to grant for NYC, and 70 to be granted outside of NYC. The SED has 88 charters to grant, with 24 of those for NYC. Most recent information here:
Click to access NYSCharterSchoolFactSheetwithlegislativecaps052015.pdf
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I think they still have to hammer out the details, but most of the reports seem to suggest that NYC will have 50 additional charters and they are not apportioned by authorizer–the applicants can choose freely between SUNY and NYSED.
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If the proposal is for 180 “new” charter schools, I think it’s a redistribution combined number of charters yet-to-be granted by SUNY and the SED.
70 + 88 + 24 = 182
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Sharon, you are right. The juggling with the number of charters was confusing.
Here is a story that gives the info with more clarity than I did:
http://ny.chalkbeat.org/2015/06/23/state-leaders-agree-to-extend-mayoral-control-by-just-one-year-allow-more-nyc-charters/#.VYokvYH3arU
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Diane, thank you for that link. The various reports are confusing, and I would be stunned (and terrified for our upstate districts) if they tried to add 130 more available charters outside of NYC, when there are already 130 or so still to be granted.
Very interesting development in the SED’s first round of charter applications this spring. All 15 proposals that were being given full consideration have been withdrawn.
http://www.p12.nysed.gov/psc/2015Rd1FullApplications.html
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Sharon, you are right, the State Education Department did not approve any new charters this year. That is why the Legislature opened the approval process to SUNY’s Charter Schools division. SUNY has granted all of Eva’s charters and they are known to be charter-friendly. All the new charters will apply there.
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Round 2 proposals were due to the SED yesterday. SUNY has not issued a call for new proposals yet this year. It will be interesting to see what happens next.
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Sorry, the last sentence should read “The SED has 88 more charters to grant outside of NYC and 24 more for NYC.”
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From the NY State Constitution under Article XI-Education:
[Use of public property or money in aid of denominational schools prohibited; transportation of children authorized]
§3. Neither the state nor any subdivision thereof, shall use its property or credit or any public money, or authorize or permit either to be used, directly or indirectly, in aid or maintenance, other than for examination or inspection, of any school or institution of learning wholly or in part under the control or direction of any religious denomination, or in which any denominational tenet or doctrine is taught, but the legislature may provide for the transportation of children to and from any school or institution of learning
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Someone not understand the constitutional language???
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Is there some other section of said constitution that overrides this section???
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