Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul went to the New York State Fair and encountered a large group of educators wearing T-shirts saying “Call Out Cuomo Tour.” She sat down and had a public talk with Beth Chetney, a teacher of ninth grade English for 24 years in the Baldwinsville Central School District. Chetney tried to explain why teachers were frustrated and angry. She said the teacher evaluations based on the tests were unfair, the tests themselves are “asinine,” and her own son opted out of the tests. Cuomo himself, said Chetney, was part of the problem because he has targeted teachers and disrespects them.
Hochul assured Chetney that Governor Cuomo really cares about teachers and quality education
“It’s easy to pull out these sound bites that sound the most contentious,” Hochul said. “But I’ve sat in rooms with him, and heard his real concern for teachers and the students. And I don’t think that gets covered….
“I’m here to tell that you he has a true commitment to supporting the profession and making sure that New York state regains its position as No. 1 in the nation in education,” Hochul said.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Was New York State ever ranked #1 in the nation when compared to other states?
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It is number one with a bullet when it comes to per-student k-12 public school spending: the median district spent $22,552 per child last school year.
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Excellent answer.
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Got ya! You are WRONG!
What you just did, claiming that New York spent $22,552 per child last school year is exactly what the RheeFormers do to mislead and fool the public. This is exactly what the RheeFormers did with the PISA test. They focused on overall average and ignored the scores comparing socioeconomic groups between countries.
In 2013, total spending was $19,918.80 per pupil. Total Revenue was $22,587.00 per student.
And total spending on instruction was $13,756 per student.
http://www.governing.com/gov-data/education-data/state-education-spending-per-pupil-data.html
Where does the other $6,162.80 go? Then of course there is the $2,668.20 per pupil that was not spent on the schools—where does that money go?
State expenditures that support the states Department of Education, transportation of school children, adult literacy programs, handicapped education programs, programs for other special populations (i.e., gifted and talented programs), anti-drug programs, and vocational education.
Then there is the total budget for New York State that’s $316 billion for 2014 and only 24% of that goes to education.
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/usgs_piecol.php?title=State+%26+Local%20Spending:%20$316%20bn&year=2015&sname=New_York&size=s&units=&label=Education_Health_Pensions_Transportation_Welfare_Remainder&fed=74.306072_65.897861_32.638956_30.260628_25.123928_87.876555
Compared with 2014, New York has only increased spending per pupil by 3% or $242 per student. (Appendix Table 1)
http://www.cbpp.org/research/most-states-still-funding-schools-less-than-before-the-recession
For the school year 2015–16, the Department of Education’s total budget is $27.6 billion, including $5.8 billion to pay pensions and interest on Capital Plan debt.
The Department’s $21.8 billion Operating Budget (the total budget less pension and debt service costs) includes funding for principals, teachers, textbooks and supplies. It covers the cost of standardized tests, after-school programs, school buses, heating and cooling for school buildings, safety, and school lunches. It pays for central administration and field support offices, which work with schools to provide support and help improve student achievement.
The Operating Budget also pays for non-DOE costs, such as $911.4 million for pre-school special education services provided at non-DOE “contract” schools; $655.7 million for School-Age special education services provided at non-DOE “contract” schools; another $64.6 million for non-public schools, such as yeshivas and parochial schools; and $1.5 billion for charter schools.
http://schools.nyc.gov/AboutUs/funding/overview/default.htm
There are currently 248 corporate Charter schools operating in New York State.
The legislature should summarily reject any charter per pupil funding increase, as New York’s charter schools are flush with cash; such cash grow rapidly. The over $282 million in cash held is up $40 million from 2012, when charter schools reported having $221 million cash on hand. Also, unrestricted net assets held by charters grew from $298.5 million in 2012 to $392.1 million in the audits filed in 2014.
Further, recent analysis shows 82 percent of the state’s charters hold, on a percentage basis, cash in 2013 well in excess of the 4 percent that traditional school districts are permitted to keep in the bank. The 184 schools studied had, on average, 25 percent of their annual budgets in cash reserves – six times what regular public school districts are permitted to hold.
http://www.nysut.org/news/2015/february/testimony-k12-education-budget-2015-2016
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Lloyd, you have provided a blizzard of information here, but none of it refutes that New York’s median district spent $22,552 per child in the 2014-2015 (official averages aren’t available yet, but it’ll be around $22,000 if my guess is right), or that any other state spends more.
Here is a fun bit of trivia regarding the percentage of total state spending that goes to education: which state devotes the highest percentage of its government spending to education? This answer will slay Threatened Out West. It is none other than UTAH, which as everyone knows is dead last in spending per pupil.
You have argued with a statistic that may be useful in some respects, but it is pure garbage when attempting to compare states to other states. New York’s government spending is vast, period: it has much bigger welfare, Medicaid, and pension payments than almost every other state, and an immense expense than no other state has: the cost of operating one of the world’s largest subway, surface transit, and commuter rail networks, one that is responsible for more than half of the mass transit trips annually in the US. This agency alone has an annual budget larger than the *entire* state budget of about 20 individual states.
You must have posted the next link, the CBPP report, without reviewing it carefully. It shows that during a recession that kneecapped one of the primary drivers of state revenue, the financial industry, aka “Wall Street,” New York State increased education funding by more than just 4 states (see the final chart). This happened even though NY was already spending more than anyone else prior to the recession!
Your next link is for the 2015-2016 budget overview for the New York City Department of Education, where my kids go to school. It shows that the department will spend a staggering $25,000 or so per non-charter-school PreK-12 student next year. That $1.5 billion payment to charter schools will cover the education of 95,000 students ($15,800 per student). It’s not clear to me what the takeaway was supposed to be here, unless you wanted to show that New York City spends more per kid than the state average.
I’m not sure what you wanted to be gleaned from the final link. Charter schools pay all of their expenses themselves and can be expected to have a different cash flow set-up than a district school. In any event, the dollar amounts discussed are a drop in the bucket of New York State school spending.
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It’s obvious that Tim didn’t read the blizzard that he says I left in my comment—then he cherry picked what he wanted.
New York did not SPEND $22,552 per child in the 2014-2015. That number was the revenue that came in and not the money spend to teach children. The number for actual instruction of children was less than $14,000 per student, and $1.5 billion of the total went to Corporate Charters that siphoned off about 20% to sock away in bank accounts as a “war chest”—public schools by comparison are only allowed to hold back 4% and that money, by law, can’t be used as a “war chest”. It must be used to take care of unexpected expenses in the case of a disaster of some kind.
WRONG!
Charter schools do NOT pay all the expenses THEMSELVES. The money that the Charter schools profit from comes from the same sources that funds the public schools, and it is obvious that the for profit, opaque, authoritarian, corporate Charters are drastically cutting corners to build a war chest of about a quarter billion dollars that the public schools are not allowed to do.
Tim, I think you are either a fool, a Rheeformer or a paid shill for them. Next, I expect that you will moan and groan because I alleged you are a fool, a RheeFormer or a paid shill, and in your groaning, you will play the victim and claim name calling. I’ve discovered that whenever extremists like RheeFormers are called out for what they are, they almost always resort to changing the topic in an attempt to discredit the facts that reveal their cherry-picking, foolish fraud.
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Nice analysis, Lloyd. Anti-education types love to inflate figures or shade the truth. $13,700 per pupil for instruction seems comparative to other states, considering a Big Mac in NYC is $8 and a apartment runs into the thousands. The quoted $22k figure is obviously skewed to make teachers look overpaid and underworked. No wonder we have growing teacher shortages. The demonizing of teachers is definitely going to have impact as the U.S. slips in the world. Too many people in America view teachers as the enemy, rather than fellow citizens trying to education children. This rot from within by the Reformers must stop.
There’s two types of people on education – those that view it as an annoying line item cost, and those that view it as an investment in the future generations.
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Focusing on only instructional spending is a nice rhetorical trick to make the state’s spending seem more reasonable, but two problems with that approach: once again, New York spends far and away more than any other state (28% more than #2 — http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=SSF_2013_SSF11F.US01&prodType=table), and then there’s the inconvienient problem of, you know, buildings, books, light and heat, buses, pensions, and all that good stuff.
Outside the New York City area, the cost of living is close to the national average, even slightly below in terms of housing costs. That makes the $20,000+ in districts like Buffalo and Rochester even more astounding.
Decrying the state’s lack of spending is embarrassingly inaccurate. Legislators are petrified of telling the truth.
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Lloyd, you can continue to call me all the names you want, you can continue to lie, misdirect, and distort, and you can even continue to put random words in ALL CAPS for emphasis. The data is what it is, and anyone with an internet connection can see it and judge for themselves.
Some updates, though: for the upcoming school year, the median district in New York State will spend $23,370 per student, up from $22,552 that was spent last year. That is a healthy 3.6% bump, well above the regional annualized rate of inflation.
http://www.syracuse.com/schools/index.ssf/2015/05/spending_per_student_nys_school_districts_2015_lookup_compare_any_district_rank.html
Your insistence that these figures represent revenue is flatly inaccurate. This are the budgeted numbers that each district spent last year and will spend in the upcoming year.
You misconstrued (no doubt unintentionally) my comment on charters: unlike district schools, they are self-contained entities. Lump sum restricted-fund payments pass through the traditional school district where the charter is located, then the charters use that money to meet payroll, pay rent (where applicable), cover benefits, supplies, and utilities, and so forth. That is the likely explanation for why they have more cash on hand.
To recap:
— The median district in New York State spent $22,552 per student in 2014-2015 and will spend $23,370 in 2015-2016. This represents expenditures, not revenue.
— New York State leads the nation in instructional spending by a wide margin, 30-40% higher than states with similar or even higher costs of living. New York also leads the nation in non-instructional spending.
— Running a school district without any non-instructional spending would be a difficult undertaking anywhere in the world–no books, no computers, no desks, no food, no buses, no pensions, no walls or roofs–but especially impractical in New York State. Visit a place like Massena or Malone in January or February if you don’t believe me!
I will let you have the last word, and I wish you all the best in your quixotic attempt to tell New Yorkers that they aren’t spending as much on schools as they actually are. What do we know?
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Who is the liar … or the fool, Tim? Go ahead and stick to your figure that NY state spent about $22,000 on each pupil’s instruction.
But for anyone with an open mind, for every figure I mentioned, I provided links to reputable sources and it was clear what was collected and what was spent on instruction. I didn’t make those numbers up.
Less than $14,000 was spent on instruction for each pupil. Where did the rest go? Well, for the public schools, 4% of the public funds raised, by law, has to be held in reserve and can’t be spent. California has a simliar law. The rest probably goes to busing, food services, materials, and other services disconnected from instruction that the legislature or the courts have mandated. I wonder if they count competitive sports as instruction. It isn’t cheap to transport all those teams by bus from one school to another so they can compete with each other.
For instance, at the high school where I taught for the last 16 years of the 30 I was in the classroom, we were told that it cost about $10,000 annually for the custodians just to paint out the graffiti every morning before school started—and that district had 19 schools. Once after spending almost $30,000 to refurbish a student restroom at the HS that has been vandalized numerous times, within 24 hours, an anonymous students dragged a trashcan full of paper into that boy’s restroom and set fire to that RR closing it for the rest of that school year. Bus drivers, custodians, nurses, administration all cost money too, and they are not part of the instruction of students.
It’s common for administration to cost close to 10% of the total budget. Then there’s maintenance of all the schools, and paying for utilities: electricity, water and gas are not free. And then there is picking up the trash. That also isn’t free. No, New York does not spend almost $23,000 annually on the direct instruction of students. After that 4% is held back, the different between the total and what is spent on instruction goes to administration, support staff and buddings and maintenance.
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Lloyd, are you saying that New York lags behind other states in direct instructional spending?
Just wondering whether any of this ties back to where the thread started, i.e. a lighthearted joke about whether New York was “ever ranked #1 in the nation when compared to other states.”
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Ask any New York school teacher who did not have enough books, desks, papers, pencils or a working computer or smart board if 22,000 dollars are spent per pupil. Ask any of us who must spend between $300 to $1000 of our own money to have a decently decorated and workable classroom if $22,000 are spent per pupil. There are other costs that can never be counted. There are at least five of my used winters coats I gave to students who had to walk to school in short sleeves in the dead winter. Then there are the lunches I shared with my students that came to school malnourished and starving in the richest country in the world. My first year as a special education teacher in 1978, I spent close to $400 on two reading series, decorations, charts, folders and basic supplies. That was on a $10,000 a year salary. In today’s money it would be about $4000. Good thing I was still living with mom and dad at 22 years old.
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Not sure there’s an easy answer, an actual answer, to your question.
Look at this from Jan. 2011
Education Week, which publishes the annual “Quality Counts” guide, ranked New York State No. 2 in the nation in a comprehensive analysis of policy and performance with an overall grade of B. Maryland ranked first, with a grade of B+, and Massachusetts came in third with a B.
Although this year’s ranking on “Quality Counts” is unusually high, New York “is actually a perennial top-ranking state” said Christopher Swanson, Vice President for Editorial Projects in Education, which is the non-profit that publishes Education Week.
“Quality Counts” looks at student achievement and the performance of low-income versus high-income students, along with state financing to districts and issues of equity. It also examines standards and teacher professionalism.
Swanson said one reason for New York’s high ranking is that the state spends so much money on education compared to others. As Cuomo noted, New York does spend more than any other state (averaging almost $17,000 per pupil). But it’s high even when adjusted for regional costs, said Swanson, even though Wyoming spends more per student in that calculation. New Jersey also ranks very high in school spending (coming in seventh overall on the list). And New York’s funding is considered pretty equitable, with a much smaller gap between its highest and lowest spending districts than the top-ranked Alaska.
When Cuomo said New York ranked 34th among states in education, his press secretary said he was talking about U.S. Census figures for educational attainment. On that chart New York ranks worse than average for the percentage of adults with a high school degree or more (84 percent). But it actually ranks higher than average in terms of adults with a bachelor’s degree or more (28 percent).
But the “Quality Counts” guide ranked New York No. 8 for student achievement, giving it a C compared to the average grade of D plus for states.
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““But I’ve sat in rooms with him, and heard his real concern for teachers and the students. And I don’t think that gets covered….”
Okay, so what has he done in his five years as governor to prove his concern? What hasn’t gotten covered?
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Don’t pay attention to what Cuomo says or anyone says he says. Only pay attention to what he has done and what he is doing. Once we get past that, it’s obvious to me that this Lt. Governor is a brown-nosed boot-licker flunky and/or deaf, dumb and blind like those three monkeys—-oh, and trained to come across politic and nice in person, another polished psychopath, maybe, like her boss, Cuomo.
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Continuing the fine old tradition of State Fair Liars’ Contests …
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TAGO!!
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Hochul’s comments, the group of teachers’ attempts at a dialog, anything Cuomo has to say that may be construed as not damaging to teachers: all meaningless and not worth the time it takes to read about them.
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I was there. What WAS worth it was embarrassing Cuomo enough that he couldn’t attend “Governor’s Day” at the Fair.
What WAS worth it was the hundreds of conversations our T-shirts generated.
I personally met two young people working at the Fair from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who rallied against Scott Walker while they were in high school and know what’s going on. I chatted with a retiree from Florida who understood that VAM harms teachers who receive students who earned top scores the previous year.
My son and daughter appeared on news sites with rally posters. Their most popular was “TEACHERS ARE FRIENDS, NOT FOOD.”
My son was interviewed by the local NPR affiliate. They are now able to say that they have participated in a protest and learned about their Constitutional rights.
Today was a great day, not for changing the elites’ minds, but raising up additional support and momentum as we face another year of Pearson tests and a 50-50 testing evaluation matrix that strips away more local control of our schools.
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What Cuomo or any politician says is irrelevant. “Actions speak louder than words” is an aphorism because it’s true.
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From the article, “…Then Hochul laid out some of Cuomo’s education proposals that have become law: less testing in younger grades, more bonus money for stellar teachers, and free tuition for qualifying new New York teachers.”
Less testing in younger grades?? Less testing then when exactly?
Bonus money for stellar teachers?? Merit pay based on test scores?
Free tuition for qualifying New York Teachers?? What is this a TFA tuition reimbursement plan?
And she thinks that these are the better things that Andy has pushed through?
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She is either ignorant on the issues or ???
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That second issue especially is just begging for some follow-up questions. “Just how does Gov. Cuomo plan to identify these “stellar teachers”? How many “stellar” teachers does Gov. Cuomo think are deserving of bonuses (or what percentage of teachers are “stellar”)? How will he ensure the system is fair? Are these one-time bonuses? In lieu of annual raises? Why only “stellar” teachers? Why not better compensation for teachers in general?
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Master teacher = bonus money for stellar teachers. Yes, it is merit pay. FYI, NYSTRS does not acknowledge that money towards retirement.
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This story epitomizes the misery of an Asst, Lt, Vice whatever type job. Your central duty that comes up daily is to lie on her/his behalf and try to spin the awful words s/he expels. I doubt she believes she can persuade any teacher that Cuomo doesn’t despise and/or disdain teachers and sees no political advantage is acting as those he doesn’t. He is clear in his disrespect for them. So, she knows she’s lying and knows teachers know she’s lying and yet, that’s her job. I’d rather clean up after elephants.
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Elephants, at least, are sweet and gentle creatures.
But you’re right, you almost have to feel sorry for the woman being stuck in a job like that. Almost. Until you realize that she’s using that job as a stepping stone to get to a position where someone else has to clean up after her.
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Hochul convinced Weingarten for whatever that is worth.
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Bwahahahaha. Poor, misunderstood cuomo.
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You’d think they’d at least find a few stellar teachers willing to pander the Governor’s agenda for some wonderful kabuki theater.
That few if any teachers LIKE anything Cuomo has done speaks volumes.
Does he consider himself a doctor giving us bad tasting medicine? The flaw in that though is it presumes Cuomo knows more than many thousands of educators he professes to respect.
Cuomo respects only one thing – the color green especially when it comes in the form of campaign contributions.
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What do sharks do? Eat all garbage in order to satisfy its hunger = greed.
Those assistants for sharks must be extremely diplomatic enough to survive and to get ahead in a game changer. Mike Petrilli is a stellar example. Mike cannot wait to take over Arne’s position.
The truthfully conscientious educators need to be JUST ENOUGH brave and diplomatic in order to cultivate parents and students about exercising their own rights in democratic society like OPT OUT MOVEMENT.
The mass is only meaningful whenever the mass learns to well prepare, well organize, and well control in certain process.
Nobody can force us to eat sh*t, except we love to do it on our own regardless any excuses, like for the sake of our own children’s “”BLEAK”” future with sharks. For instance, Kennedy’s family members are being assassinated.
In short, we are what we do because actions speak louder than words. Back2basic
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Beth is so right. The state tests are asinine. If Hochul really thinks Cuomo is listening, she is in La La Land. Women are smarter than that. If you don’t believe me, just ask the mommies who educated Senator John Flanagan, right Beth Dimino?
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I was there today. Cuomo didn’t show, even though it was “Governor’s Day”. The public was banned from the opening ceremony, and the Lt.Gov. scurried in the back door of the building, to avoid the protesters. The building reeked of cow manure, much like Cuomo’s education policies. While it’s somewhat commendable that Hochul sat down to speak with Ms.Chetney, her responses seem disingenuous. I remain completely unconvinced that Cuomo gives a damn about students or teachers.
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Cuomo’s concern: teachers should work at McCharters for $15 an hour for two years, then enact ed policy, or work on the Cuomo campaign, 2020.
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Boy, he could have fooled me!!! And I thought he didn’t like us.
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He likes the “good teachers” which he never seems to find many of despite his stated belief that there are many.
What is interesting is what does he think of a teacher ranked good one year and bad the next. Is this a good teacher to him or a bad one?
How can a teacher be a good one according to him one year then a year later be terrible? That he makes his feelings about teachers “objective” seems pathological as what other feelings do we have that are purely subject to data?
If he believes a teacher can be good despite their rating, would not his plan reek of cognitive dissonance?
Lip service – if you are a lip reader read anything but his lips.
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“What is interesting is what does he think of a teacher ranked good one year and bad the next. Is this a good teacher to him or a bad one?”
Obviously, that teacher is slacking in the bad years.
(Tongue in cheek but not so far fetched as a reformist’s rationale)
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What’s really asinine is having juniors take SAT on Saturday, SBAC on Monday and Tuesday, APs on Wednesday, SBAC on Thursday, more APs on Friday, and NECAP Science on Monday…
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Yes, indeed. NYC is ground zero for ed reformers to perpetuate “America’s #1 in asininity.”
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Always look at what somebody does, not what they say. Talk is cheap. Actions speak loudly.
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“I’m here to tell that you he has a true commitment to supporting the profession and making sure that New York state regains its position as No. 1 in the nation in education,” Hochul said.
Phew! Well, that certainly makes me feel a whole lot better.
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