GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Only one of these four state lawmakers had praise for Joel Klein today during his testimony on budget cuts: The woman on the bottom right, Assemblywoman Barbara Clark of Queens.

How much do lawmakers in Albany dislike Joel Klein? The chancellor fielded a flurry of criticisms today after his testimony before a joint session of the legislature. And only some of the criticisms had anything to do with the subject of the day, budget cuts. The rest politely slammed Klein on the one Albany fight where he’ll really need their help: mayoral control of the public schools.

Klein desperately wants to preserve control as it is, but many lawmakers said they aren’t happy with the law or with how he’s led as chancellor. The criticism was so persistent that, at one point, Klein plead with lawmakers to keep their opinion of him out of their thoughts on mayoral control. “Whatever you think about me personally,” he said, “you need the stability of that kind of leadership to transform education.”

Assemblyman Herman Farrell of Manhattan dedicated all of his questions for Klein to the mayoral control subject. “We’ve had what I call a silencing of the lambs,” he said. “I don’t know who speaks for the parents, who speaks on behalf of the parents.” Farrell then proposed a way to bring debate back to the running of the schools: He wants to create a second position called “sub-chancellor” or “uber-chancellor” — someone to take on the regular chancellor.

Assemblyman William Colton, who represents southern Brooklyn, made a similar complaint: “There seems to be a feeling among parents that they don’t have the input or the ability to be listened to,” he said.

Other lawmakers criticized Klein’s policies. (more…)

Speakers at a press conference to support school construction. From left to right: James Ahern of the Central Labor Committee, Leonie Haimson of the Campaign for A Better Capital Plan, Robert Jackson of the City Council, and Michael Mulgrew of the United Federation of Teachers.

Advocates who have been calling for the city to bulk up its school construction plan say the federal stimulus package could help the city do just that.

A string of City Council members, public officials, and parents urged the city to use the new federal funds to build more schools at a press conference at City Hall today. The Senate is likely to approve a stimulus package today that includes $14 billion of dollars in funding for school modernization and renovation projects, as well as tax provisions to help school districts foot the bill for new schools.

Where the federal funds will break down is not yet clear. But many are worried that whatever money the city does receive, it won’t be prepared to use. They say the city’s proposed five-year capital plan for school construction, first released in November, undersells the city’s need for additional classrooms and suggests that the city isn’t ready to make the most of new federal funds.

Expanding the capital plan would allow the city to take advantage of the stimulus money, Leonie Haimson, a parent advocate who is one of the chairs of the Campaign for A Better Capital Plan, said at the press conference. (more…)

Joel Klein is asking for flexibility and more money from the state at a joint session of the legislature today. Watch the testimony live online by clicking here.

Fleshing out the doomsday picture Mayor Bloomberg has laid out already about what would happen to schools if Governor Paterson’s proposed state budget is passed, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein told a joint session of the state legislature today that Paterson’s plan would force layoffs of 15,000 school-based staff, including teachers. He estimated the total state budget cut at $1.4 billion next year, a gigantic figure he said would translate into an 18% cut for every school next year.

He said that the schools could be forced to lay off staff as soon as this school year, because of a possible $84 million mid-year budget cut. “It would be right now saying to our schools, you’ve got to terminate people right away,” Klein said.

Klein is asking the legislature for help in cushioning against a scenario as bleak as that. He wants more flexibility in how the city schools are allowed to spend funds, especially Contracts for Excellence funds. He said he is also “praying” for help from the federal government.

“We don’t want to lose personnel,” he said later. “Particularly, we don’t want to lose young talented people that we’ve recruited in recent years.” If teacher layoffs happen, the least experienced teachers would be the first to lose their jobs, according to provisions in the teacher contract.

Klein said that cutting the Department of Education’s administrative budget is no longer possible. Right now, he said administrative costs make up just over 3% of the school system’s total costs. “That is about as small of an administrative budget as you’re going to see,” he said. “It means we have no choice but to cut back on core school operations to fill this budget hole.”

Klein is testifying at a joint budget hearing in Albany. You can watch the hearing live on the Internet here.

Here is where you can watch today’s state Senate hearing on education budget cuts, live on the Internet. Richard Mills, the state education commissioner, is now urging lawmakers to continue doling out promised Campaign for Fiscal Equity payments — even if the scheduled increases have to slow down somewhat. Governor Paterson’s budget proposal calls for freezing the CFE increases, and delaying the promised hundreds of millions still left to come for several years.

To watch the live Internet video, make sure you have Real Player downloaded. Chancellor Joel Klein will testify soon.

Here’s Mills testifying, and more about what he said is below the jump:

(more…)

Remember that Red Hook high school that is not only getting shut down this year, but is closing immediately, without a phaseout — making it the first school in the city (at least that I know of) never to graduate a single student?

An Agnes Humphrey junior just wrote in with a description of what it feels like to have your school close around you:

Im a junior at this high school and i was P.O when i found out. we (the students) was notified about this about 2 or 3 weeks before high school applications where supposed to be sent in, that was back in december. a week before the deadlines, they told us that we had to pick schools to transfer to. most of the students here including myself have been here since pre-k even middle school we are not ready to transfer into a new big high school when we were so used to attending a small school setting. also since ive been here i have seen a GREAT turn around in students behaviors. its not that bad as it used to be. Its january now and were not hearing much word of what to do next…

A majority of New Yorkers think mayoral control should continue after the June 30 deadline for state legislators to decide the fate of the 7-year-old school governance structure.

A new poll out of Quinnipiac University found that 56 percent of New Yorkers think mayoral control should continue. The poll also found that 34 percent of New Yorkers want to see mayoral control of the city’s schools end this summer.

At least some of the people polled are doing what’s advised by Learn NY, the group lobbying in favor of mayoral control, and separating their views on the current public schools administration from their opinion of mayoral control. The same poll found that only 47 percent of New Yorkers consider Mayor Bloomberg’s takeover of the schools a success.

One other interesting data point: Only 50 percent of women want to maintain mayoral control, while 63 percent of men do.

• Schools are poised to get billions of dollars in the federal stimulus bill. (Times)
• New immigrants at a Brooklyn high school reflect on Obama’s inauguration. (City Limits)
• Joel Klein: Chicago’s new schools chief, a transportation official, is a good pick. (Chi-Town Daily News)
• In his budget, the governor of Massachusetts offers new support for charter schools. (Boston Globe)
• The Los Angeles teachers union is calling for a boycott of practice testing. (L.A. Times)

• Diane Ravitch says unionizing at KIPP shows teachers will resist efforts to make them dispensable.
• The author of “Are We Rome?” chronicles the decline of penmanship.
• Ken Hirsh, the charter school supporter, is very happy with Bill Gates’ letter.
• Jonathan celebrates the end of the Math A Regents test, with reservations about the new exam’s rigor.
• As schools gird for gigantic cuts, the left-leaning Fiscal Policy Institute urges Albany to tax the rich.
• John thinks the state should write a curriculum for students who enter schools with no formal education.
• NYSUT obtains a state memo on what to do if terrible weather disrupts Regents exams.
• The Gates Foundation is rolling out grants for data systems.

Flypaper and Politics K12 report dramatic differences between the House and Senate stimulus bills’ education allocations. The House bill includes funds for three things teachers unions often oppose: performance-based pay, education data systems, and a separate pot for charter schools. The Senate bill has none of these things.

Mike Petrilli says this reflects the divide inside the Democratic Party on education issues, and it’s hard to argue against that. The question I’d like answered is, which bill did the Obama administration have the most say in writing?

Update: As Leonie points out in the comments, I originally said Senate where I meant House and vice versa. House version has the reformier stuff.

Learn NY, the group lobbying the legislature to renew mayoral control, today sent out a second message to parent e-mail lists. The message addresses concerns from parents who’ve been wondering why they should support mayoral control if they don’t support the mayor’s education policies.

Answers Learn NY, in the e-mail (reprinted in full below the jump):

These are fair discussions, but I would like to state that I am not here to champion or defend specific policy decisions that the mayor has made. But the fact that parents are holding the mayor directly accountable for the changes in our schools highlights the key issue for those advocating for the renewal of the law– for the first time, we have a line of responsibility: the schools are accountable to the mayor, and the mayor is accountable to us.

We are all, now, education voters. Just as much as our next mayor is responsible for keeping the streets safe and providing city social services, the mayor’s job description now includes education and there is a clear obligation to insure that our schools improve.

Learn NY’s first message to parents (and parent bloggers) was introductory. The full e-mail is after the jump. (more…)