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June 26, 2012

At first meeting, Cuomo’s ed reform commission maps road trip

by Geoff Decker, at 8:00 pm

Who's who: John King, Randi Weingarten and Geoffrey Canada (in background), were among the top education officials who attended today's inaugural meeting. In foreground from left are Mary Anne Schmitt Carey, of Say Yes to Education, CUNY's Eduardo Marti, and Chair Dick Parsons, a former executive at Citigroup and Time Warner.

At their first official meeting today, members of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s blue-ribbon education reform commission stayed away from specifics.

But their two-hour discussion, held in a Midtown conference room, previewed some of the issues they will tackle as they travel the state to learn about problems facing local school districts.

The 25-member commission, announced more than six months ago, is tasked with coming up with recommendations aimed at reducing costs while improving the overall quality of the state’s schools. A report is due in late 2012.

New York State’s 3.4 million student school system is diverse and complex. It boasts the country’s largest school district — New York City — but it also includes six districts that employ fewer than eight teachers. At more than $18,000 per pupil, spending in the state is the highest in the country, 70 percent higher than the U.S. average, according to an analysis by Cuomo’s office. Spending has increased dramatically in the last 15 years, outpacing inflation, but student performance has barely budged. The state ranks 39th in graduation rates (73.5 percent) and no higher than 19th on any of the four NAEP test scores.

Cuomo has argued that the state’s school funds should be used more efficiently. The commission — which  includes many of the state’s and country’s top education officials, including union leader Randi Weingarten and state education chief John King —  is supposed to figure out how to make that happen.

As a first step, the group will break into three subcommittees, Commission Chair Dick Parsons announced today. Elizabeth Dickey, president of Bank Street College, will lead a subcommittee on teacher and principal quality, likely to focus primarily on the controversial evaluation systems that have stalled reform efforts across the state. Former Citigroup CEO — and newly added member — Sanford Weill will head a committee analyze how education funding is currently allocated. A third committee will be led by Harlem Children’s Zone CEO Geoffrey Canada and will review the role of test scores and other assessments for measuring student outcomes. Canada’s committee will also look at the role of parent engagement.

Each subcommittee will take the same 10-region tour of the state, starting July 10. They will meet in New York City July 26. At those meetings, they will listen to public comments about what changes should be undertaken.

Whether those meetings will have an impact on the commission’s work is yet to be seen. Michael Rebell, a commission member who studies school equity issues, questioned whether the two to three hours allotted for each meeting would be enough to capture the full range of public opinions. And Carrie Remis, an upstate parent activist added to the commission amid criticism that it included no parent representatives, encouraged Parsons to allow parents to submit comments in writing because they are likely to be working or at home with children during the commission’s meetings.

The regional meetings will be starkly different from one another. Weill said that he planned to look closely at district consolidation as an option for school districts in western and upstate New York, where student enrollment has plummeted.

That’s unlikely to be on the agenda for New York City, with 3,300 students per square mile. Instead, Weill’s committee is more likely to discuss issues like capital funding and facility costs. An official at the city’s charter school advocacy center took to Twitter during the meeting to say he hoped that the conversation would touch on new facilities funding streams for charter schools that currently operate in private space.

“#charterschools sure would love to see facility funding be part of the discussion,” David Golovner, an official for the New York City Charter Center, which advocates and supports charter schools, wrote on twitter.

Cuomo’s staff launched a new web site for the commission in conjunction with the first meeting today.

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  • Clay

    Blue-ribbon commission or one of toilet tissue stained brown?

  • East Sider

    Interim report in December and final report in September, 2013. Each commission member introduced themselves and riffed on their own hopes/wishes/pet projects … the agenda is overly broad. Chair Parsons made it clear there were no “scared cows.” Will the final report be platitudes or concrete proposals … ?  stay tuned.

  • Roma Giudetti

    Oy Randi Weingarten — god help us all!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002397245457 Mary Conway-Spiegel

    $18,000.00 per pupil.  Gotham, PLEASE research/investigate how those dollars break down. How much money does a child actually see: in the classroom, in paper, in books/supplies, in technology (on the ground), in class size reduction, in teachers, in one-on-one attention, in guidance counselors, school psychologists, college counselors and more.  
    The above number is deceptive (?), it’s used as leverage, a whip, a fear tactic and more…but is it used by children?  At every “failing” school I visit – NO.

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    I agree with you entirely.  This is the only question that matters.  Where does this money go?  It’s reported in the DOE’s financial statements, but I’ve never seen a clear, comprehensive account showing how the dollars flow through the system and fly by the students.  And the number is probably higher than $18,000, which sounds like a number that excludes the city’s spending on pensions and debt service for the DOE. If you include those numbers, the figure’s probably more like $24,000 per student.

  • Mr. Flerporillo
  • Mr. Flerporillo

    Here’s a first step.  Based on the DOE’s most recent financial report.  It does not include pension and debt service spending, fyi.

  • Anonymous

    Hi Mary (and Flerp), it’s my understanding that the state’s average of $18,000 per pupil does in fact include benefits. I think that the NYC DOE does per-pupil funding slightly differently, which I’m trying to figure out. 
    Mary, the average education spending breakdown is addressed on the slideshow presentation. Here’s the link: http://www.governor.ny.gov/assets/documents/NewNYEducationCommissionPowerPoint.pdfBenefits make up 21% and non-instructional (central administration) makes up 21%. Instructional expenses make up 57%. 

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    Geoff — last year, the DOE spent $18.9 billion in its operating budget.  That’s from the DOE’s annual report.  It breaks down according to the pie chart I posted below.  That money includes “fringe benefits,” which I believe includes some measure of current employee benefits (although I neither recall nor at the moment suss out everything that’s included and not included in that category).  Anyway, that $18.9 billion comes out to $17,200 per student, assuming 1.1 million students.  

    Based on the current year’s operating budget of $19.7 billion, per-student spending comes out to about $17,900 per student, pretty much in line with the state’s calculation.

    But note that these operating budget figures do NOT include (1) pension payments for DOE retirees or (2) payments for debt service allocated to the DOE.  That tacks on another $4.7 billion, by the city’s estimates.  If you include those figures, that brings per-student spending to $22,181 (again, assuming 1.1 million students).  

     

  • East Sider

    Pension payments to teachers come from the Teachers Retirement System TRS) … the City pays into the TRS each year an actuarially computed sum … which will diminish over the years due to the new Tier 6, additionally the City pays for health plan benefits … about 1/3 of the “cost” of a teachers is pension and welfare benefits.

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    “which will diminish over the years”

    In the meantime students get to see how long they can hold their breath. 

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