EDU-CAP: Early Education in ACTION!

Last year’s re-election of Obama had reignited serious talks establishing new policies and strategies dedication to ensuring all children have access to quality early education and child care. In the last three weeks we’ve seen early education in action: from parents challenging NYC for the teacher evaluation impasse, to a state senator introducing education legislation, and even President Obama detailing plans to expand early education in his state of the union address. 

NYC Parents Challenge $250 Million Penalty for Teacher Evaluation Impasse

On February 5th, 2013, attorney Michael A. Rebell filed a lawsuit on behalf of nine New York City parents and their children, which challenged the constitutionality of a state statute withholding $250 million in state aid to NYC public schools. The Department of Education failed to reach agreement with the teachers’ union, United Federation of teachers, on a teacher evaluation plan by the January 17, 2013 deadline established by the state. Plantiffs in Aristy-Farer v. State of New York are suing Governor Cuomo and Education Commissioner John King for depriving NYC kids their “right to a sound basic education.” The city’s department of education indicated plans to implement a hiring freeze that will increase class sizes, reduce school aide time, professional development, anti-bullying programs, pre-kindergarten special education, extracurricular activities, after-school and other programs as a result of the loss of these funds. 

This case challenges the “penalty in the form of reduced funding and reduced educational services on public school students…violates the constitutional right of plaintiff students and the approximately one million other students attending the New York City public schools to a meaningful opportunity for a sound basic education and to due process and equal protection of the laws.”

*UPDATE* Aristy-Farer v. State of New York

On February 13, the parties met for the first time for a hearing. Assistant Attorney General Steven Schulman described the $250 million funding cuts is not great enough to have any effect on schools’ ability to provide a sound basic education. Yet Attorney Michael A. Rebell explained that with schools already struggling from years of budget cuts, the money represented a lifeline for kids. If New York County Supreme Court Judge Mendez sides with the plaintiffs, the state will not be able to proceed with its plans to initiate cuts starting on March 1st, and will have to wait for the court to hear the case before it withdraws the promised funds.

Senator Parker Addresses Early Childhood Education

On February 6^th, 2013, Senator Kevin S. Parker unveiled an Early Childhood Education legislative package necessary to improve New York’s early education system. Parker requested co-sponsorship of the package and bills to “ensure the viability of our state, and invest in the future of our most precious resource, our children.”

The four pieces of his early education legislative package includes:

1. Establishing the Universal Prekindergarten Program (UPK) as a State-funded program that provides educationally-based high-quality prekindergarten to four year old children
2. Requiring the Department of Labor to conduct a study of the economic impact that the child care industry has had on the state economy
1. Analysis of employees at childcare/ early education facilities, amount of federal dollars to the state for early edu-care programs, and evaluation of parents ability to work outside of the home etc.
3. Ordering the authority for school health demonstration projects to conduct projects for the purpose of providing expanded school health services for pre-school and school-age children.
4. Requiring persons operating motor vehicles transporting children less than school age, teachers and other supervisory persons to comply with the requirements of Article 19-A of the Vehicle and Traffic Law (which imposes requirements such as criminal history background checks, driver qualifications, examinations and tests, and disqualification from operation).

 Senator Parker Addresses Quality Education

A continuation of his Early Childhood Education package, on February 11^th  Sen. Parker introduced a legislative package seeking to improve New York’s overall education system, which was modeled on the Alliance for Quality Education’s “Averting Educational Crisis” Conference. The Conference addressed three major areas of concern in New York’s education system: Educational Opportunity, Kindergarten to College Readiness, and Solutions rather than Suspensions.

The nine pieces of Parker’s Education package includes:

1. Creating parent and student training centers operated by the City University of New York to encourage parental engagement within public schools, by conducting training and support programs for parents to increase their ability to participate in school governance.
2. Creating a continuum of the higher education pipeline within the State University of New York, continuing the record of higher education access and service to academically and economically disadvantaged residents of NY.
3. Encouraging the parents of students to attend and participate in New York State Board of Regents meetings by requiring at least two meetings each year to be held in New York City
4. Establishing the Universal Prekindergarten Program (UPK) as a State-funded program that provides educationally based high-quality prekindergarten to four-year-old children
5. Ordering the authority for school health demonstration projects to conduct projects to provide expanded school health services for pre-school and school-age children
6. Requiring principals to give additional information to the city or district school authorities of the discharge or transfer of students.
7. Establishing a mentoring program for youth released from facilities of the Office of children and Family Services (OCFS) NYC within ninety days.
8. Place a Child in Every School Seat Act of 2014 - Establishes a public awareness and education campaign on the importance of earning a high school degree, and create an incentive program to improve school attendance.
9. Prohibits waivers for nominees to the office of chancellor of the NYC school district.

Details of Obama's Plan to Expand Early Education Emerge

In his State of the Union address last week, President Obama pledged to support state efforts to expand access to early education to all children. "Let’s do what works, and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind," the president said. "Let’s give our kids that chance."

President’s Key Details of his proposal:

·      The federal government will provide states with matching funds to enroll children up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level in high-quality preschools. The funds will be allocated across states based on their share of children who fall in that income range.

·      High-quality programs are: those meeting state standards for early learning; those with qualified teachers; and those with plans to implement data-driven assessments of their success.

·      Those matching funds can also be used by states to expand access to full-day kindergarten

With all this talk and action pushing on the early education front not only at a city-level, but also at a state and federal level, the next few months (even weeks) are going to be an exciting time. Now that everyone seems to be on board to devote resources and invest in our children’s futures, early childcare and education is expected to go through a transformation; and we at HMESF are more than willing to contribute to that.