Testimony of Michelle Bodden Vice President for Elementary Schools United Federation of Teachers to the joint session of the City Council Education and Finance Committees Hearing on Mayor’s Preliminary Budget
Mar 20, 2006 12:00 AM
My name is Michelle Bodden. I am the United Federation of Teachers vice president for elementary schools. On behalf of UFT President Randi Weingarten, I want to thank Chairman Jackson and Chairman Weprin for this opportunity to offer the union’s views on the mayor’s preliminary budget. I also want to offer our appreciation to Speaker Quinn and the 12 council members who joined us in Albany last week to lobby the legislature for CFE funding.
Let me also congratulate the speaker for convening the recent hearings on the much-needed whistleblower-protection legislation.
We’ve sparred with the mayor on budget matters over the years, and we will do so again, today. But first the good news. We’re pleased to report that when it comes to recognizing what Albany needs to do, we’re reading from the same page.
The mayor, the council and the UFT all want the governor to drop the CFE challenge.
We all want the state to pay the court judgment.
We all want greater state funding for schools statewide.
We all want the $1.8 billion in capital funding in the new budget to build more schools and create more classrooms, especially for those neighborhoods where students and teachers continue to suffer from school overcrowding.
And we are all glad to see some attention finally being paid in Albany.
We also think there is wisdom in the mayor’s efforts to set up a rainy day fund to ensure that retiree health care benefits are secure.
But when it comes to the city schools budget and the things the mayor and chancellor prioritize, the UFT has some key differences with the mayor.
Our overall objection to the mayor’s preliminary budget is that when it comes to education, he is thinking small while city budget revenues are living large. Even without more from Albany, his budget could do better in ensuring every child a sound, basic education.
Every year, the mayor’s budget office low-balls tax revenue estimates, and every year the city exceeds them. Last year the city ended its fiscal year with a record $4 billion surplus, and according to State Comptroller Hevesi, this year’s could reach $5 billion. This seems obscene when measured against how little is made available to schools.
And Fiscal Year ‘07 may very well lead to another record-breaker. Already, the city’s finance, insurance and real estate sector is reporting surging growth, which means a healthy revenue uptick for the city. Investment bank giant Lehman Brothers’ earnings rose 24 percent this quarter and 56 percent over the past year, breaking Wall Street estimates, while rival Goldman Sachs saw earnings increase by 64 percent, posting record profit and revenue.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reports Bear Stearns’ net earnings rose 36 percent, none of which is anticipated in the preliminary budget. These record Wall Street earnings are already fattening this year’s city budget surplus, and will be felt again next year, in revenue from income tax on bonus. Is the good Bloomberg News not getting through to the Bloomberg administration?
What few new dollars the city is willing to put up for education—some $70 million—is targeted only for charter schools and private school special education placements. Note these items are being funded while at the same time, according to the Education Priorities Panel, public school special-education funding has declined sharply. And while some charter schools may be worthwhile investments, time needs to pass for us to fairly judge whether we should support further growth in this area over other priorities. Thus far, no analysis justifies even greater support at this time.
What we see then is fiscal austerity amid plenty. That drive for austerity has consequences. Take class sizes.
State Comptroller Hevesi’s audit report last Thursday showed 59 percent of early-grade class sizes were still too large, that 21 percent had more than 25 students to a class, and that the city is still out of compliance with state law. That’s despite lower enrollments and despite receiving more than $88 million in state funding for the Early Grade Class Size Reduction Program every school year since 2000-2001 to bring early grade class sizes down to 20 students.
Hevesi found the DOE was using this money elsewhere.
How do we shrink class sizes? Brick-and-mortar construction of new schools is clearly part of the solution. As I said, the mayor, the council and the UFT are all on the same side in getting capital aid from Albany to add the 900 classrooms that would allow K-3 classes to have no more than 20 pupils each. But more operating dollars to hire more staff is needed, too. Paraprofessionals and additional specialized services could help ease the deleterious effects of oversized classes by providing another adult to attend to individual children.
Not to mention that the mayor’s call for just 2 percent of CFE dollars targeted to smaller classes is just not enough. That is why we will continue to fight for the referendum of New Yorkers for Smaller Classes to be put on the ballot. Let the voters decide whether 25 percent of any CFE money should go to reducing class size, which is what the coalition advocates. Class size reduction is the number one issue for parents and teachers. Yet the city corporation counsel has stubbornly opposed us at every turn.
The school system holds teachers accountable for results – and that is fine. But that same school system is obliged to provide the resources to attain those results. DOE’s refusal to use the resources they were given by the Legislature to reach the mandated goal of 20 students per class shows priorities must be changed.
It shows something else, too: the budget’s murkiness, its lack of transparency. It shouldn’t take a comptroller’s audit to understand where the resources are going, or spot that they are not going where they should. Although we can understand the impetus for spreading the funds to reduce class sizes in the upper elementary grades, we cannot condone the practice of doing it in secret, against the Legislature’s express wishes, and without any public input or oversight. That’s why the UFT, along with the Alvarado Commission on CFE, supports an independent oversight commission to watchdog educational spending and to evaluate new initiatives.
Class size is equally important at the other end of a student’s educational experience. If there is a gap between class sizes in NYC and the rest of the state, it is at its largest in our high schools, which average 8 to 10 more students per class. It should therefore be no surprise that our graduation rates are so abysmal, and why they are getting worse. We must focus immediately on reducing the size of Regents classes so our students can prepare for the exams and graduate.
Another critical opportunity to help young adults graduate from high school that we are missing involves our evening high school and GED programs. Ironically, these valuable programs are in decline. The DOE’s adult ed programs provide half of all the tuition-free literacy, GED prep, ESL and vocational ed classes available to New Yorkers over 21, but they have suffered $6- to 8$ million in cuts in the last two years. Where one in seven New Yorkers is functionally illiterate, these programs should be expanded, not cut. There are other programs that are sadly shortchanged in this budget proposal, too. Let me briefly mention a few: school safety; student support services; and pre-K in particular.
The present budget doesn’t do enough to secure school safety and allow students to learn without fear of constant interruptions, even violence. The SAVE law was created for that purpose, but its funding is less than a seventh of what it should be: that is, less than $20 million of a projected cost of full implementation in every district of about $140 million. That doesn’t mean simply putting up a detention room. It means a fully staffed room so suspended students are not denied instruction. It means intervention services. It means guidance services, so they can return to classrooms able to behave and ready to learn.
And speaking of guidance and intervention services, the budget also doesn’t begin to address the schools’ responsibility in preventing tragedies such as the one that befell 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown. Missing school can be a red flag for problems at home, and we need to more carefully monitor attendance. Right now the DOE employs just 340 attendance teachers, each of whom often covers from 10 to 30 schools. The schools need caseworkers who can visit the school when an abuse allegation is made. Each school also needs at least one guidance counselor. Both the schools and the Administration for Children’s Services need technology to share information.
What else is lacking?
The mayor’s budget does nothing to expand Pre-K, even as we know that no educational investment yields a greater return than early childhood schooling. Right now, just half of all city four-year-olds receive any public-school pre-K services at all. Part of the problem is that working parents cannot use a half-day program. Whether in schools or in other settings, we must expand the opportunities for early education.
Finally, let me address two areas for supporting teachers where this council has been particularly helpful in the past. Even with all your help, just one in every four schools has a copier machine for staff use. We advocate installing 360 staff copy machines, which means doubling the current number, at a cost of $5.4 million, plus $400,000 for maintenance contracts for the 360 machines now in place.
The City Council also created the Teachers Choice program, now 20 years old, and it has been a model of success. Unfortunately the program has not kept pace with spiraling costs. Instead, it is allotted at a fraction of what teachers—especially new teachers—pay out of their own pockets for classroom supplies. Boosting the current allocation to $250 per general ed teacher, $200 for special ed teachers will get this program back to better reflecting actual out-of-pocket spending.
To sum up: The city’s financial picture has improved quantitatively, yet the funding for schools does not come close to reflecting that improved picture. The public is entitled to see more and know more about that. And no amount of justifiable criticism of Albany for failing to agree on a CFE payout justifies a city operating budget that so poorly serves students, parents and teachers. If we want to keep middle class families in the city, if indeed we want to enable our children to achieve their dreams and grow to become fulfilled, productive citizens, it will take city and state dollars, spent wisely and well. The UFT stands ready to support your every effort to achieve that.
Thank you.
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