General News

UFT: Modify governance law

Apr 23, 2009 3:05 PM

UFT Vice President Carmen Alvarez voiced support for mayoral control of city schools, but stressed the need for modification of the School Governance Law at the New York State Assembly’s Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force conference on April 4.

She called for adding “institutional checks and balances [to the law which is scheduled to expire on June 30] that give a meaningful voice to parents, teachers and community members, indeed all New Yorkers who care about how our children are educated.”

Alvarez spoke as a member of a panel — Grading Mayoral Control: Governance of New York City’s Public Schools — which included Chancellor Joel Klein and other education, union and community leaders and was held in the Legislative Office Building in Albany.

The law must include reform of the current central board, the Panel for Education Policy, she said, so that it can act as a mechanism for discussion and review of major educational policy changes as it was intended to do.

The union vice president for special education also questioned the repeated claims that graduation rates and test scores are up systemwide. She noted that while the overall achievement of 8th-graders still shows they are unprepared for high school work, the disparity is especially extreme and continues to grow for students with disabilities and English language learners.

That disparity, she added, also carries over to graduation rates.

“We are creating an underclass,” Alvarez warned, “and that must stop.”

To warm audience applause, she continued, “We cannot have success for one group of students at the expense of another. Our goal must be success for all students.”

Alvarez has been co-chair since 2007 of the UFT School Governance Task Force which held dozens of meetings and six public forums attended by more than 12,000 people. Testimony and debate at those meetings, she said, endorsed reform of an effective governance system that should: ensure accountability and transparency, encourage public involvement in decision making, provide clear lines of communication and responsibility, comply fully with state laws, support teamwork and collaboration and ensure stability and oversight of resources on which schools depend.

She cited the importance both President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have placed on shared responsibility for the education of America’s children, including teacher input.