Testimony of UFT Vice President for Education Evelyn DeJesus before the New York City Council Committee on Education

Good afternoon. My name is Evelyn DeJesus, and I am Vice President of Education for the United Federation of Teachers. It is a privilege to speak today on behalf of the thousands of educators we represent and the 1.1 million students whom we serve. We are here today to talk about how the city budget can be used to strengthen our schools and improve outcomes for our students.

I want to thank Chairman Dromm and members of the education committee for this opportunity, as well as your tireless advocacy on behalf of the public schools in your districts. Our school communities are stronger thanks to your leadership.

This hearing comes at a pivotal time, with negotiations on the state budget taking place as we speak. There’s a lot at stake in those discussions. For the last four months, the UFT has been engaged in a public battle with Governor Cuomo over his discredited education proposals and his making any increase in school aid contingent on his agenda being adopted. The governor’s proposals for public schools are so counterproductive that the New York Times accused him of engaging in “political score-settling” rather than dealing with the central issue of school funding inequities.

The core problem is that our governor is refusing to acknowledge the landmark Campaign for Fiscal Equity settlement which obligates the state to provide New York City public schools with the funding necessary for all students to receive a sound, basic education.

Speaker Mark-Viverito and the Council have repeatedly and passionately spoken out about the need for the state to honor its obligations under the CFE settlement, and for good reason. School-funding inequities have reached record levels during Governor Cuomo’s tenure, with our state now having one of the country’s biggest funding gaps between wealthy and poor districts.

New York City schools would receive roughly $2,600 more per pupil if the CFE settlement was fully funded, according to a recent report by the Alliance for Quality Education. By this calculation, New York City public schools are owed an additional $2.5 billion, which means:

• Manhattan schools have been collectively shortchanged $376.7 million;
• Brooklyn schools are owed an additional $724.8 million;
• Queens schools should have received an extra $704 million;
• Bronx schools are due an additional $513.9 million; and
• Staten Island schools are owed an extra $154 million.

Within the boroughs, we have individual schools that are each owed literally millions of dollars.

The state’s failure to fund its obligations amounts to a disinvestment in our public schools that, as parents and teachers can tell you, takes a toll. There is a lack of academic intervention services that results in fewer kids reading on grade level. A shortage of guidance counselors means too few college-readiness programs. An insufficient number of classrooms and teachers lead to large class sizes. And so on. The ripple effects of inadequate state funding affects every student we serve.

Statewide, the amount that Albany owes to schools now totals more than $5.5 billion. As you know the state stopped working to meet its obligations under the CFE settlement following the 2008 financial crisis. Now both the state and city economies are recovering, and the state is still failing to step up to the plate.

This chronic underfunding can be felt in our schools every day. In New York City, we have 4,000 fewer teachers — a 5 percent decline — since before the financial crisis, but we have nearly 30,000 more students with special needs, and a net increase of 10,000 students overall.

That is why the Council’s leadership and support is so critical. We urge the Council to continue and expand its support for the following initiatives, each of which meets an urgent need to ensure that our city’s students receive a high-quality education:

• Reducing class sizes, especially bringing class sizes in kindergarten through grade 3 down to no more than 15 children, which can be paid for by closing tax loopholes for nonresident, absentee owners of luxury properties;
• Providing adequate facilities for student learning, including through renovating current space, adding new buildings, removing trailers and making other improvements;
• Supporting Teacher Centers to ensure high-quality professional development throughout the system;'
• Reimbursing teachers for out-of-pocket classroom expenses through the Teacher’s Choice program; and
• Redesigning more schools to serve as “community hubs” that offer a range of programs and services to students and parents through the Community Learning Schools Initiative.

Proper funding, more social services, smaller class sizes and collaborative teacher support. These are the kind of proven solutions that make a difference in children’s lives. We welcome the Council’s continued support and advocacy for our students and schools.

Reducing class sizes and adding more seats

Parents and educators know that smaller classes offer children greater opportunities for the individualized attention they need. Research has confirmed again and again that smaller classes increase a child’s chances of academic success. But, sadly, tens of thousands of New York City students still attend oversized classes or have classrooms in trailers.

The UFT held a news conference earlier this year to advocate for reducing class sizes for kindergarten through grade 3 to no more than 15 children. We proposed that the city could pay for this by closing tax loopholes that allow some 90,000 nonresident absentee owners of luxury properties to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, cheating the city out of hundreds of millions of much-needed revenue every year.

The UFT also believes that the city has a far greater need for new classroom seats than would be provided under the new capital plan. The plan calls for adding 32,000 seats, of which only 62 percent — or roughly 20,000 — are expected to be completed within five years. We estimate the need for additional seats to be far higher – between 45,000 and 70,000.

We needa comprehensive strategy to reverse this trend of oversized classes, and we seek the Council’s support for creative approaches to generating the needed revenues. The UFT also welcomes efforts to remove the 350-plus trailers, called temporary classroom units or TCUs, stationed outside our schools and to add more seats in overcrowded districts.

Our schools cannot make these critically important reductions to class size without sustained commitment from both the city and state governments. We applaud the city’s moves to make long-overdue technology enhancements in our schools and to accelerate the timeline for replacing PCB-contaminated lighting fixtures. Ultimately, the Smart Schools Bond Act may be helpful in accomplishing all of these goals, but Governor Cuomo’s administration has yet to detail a plan on how money from that bond will be distributed or spent.

Enhancing teacher skills

Thanks to our collaborative work with Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Fariña and to a series of innovative programs established by our new contract, we are proudly moving our schools forward. That includes an expanded career ladder for teachers through the new positions of master and model teachers, as well as dedicated time for professional development and parent engagement.

These initiatives are enhanced through the work of our Teacher Centers, which operate within more than 125 schools around the five boroughs. The school-based staff in our Teacher Center Partner Schools provide an invaluable service by designing and delivering professional learning opportunities, including intensive classroom support, after-school study groups, citywide networks, conferences and work sessions.

Educators need and want ongoing — and meaningful — professional development. The 36-year-old Teacher Center program has drawn national acclaim for supporting teachers in their work to help students learn and succeed. The Teacher Center bases its offerings on the latest research and best practices in literacy, early childhood education, mathematics, and differentiated instruction to support children with disabilities and English language learners. If you have attended our annual spring conference, you have no doubt seen the standing-room-only workshops, which are all developed by Teacher Center staff. 

It’s worth mentioning that as the city’s Renewal schools now begin to receive much-needed supports and teachers in those schools are being mentored and trained, our Teacher Centers are perfectly aligned to help support and enhance that work. Our Teacher Leadership Academy is already providing educators across the city with a host of learning opportunities, including all-day conferences, after-school coaching and feedback through our online professional-learning community.  

We are proud of the advances our schools are making through the additional professional development and work that our Teacher Centers are able to accomplish on a limited budget. That work is vital to the success of our schools. But there is concern that Governor Cuomo will completely eliminate funding for this program this year. That’s why we are asking for the Council’s support in the form of a $20 million allocation to keep this vital program running.

Increasing Teacher's Choice

Teachers will tell you that they often find themselves buying supplies for their classrooms; they give selflessly out of their hard-earned money. New York City teachers spend on average close to $500 a year on materials for their students, with nearly one in five spending at least $1,000.

Educators always need materials of some kind, either for a single project or for the classroom as a whole, from basics such as pencils, glue and craft supplies to instructional materials and even computer hardware and software.

That’s why our members so appreciate and value the Council’s Teacher’s Choice initiative, which reimburses educators for some of what they spend on their classes. We respectfully ask that the Council continue its commitment to this important and enormously popular program. For Fiscal Year 2015-16, we propose a $20 million allocation.

Expanding community schools

Our union also strongly supports additional investment toward the development of community schools, which are structured as community “hubs” to provide a wide range of programs and services to students and their parents. Students and their families face a myriad of challenges daily, from homelessness to food insecurity to mental health and behavioral issues. Community schools partner with local businesses and organizations to create or bring in programs for mentoring and tutoring, food and wellness, vision and dental health, physical and mental health, and more. Under the community schools model, these services and programs are seamlessly integrated into a school’s daily operations to help the school remove whatever obstacles stand between children and academic success.

The UFT’s own Community Learning Schools Initiative now includes more than two dozen schools, and the Council’s support of the CLS initiative has been essential to its growth. As we look to strengthen the work of Community Learning Schools, we hope the Council can again provide support. This year, our hope is to secure $1 million from the Council to develop a program that will align mental health services with our various community schools.

Too often, parents encounter a lack of mental health supports in their community or they have difficulty making appointments due to their work schedules. , We have proposed providing easy access to mental health supports by creating a network of mental health providers and key community partners to serve students and families at our Community Learning School sites. Schools where families need additional mental health supports will be able to access this network and decide which mental health providers best fit their school community. 

The UFT wants to thank the City Council for its leadership and advocacy on behalf of our school communities, particularly on the issue of school funding. You have shown that sufficient funding and strong support can make a world of difference for schools and students. Weare seeing that at our Community Learning Schools.

We will not stop fighting for our students by pushing back against Governor Cuomo’s harmful political agenda. We welcome your support in that effort, and we look forward to working with you in the months ahead.