Letter to BRO by Chris Jacobs, member, Buffalo Board of Education:
President Obama’s innovative $4 billion dollar Race to the Top initiative presented Albany with a win-win opportunity – legislate some much needed education reforms and receive $700 million in return for its budget strapped school districts throughout the state.
After six years on the Buffalo Board of Education, I shouldn’t be surprised that the State unions told the Albany ‘leaders’ to ignore the Obama Administration and refuse the two reforms that all knew were critical for a competitive New York application. The two reforms were to remove barriers to the creation of charter schools and second, allow student academic performance to be used in teacher evaluations. The unions and state legislators said “no” to $700 million dollars for our kids and “yes” business as usual.
I thought we were supposed to be about the children? When politics and power gets in the way of $700 million dollars – in the midst of the worst budget crisis in memory – its way past time to get fired-up.
Unfortunately, New York unions have fought tooth-and-nail to protect their monopoly on public education and against any sort of accountability. This reminds us of a critical fact, these unions represent the adults who work in the system -not children and their families. In fact, the unions frequently do not even represent a good portion of their own membership – most notably younger teachers – who always bare the brunt of budget cuts due to the “last-in-first-out” layoff rules in most union contracts. Simply, these Race to the Top funds would have staved off thousands of layoffs of younger teachers and union actions have thwarted this effort.
That is the ugly past we need to now focus on the future. The future is the next round of Race to the Top dollars. Grant applications are due in June. To be competitive Albany needs to stand up to special interests and make these reforms.
In this current fiscal crisis we need to fight for every dollar to avoid massive layoffs and assure all our children have a quality education. I urge all citizens to contact their legislators and tell them to make the Race to the Top Reforms now by joining and showing your support.