Hundreds of educators, parents and students from Jericho, Syosset and all over Long Island gathered at Westbury High School March 12 to defend public education.
The crowd, which spilled from the Westbury High School auditorium into the gymnasium, rallied against what they called Governor Andrew Cuomo’s “anti-public education propaganda.”
Much of the crowd was made up of teachers who were members of New York State United Teachers (NYSUT). The union has decried Cuomo for his proposed budget, which, among other components, gives the state the ability to appoint a third party agency to take over school districts deemed as failing, uses state testing to evaluate teacher effectiveness and puts more money toward charter schools. Cuomo has not released the school state aid numbers to districts until the state legislature approves his demands.
Board members are currently working off projections to put together their school budgets. If the governor’s educational amendments are passed into law, he is expected to release as much as $1.2 billion to school districts, if not, it could be as low as $300 million.
Teachers groups, educators and community activists all over the state have been regularly holding rallies to call out Cuomo and voice their displeasure with his reforms.
“Tonight we are here to celebrate public education,” said Westbury Board of Education president Dr. Pless Dickerson at last week’s rally. “Although everyone’s challenges may be different, I’m sure everyone can attest to and identify the road blocks public education is facing today. Let each and every one of us make certain our voices are heard on behalf of public education.”
The Plainview-Old Bethpage School District does not have a regulation in place to alter a parent’s or student’ decision to opt-out of the federally mandated standardized tests aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Lorna Lewis said the district honors what a parent believes is best for their child.
“It is a parent’s or student’s right to determine whether he or she will or will not participate in the assessment, and the district can not take disciplinary action toward students who choose to opt-out,” she said. “Students who have opted-out of taking the exams will be placed in separate classrooms and will be asked to read a book during the time of the assessment.”
Parents joined the fight as well, saying they would stand united with educators.
“When you reduce teachers to a single test score, you’re taking away their ability to teach. And when you do that, our children lose,” said Marianne Adrian, a parent of three young children in the Levittown School District. “Governor Cuomo’s proposal is not only hurting our teachers and schools, but it’s hurting our children. But together we will fight and give our children what they deserve.”
In response to Cuomo’s proposal for more testing, the opt-out movement has grown stronger.
Hundreds of parents across Long Island have chosen to have their children not take state tests, which have no academic bearing, but are only used for teacher evaluations.
In Carle Place, parents can opt their students out by writing a letter to the school principal. On the day of the test, students must reaffirm that they want to opt out.
Andrea Bergin from Carle Place said she is not against testing for learning and diagnostic purposes, but believes these tests are meaningless.
“This is invalid in my son’s education. It does nothing but collect information and unfairly test teachers,” Bergin said. “They’re taking the power away from communities and teachers and the administration and forcing us to do things that are not working. Carle Place was college and career ready, but now the whole system is convoluted.”
Read more about the battle for public education on page 10A.
