New York Now

Family Leave may soon appear in a benefits package near you and you might find a new charter school in your neighborhood next year. This is New York now. Funding for New York now is provided by the New York State Health Insurance Program offering New York State Public employers and employees the employer plan a plan as great as the Empire State. The New York State Builders Association of Research and Education Foundation we're dedicated to training educational programs and research studies focused on the residential building industry. For more information visit Nisbet dot com United University professions represents thirty three thousand academic and professional faculty. An all state operated campuses of the State University of New York with the union big city with. Additional funding provided by W and 80 support for New York nows website comes from Philips Lytle. Says York now with your host Susan or better.

If you have a new baby a sick relative or a death in the family. You could get 12 weeks of paid leave from work under a measure debated this week by legislative leaders. Governor Spitzer has proposed paying for the benefits through an annual insurance payment of about 30 dollars. A compromise on the Family Leave Act is in the works and we're going to have more on the final days of the legislative session during the reporter's roundtable with Karen DeWitt of New York State Public Radio and Danny Hakan of the New York Times. What if the biggest state issues of 1998 has taken on new life in 2007. Charter schools nine years ago the idea gained traction under Governor Pataki and became law thanks to a midnight handshake that included pay raises for the legislators. Under the funding formula for charter schools state aid follows the student which means smaller city school districts like Albany where there is a higher proportion of charter schools than anywhere else in the state feel a budget pinch when they lose students to charters. What's happening in New York now.

Here's this week's big issue. This is the new covenant charter school located in Albany as Arbor Hill neighborhood. Two weeks ago trustees announced that the troubled school would shut down this week they say thanks to a deal that they cut with the bondholders. The school will stay open. Deal or not the school's possible closure sparked tensions between charter school advocates and charter school opponents in Albany and all of this is happening while Governor Spitzer has announced he wants to open 100 new charter schools across the state. Observers on both sides of this rancorous debate agree that new covenant was troubled from the beginning. It opened too soon too big a building you see here is spacious enough to hold 900 students. Though the student population never got that high the school still has to pay what amounts to a mortgage. It can't afford a new confidence grade. Need some improvement right a choice about two miles uptown is on the honor roll. It's

attracted so many students it recently expanded its boy schools. Why is rightor choice doing so well. New York now asked that question of Christian Bender the head of the brighter choice foundation. The success of rider choice is really a result of doing the things that being a charter school. You know is taking advantage. Of the ability you have as a charter school to be administratively nimble. To control your growth. To offer a school culture that is you know sort of unapologetic with the structure and to be a great contact with parents and a partnership kind of a way. And I think that's why we our fall and and successful and high performing and I think that's what parents want. Wider choice has ended Roman of two hundred eighty four students in grades K through four years and girls are educated separately. Both the school day and the school year are angrier than in the Albany City School District. Discipline is enforced everywhere you look. Did I say go to Williams desk and hang out there. OK so I'm I'm

not going to say any more. So is academic achievement. Bueller. 3. The Rev.. Run. Run run. Run run. Run. Run. According to Bender math and English scores are among the highest in the city. But according to charter school critics district schools are being forced to compete on an on. Even Plainfield for example two or three students at brighter choice have special needs according to former Albany school superintendent Lonnie Palmer. Twenty percent of the kids at Albany city schools are considered special needs. So let's do the math right or choice currently educates two hundred eighty four kids 20 percent of 284 is fifty six students. If brighter choice were to educate the same percentage population they would have 56 kids with

learning disabilities which they do not. And says Palmer comparing charters to traditional public schools which have to educate everyone is like comparing chocolate milk. To broccoli. If you compare broader choices test scores to those of a non-disabled population at a traditional public school they don't look so great. Another difference. Younger kids are less expensive to educate according to Richard III a newsy the president of New York State United Teachers. He says Most charters are open to kids K through five under the charter school formula which doesn't distinguish among more and less expensive students in the district schools are well falling behind. The money is calculated based on an average of cost K through 12th grade 12 grade being students who cause the most. The charter school gets the average let's make believe that sixth grade but most of its students are from first and second and third grade. So at the outset the public school is

sending a dollar amount higher than its cost for the students who are going. So it loses just when it sends students out the door. Charter schools across the state can be authorized by the SUNY charter school Institute on behalf of the SUNY board of trustees as well as the New York State Board of Regents which brings up another reason charter schools irritate district superintendents like Palmer the local voters in Albany didn't say yes to that charter school. The charter school Institute said yes to that or the regents said yes to that. So the community doesn't have a voice in determining whether these charter schools open. And that's part of the resentment that comes back to haunt basically the city of Albany. That resentments simmer to a boil May when Albany city school's annual budget was defeated. Palmer blames the number of charter schools in the city for increased budget costs. But Peter Murphy the policy director for The New York Charter Schools Association says that's hogwash.

Public education has been so well funded throughout my adult life let alone the last couple of years between the outgoing governor and the Ngati incoming governor. Public education has received a bonanza resources just this year alone. Albany got a 17 percent increase in its funding. Indeed Albany did receive a 17 percent increase in its funding. But under the state's new contract for excellence the district was not permitted to use the money to offset taxes. Now the Governor Spitzer wants to raise the number of charter schools in the state by 100 these sore spots between the district and charter advocates are becoming more inflamed again. Richard I a newsy of nice it. I think it's a mistake to raise them by a hundred I think it's a mistake to raise the number within the context of the current law. It will take new covenant as an example and I will take their own advocates. Both Peter Murphy and Tom Carroll who at the outset have said one of the reasons. New Covenant failed was because it was a rush to open. Well there's something wrong with the process by which we grant charters. If they were allowed to open in

a rush instead of in a formal process they have said that that that process has changed over the last night while the governor has started to change it. I don't I don't think enough I don't think there's enough thought given to it I don't think there's enough accountability really. Yes the budget includes transitional aid for district schools affected by charters. The bad news is according to Lonnie Palmer that some of these costs still aren't recoverable. Peter Murphy says that's just sour grapes that parents are voting with their feet. This is a 10000 plus student district and fifteen hundred or 600 of the students are in charter schools and so that's a higher percentage than than exists elsewhere. And. What That's a statement too is parents are making that choice to take their children out of a district run school into a charter school for. Their own mistakes. Right. Living.

According to its website the charter schools institute real accept applications for new charter schools from all over the state. On Friday June 29 but the rank are facing charter schools will likely continue until the legislature does something about how these alternative schools are funded. Again choice school superintendent Lonnie Palmer. I'm sure if our legislators put their mind to it they could fix it. But we've been so busy basically taking shots at each other we haven't gotten around to fixing. Them. Perhaps when it comes to the charter schools debate adults could take a few lessons from the students. We thought we would check in with the person Governor Spitzer has tapped to implement his vision for education in the Empire State. Dr. manwell Rivera. 24/7 that's how manwell Rivera describes his new job as Governor Eliot Spitzer's deputy secretary for education. Much of his day and often evening is spent in long meetings discussing what's wrong with New York schools and what it will take to fix them.

Formerly co-chair of the governor's education transition team Manny as everybody calls him says he's starting to feel right at home in his office on the second floor of the Capitol especially after all those late nights and early morning sessions during the recent state budget process. And that couch came in pretty handy for me. Comfy. Yeah very comfy. Looks uncomfortable but it's very comfortable and when you have only had two or three hours of sleep. Just a few months ago though it looked like Rivera would have a different home. Word had it he was headed to Boston to become that city's superintendent of schools. Suddenly though with Boston officials eagerly awaiting his arrival Rivera turned his back on be in town and reported $300000 salary to come to Albany for nearly half that amount as Eliot Spitzer's point man on education. The governor Rivera said made him an offer he couldn't refuse. It is incredibly exciting the idea to have an impact on a statewide basis not just with your K-12 system but your case 16 your public higher ed system. You know to potentially impact the lives of close to 3

million young people and the hundreds of thousands who are attending our public higher ed system and even beyond that the governor's saying we've got to find the right mix to help children from the time they're born and they go into pre-K and then into school so he's looking at it from a very comprehensive way. And what he said to me you know the month before I accepted that you know here's an opportunity that we were going to embark on some historic new trends in this state. I knew he was dead serious. And and it was very very exciting to me. And I love the idea of staying in New York quite honestly. New York's been the place where for 30 years Dr. Rivera's made his mark on education as teachers principal in two time Rochester a school superintendent named national superintendent of the year in 2006. RIVERA earned his master's and doctorate from Harvard as senior policy advisor on education Hill act as the governor's liaison to Commissioner of Education Richard Mills and the

board of regents were very well regarded partnership building skills will be called upon as he pushes forward an ambitious education reform package that includes tough new accountability measures. We've just advanced a major increase and an historical increase in funding to public education. Close to 2 billion dollars. It's part of a four year plan. So the governor wants to assure that that new funding that's now coming into districts that it's invested in in the right kinds of services and programs and that we are in fact getting the kinds of results that the public expects when you make that kind of expenditure. And it's not just looking at the K through 12 system and graduating more young people from high school but the college system as well. The governor is very interested in making certain that New York has the premier public higher its system in the country.

You've been quoted as saying this is a great quote creating great schools isn't rocket science. So if it's not rocket science what is it and why don't we have schools that are achieving all over the place. Sure. You know it's interesting if you listen to students. They are the best. Voices for great schools and they will tell you it is having quality caring teachers it's having a curriculum that is engaging and motivating for them. It's being in a school where they are nurtured they are listened to they are respected. It is a school where you have leaders who share their leadership with others where parents are engaged and parents are involved in supporting the education of young people you know and it in the ideal world where we have quality facilities and we have great use of technology at our fingertips. It's a question of aligning your resources and your strategies to make sure that those things happen.

One of the ways Rivera and the governor are planning on making sure those things happen is by requiring underperforming school districts to sign a contract for excellence that ties funding to rigorous new performance requirements. Failure to meet those requirements may result in serious sanctions by the state such as dismissal of superintendents or even entire school boards. There are 56 districts right now across the state that received a. Increase of greater than 10 percent or 15 million dollars. And they are now going to be required to complete a contract. Basically to show how they use this increased revenue to improve education within their districts. Not only did they have. Not only are they required to complete these contracts because of the increase in funding but because they may have a school or they themselves as a district has been cited for performance issues. So what we want to be able to do is make certain that all those districts where there is a. Where there's a

state or federal performance issue that they are now completing the contracts to show how they've invested that money in reducing class size restructuring of middle schools and high schools providing more time for learning pre-K or to improve the quality of their teachers. Pretty much everybody wants a piece of the substantial pie that governor is offering but they're not exactly thrilled about signing on the dotted line. The Senate voted unanimously to delay the contract for excellence for a year even though the senators agreed to let underperforming districts keep the extra aid. That's a problem. I mean here we've advanced close to 2 billion dollars to districts we know that there are performance issues and now we're saying there's no expectations for the development of any kind of plan and how that funding is going to be used. I think that's a mistake. The assembly has yet to take up the issue. There may very well be more late nights and early mornings ahead for Manny Rivera but now. Want to more important matters. So would you say the restaurants are better in Albany and in Rochester. So far I've

been very pleased with with Jack's with the NRA and you know I did have lunch once before. Lombardo your I'm going to get around to as many as I can. I love Lombardo's. I don't know about you guys but it's one of my favorite restaurants in Albany. I just don't go there enough I think specially in the fall when they have the pumpkin ravioli. No but all of it's excellent. Check it out every time I go there though it's like out on like the leaders meeting which lasted about two hours what happened Karen DeWitt of New York State Public Radio. That's about the longest leaders meeting I think I've ever seen it was like a marathon they went through all these issues they brought in like guest legislators to talk about the issues and in the end they didn't really agree on anything but they certainly kind of aired their differences and I think that it was good for. A public meeting for the public to see it. But you know I don't think that they accomplished maybe as much as they need to with just two

weeks left till the end of the session right two weeks left and he comes here from the New York Times you were there at the leaders meeting So tell us what you what you gleaned from it. Well it's probably a little troubling this is only two weeks left and they're bringing new issues on the on the table. There's just there's so many issues floating out there that they're working on and there's not even one you know one sort of signature issue that rises above the others. I mean some of the big ones that work you know are you know they want to expand the DNA database so they collect DNA for any kind of crime in the state. Cameras in the courtroom cameras in the courtroom family I mean they're kind of newer ones that kind of popped up this week but I think Spitzer he just kind of wants to do everything he's very energetic and sort of different from former Governor George Pataki when he came in he just had like a couple of issues restoring the death penalty cutting taxes he just kind of stuck to them. And Spitzer I think because a lot of these things haven't been acted on in many years he just kind of missed out there trying to do everything but you know broad brush. Yeah but the danger with that is you might

not get anything done because you know he's the one that has to prioritize and he seems to have priorities but now the recent leaders meeting he's kind of slipping away from them adding new things and you know what happened to campaign finance reform. That was a priority earlier in the session. Yeah. That that's a very good question he hasn't been bringing it up at leaders meetings he was asked about he said it's it's still important but it seems like he's not pushing I mean he was going out to senators districts and campaigning you know against them because they didn't some of the Senate Republicans didn't want to do campaign finance reform the way he wanted to do it. So it's sort of interesting to see if that's happening or is that something that's going to happen behind the scenes. Congestion Pricing Danny wrote an article for about that issue what's the latest. Well it seems like the governor has really gotten behind it at least in principle he does he does have some some problems with some of the details but he's you know he's he said he's going to work to get this thing passed. That doesn't mean it's going to get passed the assembly assembly Democrats definitely have some problems with it.

And you know as Mayor Bloomberg knows Shelly Silver can kill a major project in the Jets stadium was probably the biggest development initiatives of the mayor's first term and it was it was a Speaker Silver who killed that project. It's interesting that the positions coming from the assembly Democrats because the Senate Republicans that they put out a bill this week right. Congestion pricing that they did. I don't think it's even a certainty to pass the Senate. You know it's funny they introduced a bill but Senator Bruno put out a statement and he didn't exactly endorse congestion pricing. Let's suppose it doesn't have a sponsor right there right it's known as Senator rules the rules committee so they can put their name on it but I think I think it's interesting that that is moving along and in a way that you know kind of surprises me that it is Senator Breaux and I let's talk about him he was reacting this week to this federal probe into his life let's take a look at the majority leader earlier this week.

Are you confident still that there will be no criminal charges. I've said all that I'm going to say about what's been going on for over a year. I've been accused of nothing. As we speak and be accused of not doing so he's accused of nothing. Karen DeWitt of New York State Public Radio who is looking at Bruno and Juan I think it's interesting the way you introduced that clip saying looking at his life it's kind of that's what's happening the federal officials the FBI. There's a grand jury probe into just about everything that he's ever done and he does have a complicated web of business dealings with the horseracing industry with all kinds of other things he has a private consulting firm and they've just they're just ripping apart piece by piece you know essentially his life and looking at everything. So far they they haven't gotten anything to indict him on or at least he hasn't been indicted yet so we have to assume that but there was a leak to the Albany Times Union that they were looking at a particular horse deal where he bought some horses from this guy

Earl Mac a politically connected guy who used to be on the New York Racing Board and then he was and then he sold the horses for a profit. So it seems like that may be what they have on him. Now you've got to kind of wonder if they're looking for all his. Why all that. I mean any any time the feds look into something for more than a year it's obviously a pretty serious situation the one you would rather not have to be dealing with. You know I think one of the challenges for the for the you know for the FBI and for the prosecutors is state laws do give lawmakers a lot of latitude to have outside business interests. I mean lawmakers are considered part time. A lot of them have outside business interests. And you know it's definitely a gray area that they're looking at it. You know it's not just the horseracing transactions they've they've issued subpoenas to businesses all over the region. So they look at a lot of material it's not clear if they have enough to make a case. And some of his business associates have gotten large grants from the government a form of member

items for their particular high tech business in Troy. But yes certainly I mean Senator Burr know it seems like you know he acts like doesn't bother him because he's that kind of guy. But certainly it's got away on him and if he were to be indicted you know it would just really derail him I think and could possibly topple him. What about just the investigation how is it affecting him politically Carol. Well it just seems like it's not really affecting him right now because I guess until you know he's indicted people don't want to bring it up but you know as I said Certainly it's got to weigh on him pretty heavily I think. I think the stakes are pretty high not just for him but just for the Republican Party in the state because if he were indicted. You'd have to wonder what would happen to the Senate. Would the Republicans be able to hold the Senate and it's their only statewide power base and I think you know they only have a two seat majority I think to be really hard for them to keep the Senate if he was indicted. The be a cloud over them going into 2008 and you could have repercussions in a New York State really could do it but we don't really know if it's going to happen or not. You know

I have my doubts whether this U.S. attorney is going to actually go through with that given all the problems that some other U.S. attorneys across the nation are having that they got fired for not going after Democrats enough so why would this U.S. attorney want to was I pointed by a reply and administer Yeah right. President Bush why would he want to indict New York state's top Republican if he doesn't have to. So that's just sort of my personal theory about it. We are running out of time but Karen I know you wanted to talk about some big bundling party. Well you know when we. When we were talk about campaign finance I suppose we probably should have mentioned it and I'm glad that that you brought it up. Governor Eliot Spitzer kind of gave himself a birthday party this week. He's voluntarily limited his campaign contributions to attend just $10000 which is way lower than than what you can get in the state yet he's encouraged people to gather up their friends and everybody give $10000 and bundle it together and give it to him in exchange you get special privileges like you get to go to a barbecue it is how you get to go to a holiday party. So that could be one of the

reasons why he has been talking about campaign finance reform this this particular week because of the party. Yes exactly. We're out of time care and away of New York State Public Radio Danny Hakan of the New York Times what a pleasure thanks for joining me. Thank you. Thank you. Again our poll question of the week Do you support charter schools the way they are currently funded in New York. You can vote on our online web poll it WMATA dot org slash New York now. I hope to hear from you. Have a great week. Funding for New York now is provided by the New York State Health Insurance Program offering New York State Public employers and employees the employer plan a plan as great as the Empire State. The New York State Builders Association Research and Education Foundation were dedicated to training educational programs and research studies focused on the

residential building industry. For more information visit Misbah dot com United University professions represents thirty three thousand academic and professional faculty on all state operated campuses at the State University of New York. UPI the union makes in the room. Additional funding provided by w o any t support for New York nows website comes from Philips Lytle.