UPDATED CITYWIDE 2008-09 CONTRACT FOR EXCELLENCE PLAN POSTED ON DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION WEBSITE

July 23, 2008 -The New York City Department of Education has posted an updated citywide 2008-09 Contract for Excellence plan on its website. The posting includes a powerpoint overview of the plan and spreadsheets showing the proposed allocation of Contract for Excellence dollars to the schools.Link to DOE website with updated July 23rd plan.

The deadline for public comment is August 23, 2008. Comments may be sent to: ContractsForExcellence@schools.nyc.gov

The public may comment on any aspect of the plan, including:

1. How schools are planning to spend their discretionary funds within the six allowable program areas
2. How the DOE is allocating targeted Contracts funds to schools
3. How the DOE is allocating funds for district-wide Initiatives
4. The Class Size Reduction plan
5. The public comment process itself

July 15, 2008 - The second round of hearings on the DOE's Citywide Contract for Excellence Plan will be held on Tuesday, July 29, on Staten Island and in Queens and on Wednesday, July 30, in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan. At each location, doors open and speaker sign up begins at 6:00 pm. The hearings will begin at 6:30 pm with a presentation of the revised proposal, followed public comments. The hearings will end at 8:30 pm. Hearing locations.

State law requires that Contracts funds be distributed predominately to certain schools and spent in six specific program areas—class size reduction, time on task, teacher and principal quality initiatives, middle school and high school restructuring, full-day pre-Kindergarten, and model programs for English Language Learners. The law also requires that funds go to students with the greatest need and supplement, not supplant, previously funded programs and personnel. An updated Contract plan will be posted online during the week of July 21, 2008, followed by a 30-day public comment period.

Comments on the plan may also be sent by e-mail to ContractsForExcellence@schools.nyc.gov

June 29, 2008 - The City Council has adopted a budget that includes $129 million in classroom restorations and creates new grant initiatives that will result in new investment in critical interventions in comprehensive middle school reform and programs for English language learners. The two grant initiatives, negotiated by the Council, are designed to address two of the most urgent educational needs in New York City's schools. English Language Learners, whose four-year graduation rate is half that of the overall student population, are facing a dropout crisis. Research by the NYC Coalition for Educational Justice demonstrates that middle grade success or failure is highly predictive of whether students succeed or fail in high school.
Press release including statements from CFE Executive Director Geri Palast, NYC Coalition for Educational Justice Parent Leader Ocynthia Williams, New York Imigration Coalition Executive Director Chung-Wha Hong, Alliance for Quality Education Executive Director Billy Easton,

Contrary to state regulations requiring that 75% of the Contract dollars be distributed to benefit students with the greatest educational needs in the top 50% of the schools with the highest incidence of poverty, disability, limited English proficiency and low school performance, CFE found that the DOE is allocating only 59 percent to the neediest schools in the 2008-09 Contract for Excellence plan released on May 30. Forty-one percent is going to lower need higher performing schools.

NYCDOE is supposed to provide detailed school allocations and program investment information for the $386 million in their proposed Contract. However, the City has currently provided school allocation information on only $231 million. The CFE analysis is necessarily based on this preliminary data. More….

Information about the City's preliminary Contracts plan is posted online at http://www.nyc.gov/schools/AboutUs/BudgetsFairStudentFunding/ContractsforExcellence
Written comments on the Contracts for Excellence will be accepted by DOE through 6/27/08 at:
contractsforexcellence@schools.nyc.gov.

At the Brooklyn Contract for Excellence Hearing on June 12th, Terrence Tolbert, Executive Director of the DOE's Intergovernmental Affairs Office, announced that there will be another round of hearings on the Contracts.  Tolbert encouraged participants to comment on how the city should spend its Contract for Excellence funds in the six allowable program areas to support students with the greatest educational needs.  According to Tolbert, the DOE will consider the input from the first round of hearings when producing the more detailed Contract proposal which must be provided to the public for review at public hearings and for comment during a 30-day period before it is submitted to the State Education Department for approval. The next hearing is set for 6pm on Tuesday, June 17th, at Fashion Industries High School, 225 West 24th Street, Manhattan. The Queens Hearing is set for 6pm on Wednesday, June 18th at I.S. 230, 73-10 34th Avenue.  At present, no dates have been provided for the second round hearings. 

CFE TESTIFIES ON DOE PRELIMARY CONTRACT FOR EXCELLENCE PLAN AT STATEN ISLAND HEARING
Public Participation Process Not in Compliance with State Law and Regulations

In testimony and written comments provided at the Staten Island hearing on June 5th, CFE went on record with its reactions to the Preliminary 2008-09 Contract Plan which the DOE posted on its website on May 30th. CFE raised concerns about both violations of  the required  public participation process and regarding the apparent distribution of the Contract for Excellence funds to a significant number of high performing rather than low performing schools and to non-contract purposes. First, CFE  pointed out that the five hearings scheduled over two weeks, one in each borough, do not constitute the public comment hearings as described in the 2007 Education Reform Act and the relevant regulations.  The regulations provide for public input during the development of the Contract and then for reasonable notice and detailed proposed Contract information for comment by the public at the 32 CEC hearings on the 32 community school district plans and at the five borough hearings on the citywide plan. 

Second, despite public statements to the contrary, the preliminary plan allocates Contract dollars to most of the city's schools indicating that Contract dollars are being used to fill budget gaps.  The preliminary Contract plan fails to provide sufficient detail for informed comment on the budget allocations.  

Read CFE Staten Island Hearing Testimony including CFE's preliminary overview and analysis of allocations.

On May 16, Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver announced an Assembly resolution urging Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council to provide the funding increases for city schools that were promised in June 2007. Silver citing the recently enacted state budget, noted that state legislators had “honored our moral obligation”and kept the promise to fund New York City's schools at the level agreed upon for resolving the CFE litigation. Silver was joined by City Council Education Committee Chair Robert Jackson, CFE Executive Director Geri Palast, parents and community leaders. Press release from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Members of the Keep the Promises Coalition have planned events across the city and at City Hall for the coming weeks to give parents and supporters of public education a chance to make their voices heard.List of events.

Last year Mayor Michael Bloomberg pledged to add $2.2 billion over four years, over $600 million in 2008-09, to match the state's historic commitment to resolve the Campaign for Fiscal Equity litigation and reverse decades of underfunding the New York City public schools. The Mayor's budget released on May 1st at City Hall fell approximately $450 million short. Keep the Promises Coalition members denounced the executive budget for not upholding the commitment made to New York City's children citing the state's example of appropriating funds in excess of its promise in spite of facing a potentially daunting budget deficit. Press release

CFE along with parents, teachers, education advocates, and City Council Education Chair Robert Jackson are calling on NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein to work together with the public to develop a citywide Contract for Excellence plan that strategically invests approximately $360 million of the $622 million in new state education foundation aid in initiatives developed at the citywide level through a process of consultation with parents and advocates, and public hearings. Front-end planning to shape a strong citywide Contract plan that incorporates public input, provides strong guidance on how to spend the funds, and prioritizes significant funds for improving middle schools, reducing class size and teaching English language learners is essential to get the greatest impact from these scarce dollars for the most vulnerable students in New York City. Press release. 

CFE and members of the Keep the Promises Coalition joined City Council Members Bill de Blasio and Robert Jackson at a press conference on April 30 th on the steps of City Hall to call on Mayor Bloomberg to restore the nearly $540 million in proposed cuts to the city schools budget when introducing his Fiscal Year 2009 Executive Budget on May 1st. CFE's Deputy Director Helaine Doran read the Coalition's letter to the Mayor and de Blasio and Jackson announced that they have 45 co-sponsors for a Council resolution asking the Mayor to restore the cuts. The Mayor announced $324 million in cuts to the Department of Education (DOE) in January and an additional 3% (estimated to be $215 million) in March.

The 2008-2009 NYS Education Budget enacts a record $1.75 billion increase in funding for public education; the key issue delaying the education budget was not how much money would be spent but how it would be distributed across the state. $1.2 billion of the $1.75 billion is distributed through the foundation formula that was enacted last year to take the politics out of school aid and distribute basic classroom operating aid based upon student need. However, more than $100 million was added to this budget at the insistence of the State Senate Majority in order to accommodate the demands of the Long Island Senate delegation for so-called Long Island "shares"- a politically pre-determined division of aid based upon geography, not student need. Press release.

Formed in response to the immediate and proposed cuts on the state and city levels, the Keep the Promises Coalition is a diverse group of over 70 organization representing parents, educators, education advocacy groups, community organizations, civic groups, clergy, labor unions and elected officials. Coalition leaders warned about the crisis facing city schools if the proposed cuts are not restored. Speakers included CFE's Executive Director Geri Palast; Carol Boyd, head of the New York City Coalition for Educational Justice; The New York Immigration Coalition Executive Director Chung-Wha Hong; Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion; Lillian Rodriguez Lopez, President of the Hispanic Federation, Inc., UFT President Randi Weingarten; Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum; Alliance for Quality Education Executive Director Billy Easton; Ernest Logan, President, Council of School Supervisors and Administrators; and City Council Member Bill de Blasio who has introduced a council resolution calling upon the mayor to restore proposed school cuts and immediately reverse the $180 million in cuts already made.

In testimony presented to the State Senate Finance Committee and the State Assembly Ways and Means Committee, CFE called on the legislature to provide an additional $1.25 billion in classroom operating aid for 2008-09, restoring $350 million to the proposed executive budget.
Press Release

Press release.

CFE Testimony atthe Education Budget Issues Hearing, held by the State Division of Budget on Thursday, December 13, 2007: PDF

Entire Report: PDF HTML
Methodology, Findings, Analysis, and Appendices
Findings and Recommendations Overview
SINI/SRAP Class Size Reduction Borough Maps
Press release

Español:
Una butaca propia: Reducción al tamaño de clases en las escuelas
de más bajo aprovechamiento en la Ciudad de Nueva York
(Resumen Principal)

Read CFE and the Alliance for Quality Education's Response to Contract approvals
Contract for Excellence: Initiative and Approval Overview
District Reports: See how your School District will spend CFE Funds!

Read the full story here (Including CFE/AQE proposed changes to Contract for Excellence Regulations)
Read the Complete Regents' State Aid Proposal 2008-09

Following the recent extension of temporary rules governing the Contract for Excellence, CFE renewed its call for the enactment of strong permanent regulations that guarantee accountability and transparency in the distribution of CFE funds.
Full story here. Español

In a press conference held September 4th at the Jordan L. Mott Middle School (JHS 22) in the Bronx, the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) joined Governor Eliot Spitzer, the Alliance for Quality Education (AQE) and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), to highlight year one of the major reforms that resulted from the CFE lawsuit and the subsequent enactment of the 2007-2008 State Education Budget and Reform Act.

2007 State Education Budget Changes:
* Overall School Aid Increase: A school aid increase of over $1.76 billion for 2007-08, bringing total funding to $19.64 billion.
* Foundation Aid Increase: An increase of $1.1 billion for a new Foundation Aid program, bringing total funding to $13.6 billion in 2007-08. By 2010-11, Foundation Aid will grow by a total of $5.5 billion.
* Universal Prekindergarten Increase: An increase of $146 million for Universal Pre-kindergarten (UPK), bringing total funding to $438 million in 2007-08.
* School Facilities Funding: An increase of $148 million for EXCEL and other building aid. This will support $2.6 billion in State bonding under the EXCEL program when fully implemented over the next two years, supplementing other reimbursements supporting school construction.
* Other Aid Increases: An increase of approximately $360 million in other school aid programs, such as transportation aid and BOCES funding, bringing total funding to $1.76 billion in 2007-08.
* Unpredecented Accountability and Transparency Measures: The "Contract for Excellence" commits school officials to producing measurable results in student performance by utilizing proved strategies that work: smaller class sizes, full day kindergarten, teacher quality initiatives, middle and high school restructuring, and more opportunities to learn such as after school programs.

CFE now looks forward to meeting the challenge to ensure that these resources are adequately spent to maximize learning, and provide every student with their constitutional right to a sound basic education. Together we can start a new chapter in New York public education history!

CFE joined forces with the Alliance for Quality Education (AQE) and the parents and advocates that championed the new education reform legislation and urged the New York State Board of Regents to adopt regulations that guarantee the priority of high need students, parents' participation, accountability and transparency in the implementation of Governor Spitzer's historic school funding reform regulation. Speakers at a press conference held Thursday, April 24th at the Joseph M. Barry Career & Technical Education Center, in Westbury, Long Island, included New York City Council Member Robert Jackson, CFE Executive Director Geri Palast, AQE Executive Director Billy Easton, and Brentwood Central School District Superintendent Michael Cohen. Earlier in the week, concerned parents had sent over 350 emails to each member of the Board of Regents supporting accountability in following the money to schools.

Read CFE/AQE's comments & recommendations to the Regents on the Contracts for Excellence regulations.

Campaign for Fiscal Equity, Inc.
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