Assemblyman Christopher S. Friend (R,C,I-Big Flats) today joined his Assembly Minority colleagues to announce their new education reform initiative, The Next Step.

“What we’re doing today is revamping our education platform to tackle the issues with Common Core and other reforms forced through the legislature in recent years, like the teacher evaluations in last year’s budget,” Friend said. “The Next Step consists of six individual points, like ending the Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) for good, creating new pathways for success, and creating New York State learning standards. We firmly believe that this is the best way to give our children, teachers, parents and administrators the kind of education system they deserve.”

The full six points of The Next Step are:

• Eliminate the GEA and delineate a definitive plan for the full phase-in of Foundation Aid;
• Repeal the current teacher evaluation system and empower the Board of Regents to establish, with requisite input from education experts, school administrators, parents and teachers, a teacher evaluation system to be implemented statewide;
Create new state learning standards with the help and guidance of teachers, school administrators, parents and education experts;
• Ensure all state assessments are age/developmentally appropriate and of the highest quality;
• Increase the transparency of the state’s testing program and protect teachers and students from the negative effects of state assessments until major reforms are made; and
• Provide increased flexibility for our students by providing them with multiple pathways to success and our local school districts by giving them the freedom and resources to develop curriculum locally.