Assemblyman Ed Ra (R-Franklin Square) and Assembly Minority Leader Brian M. Kolb (R,C-Canandaigua) led a press conference today announcing an agenda to revitalize New York’s education system. The plan encompasses six major points that would bring necessary change to the Common Core curriculum and ensure an appropriate and high-quality education for students across the state.

“Our plan rolls out a comprehensive and aggressive education agenda full of new proposals and fresh ideas,” said Ra, Ranking Minority Member on the Education Committee. “Over the past few months it has come as no surprise that many education and state leaders have reversed their initial backing of Common Core. I strongly believe that we cannot move forward until we adopt measures that correct our state’s volatile curriculum, beginning with a full restoration of funding for districts across the state.”

“New York’s students, teachers and parents have waited long enough for changes to a broken system,” said Leader Kolb. “From the beginning of the flawed Common Core rollout, the Assembly Minority has been the only Conference in Albany to stand firm and demand necessary reforms in testing, in curriculum and in evaluations. Our education proposals for 2016 reflect the concerns we’ve heard from a variety of stakeholders, and it’s time for Albany to finally take action.”

“The Next Step” 2016 Education Agenda put forth by the Assembly Minority Conference would:

• Eliminate the Gap Elimination Adjustment (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.

Stakeholders, from across New York State, including members of New York State Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) and school superintendents, also attended today’s event. They expressed an equal sense of urgency to adopt this agenda to address New York’s flawed education system.

“We will continue to work with the legislature to make sure our public schools are fully and fairly funded, an appropriate set of high standards is developed with the collaboration of teachers, drastically reduce testing times for the state tests in grades 3-8, decouple student test scores from teacher ratings, and protect our students' personally identifiable information from third-party vendors," said Tim Farley, NYSAPE founding member.

“School districts across the state have been forced into a one-size-fits-all curriculum while having to deal with massive funding cuts as a result of the unfair GEA,” said Bob Horan, Superintendent of Schodak Central Schools. “It’s just not realistic to expect every school to be successful when we can’t implement the standards and assignments needed for our unique student populations. In order for school officials and educators to efficiently do our jobs, we need the transparency and flexibility that allows us to do so.”