Today, Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush (R,C,I-Black River) voted in favor of education reform legislation, A.7303A, a bill which delays the deadlines related to teacher evaluation regulations and strikes the requirement that schools adopt the regulations by the deadline in order to receive badly needed school aid increases.

“I’m certainly going to vote for legislation that supports our teachers and students, but this measure is no victory for the Assembly Majority, who are trying to save face after their disappointing vote on the budget which contained the governor’s troubling so-called teacher evaluation reforms,” said Blankenbush. “This bill is a step toward reform, but there is more we can do to support our educators and students. During the last days of the Legislative Session, we really need to push for policies that will support our schools.”

The bill changes the date by which teacher evaluation policies must be adopted from June 30 to November 17. It also gives schools an additional year to adopt and negotiate their evaluation plans from November 15, 2015 to November of 2016. Additionally, the bill would not tie school aid increases to the adoption of these teacher evaluation regulations.

The bill requires annual release of the test questions and answers of the latest round of English Language Arts and Math tests, creating more transparency in Common Core testing. It also strikes the governor’s requirement that schools have independent trained evaluators, which will save taxpayer money.

Blankenbush said the portion of the bill related to content review and curriculum was mainly derived from the Assembly Minority Blue Ribbon Commission Bill, A.3656. The bill was recently blocked in the Assembly Committee on Education by the Majority.

“I am pleased to see movement on this issue, but I encourage fewer games and less politicizing of our children’s education. We must fully adopt the reforms my Assembly Minority colleagues and I have been pushing for,” concluded Blankenbush.