Setting the Agenda: Expert Analysis on Education

Due Process Safeguards Our Students' Education
Karen E. Magee, President of New York State United Teachers

If the hasty rollout of Common Core taught us anything, it may have been the value of teachers speaking out against policies and programs that are not in their students’ best interest.

Teachers across the state spoke out collectively, with clarity and expertise. The public—especially parents—needed to know this premature implementation was penalizing students who hadn’t even been exposed to material on which they were being tested.

Without the right to due process that tenure ensures, many of those teachers would have thought twice about defying their local school boards or administrations to take their concerns public. In fact, some of those teachers who chose to act in the best interest of students might have been forced to look for new jobs.

Tenure is a safeguard that ensures good teachers can speak up for their students. It is a safeguard that protects academic freedom, enabling good teachers to challenge students to be the best they can be without fear of being fired for political or arbitrary reasons. It helps ensure that our students are entrusted to true professionals.

It’s ironic that the lawsuit making its way through a New York court seeks to strip all teachers of due process by claiming tenure protects incompetent teachers, when the truth is that it protects good teachers from unjust firing. The hedge fund managers, Wall Street bankers and conservative foundations—bankrolling efforts to strip all teachers of their due process rights— choose to ignore the fact that tenure is just one of the many rigorous standards and safeguards that ensure a quality teaching force in New York’s public schools.

Teachers and their union have zero tolerance for those who tarnish the profession. But tenure is a necessary safeguard that protects good teachers, and it is a priceless safeguard for students.

Remove Barriers to Achievement: Our Work Is Not Done Yet
James Merriman, CEO of the New York City Charter School Center

Last spring, we reached a milestone in leveling the playing field for public school students and ensured a future for the New York City charter school sector. Thanks to Governor Cuomo’s leadership, and the good work of our legislature, new and expanding charter schools in New York City are set to receive public space or public funding. But our work isn’t done.

Three stubborn barriers to treating charter schools like full partners in the enterprise of educating our students persist.

First, there is still a “charter cap” that arbitrarily limits the number of effective schools that can be opened.

Second, many charter schools in New York City and across the state that educate tens of thousands of mainly low-income students do not receive any form of facility funding, unlike the 3,000 public schools managed by school districts.

That’s why ensuring equality in facilities funding and eliminating the charter cap once and for all are among the charter sector’s key goals as we look forward to the next legislative session.

Third, we need to make sure that charters have parity in funding, whether it is for operating or capital expenses.

It’s no secret that many charter schools are among the highest performing public schools: small wonder that for the past two years demand from parents has grown, to the point that 50,000 charter school students are on wait lists in New York City alone. We shouldn’t artificially restrict the ability of parents to choose a school that works for their child; nor when it comes to funding should we send the message that if a student goes to a charter school, he or she is somehow less deserving of our public support.

But beyond our legislative goals this session—which we and our partners will work tirelessly to achieve—we also feel it is well past the time for the political discussion to change. Having access to a high quality public school is something that everyone should support. It is neither a Republican nor Democratic issue. Parents don’t care whether the public school they have chosen is a charter or one that is managed by a school district. They care that it works. This is as true to schools as it is when they seek a college, a hospital or if they must rely on other social services that are provided through government and the dense net of non-profit institutions, without which New York State simply could not function.

Who delivers that service doesn’t matter; what matters is that it works. If we keep that one, simple principle in mind, the politics and policy choices we must make to move forward in educating our children become much clearer.