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Fighting For A Strong Public Education System In New York City

 

Bill Thompson is one of our City's leading public school advocates. A product of New York City's public school system, Bill understands the importance of providing every child with a quality education while also respecting the important role of parents and educators.

Through effective fiscal management and close collaboration with parents, teachers, and school administrators, Bill believes our City can accelerate school achievement and ensure that every student receives the education they need to be productive contributors to our society and our economy.

As City Comptroller, Bill Thompson:

• Exposed serious flaws in the City's tracking of student graduation, finding that student transcripts did not have evidence supporting graduation for one out of every 10 students sampled-raising unanswered questions about our City's highly-touted graduation rates.

• Found that the Department of Education (DOE) created an environment that both encourages cheating and allows the Mayor to claim achievements that cannot be verified.

• Revealed outrageously wasteful spending at the DOE. In one audit, Bill found that Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) charged the DOE up to $500 per hour for labor alone, totaling $16 million for its services to our City. Bill also found that some of A&M' s recommendations to the DOE, including various bus route changes, would have potentially placed New York City children in harm's way.

• Uncovered serious problems with the DOE's accounting and fiscal practices after finding no evidence of the $250 million in savings the Department claimed as a result of its Children First reorganization program.

• Found that the DOE badly monitored a number of its own programs and expenses, including its job order contracts program, its travel expenses, and $785,000 in overpayments made to non-public schools.

• Proposed new mechanisms to finance and accelerate school construction, including measures to facilitate development of schools in buildings shared with residential or commercial occupants.

• Released reports showing that the DOE failed to report specific instances of violence in our schools.

• Testified before the New York State Assembly Committee on Education on the need for increased physical education in schools to combat childhood obesity.

• Supported active inclusion of parents in education decision-making and education policy in testimony in before the Chancellor's Parent Advisory Council.

• Urged increased investment in vocational training in New York City schools in order to provide young people with the skills they need to compete in today's economy.

• Proposed a plan to improve mayoral control of our schools that included a substantial role for parents and the Panel for Education Policy nominating committee, and increased parental involvement in newly-empowered Community Education Councils, which would be given more say in deciding programs offered in local schools.

• Proposed an independent body to audit test scores and graduation rates, given concerns over data manipulation related to the Department of Education's trumpeted gains in test scores and improvements in graduation rates.

• Condemned the Department of Education's ballooning use of no-bid contracts under mayoral control, and proposed fair and open competition in the awarding of City contracts.

As Mayor, Bill will:

• Tell the truth and ensure that there is an honest accounting of performance both inside and outside the classroom. The schools should undergo an accreditations type review every two years so that we can restore and maintain credibility in our school system. The findings of the review must be made public.

• Fire Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. New York City needs a Chancellor who is an educational leader and who cares about children and what goes on in the classroom. It's time to bring back an educator to our schools who can lay out an educational vision that goes beyond taking tests and creates opportunities for our children to be successful in life.

• Get back to basics. We need to fix the curriculum so that we are not just teaching to the test but teaching the whole child. Students have become expert test takers, but cannot retain or apply what they know in a context other than the test environment. We must teach math, reading, and writing-but we must also teach science, civics, history, arts, music, geography, and physical education.

• Put the public back in public education. Parents must have a voice in their children's education and future. Options to encourage parental involvement should be streamlined and the number of District Family Advocates must be expanded.

• End the privatization and deregulation of our public school system. The lack of oversight and supervision over the last seven years-with little accountability-has put the school system at serious risk. It has allowed for the proliferation of no-bid contracts, the hiring of private firms to perform the tasks of public employees, and it has meant the closing of the neighborhood public school. Bill will ensure that a system of checks and balances is in place.

• Design public school choices that work. Chancellor Klein has dismantled many of our large high schools and replaced them with small high schools and charter schools. These schools provide a solid option for many students, but they don't work for all students-and charter schools often exclude poor and special needs children. Instead of closing schools indiscriminately, the Mayor should be working to reduce class size and supply prompt technical assistance to schools in need.

Bill Thompson’s 5-Point CUNY Plan

Our most important responsibility and our City’s greatest hope for the future is the successful education of our children. The City University of New York (CUNY) must therefore be considered one of our City’s greatest assets. We simply cannot have a strong and vibrant City without a strong and vibrant CUNY system.

CUNY schools are also vital to the creation of a new economy. Our emergence from these challenging economic times will demand a competent and well-educated workforce—with the necessary skills to take advantage of today’s new technologies—brimming with the entrepreneurial spirit that has made our City great.

Bill Thompson recognizes the critical importance of CUNY to our educators, our students, and our City, and he believes we must leverage President Obama’s $12 billion investment in the nation’s community colleges to educate and train more people for the “jobs of the future.”

Our CUNY two-year colleges have long been at the forefront of providing a first rate, affordable education for countless New Yorkers. In tough fiscal times, we must redouble our efforts to provide future generations the opportunity to succeed in the workplace and achieve financial independence.

As our next Mayor, Bill will implement the following 5-point plan to reinvigorate CUNY schools.

PLAN #1: INCREASE FUNDING FOR CUNY

The Professional Staff Congress recently issued an analysis of Mayor Bloomberg’s budget proposals and the results clearly expose the Mayor’s misplaced priorities. While the Mayor poured money into new stadiums and fancy development projects, he proposed nearly $100 million in cuts to CUNY since 2004.

Bill believes that public funding for education is vital to our city. As Mayor, Bill will increase City funding to CUNY and fight State cuts to our CUNY system. Bill supports increased funding for CUNY schools because he knows that investing in CUNY is investing in New York City.

PLAN #2: BOOST CUNY’S FULL-TIME WORKFORCE AND WORK TO PROVIDE BENEFITS FOR ADJUNCT AND PART-TIME FACULTY

With approximately 250,000 students, CUNY enrollment is as high as it’s ever been. The last time enrollment reached this level was 1975, when CUNY had 11,500 full-time faculty. Now CUNY has 6,800 full-time faculty and there also has been a decline in the number ofprofessional and support staff. CUNY currently has 9,000 adjunct faculty and 1,000 adjunct professional staff who are part-time, work without benefits, and are low-paid.

Bill believes the decrease in CUNY’s full-time workforce has hobbled the University’s ability to fully deliver the educational services that our City’s new economy requires. The reliance on an overburdened and exploited part-time workforce has also compromised the quality of CUNY’s educational services.

That is why, as Mayor, Bill will:

• Ensure that funding increases are used to boost CUNY’s full-time staff. Bill believes that full-time faculty are more effective for both students and teachers.

• Fight to provide unemployment and other benefits to adjunct and part-time faculty members. The modern university system is more and more predicated on the use of part-time and adjunct faculty, and these faculty members must be treated with the same dignity and respect as their full-time colleagues. We must also make sure that eligible CUNY adjuncts have the same access to city health insurance as other part-time city employees.

PLAN #3: HELP STUDENTS PAY FOR COLLEGE

Too many students today find themselves unable to afford a public education. Many are forced to take out loans that can take a lifetime to repay—or to forgo college altogether.

Other students might choose to pursue work in the public sector were it not for loan burdens that steer them toward more lucrative private sector jobs. It is clear that the idea of paying off a loan well into the future dissuades many of our best and brightest from working in the public interest.

That is why, as Mayor, Bill will:

• Work with CUNY and private colleges to create and expand loan repayment options. Students can and should be rewarded for staying in New York City and empowering our communities. Rewards could include loan forgiveness, low-interest rates, or a lengthening of the time a student has to repay a loan.

• Replicate an “AmeriCorps”-style program at the municipal level. This new program will help matriculated CUNY students obtain entry-level government positions. After graduation—if these students choose to continue pursuing work in the public sector—the City will help repay their loans.

• Increase scholarship programs—like the Vallone Scholarship—and other initiatives that provide direct funding to students.

PLAN #4: PARTNER WITH CUNY TO FORM INNOVATIVE TRACK CURRICULUMS

For eight years, Mayor Bloomberg’s top-down approach to government has ignored feedback from our CUNY schools. The Mayor has taken community organizations out of the equation, dictating how our City should be run, without involving the very individuals that are receiving services.

Bill’s approach will be collaborative. Bill Thompson believes the role of government should be to listen to community groups, schools, and others, and enact policies based on their identified needs.

That is why, as Mayor, Bill will:

• Form a more collaborative and coordinated partnership between our City and CUNY.

• Expand the City College of New York’s Colin Powell Center “Service-Learning Program.” This program incorporates public service projects into the curriculum to advance and enrich a course’s academic content. The program extends student-learning beyond the classroom and provides students with an opportunity to explore future career options in public service and policymaking.

• Better coordinate the CUNY curriculum with our City’s expected future job openings. Our City—in collaboration with CUNY—should create a specialized CUNY course track aligned with expected city job openings and fields identified as emerging areas of need in New York City.

PLAN #5: CONNECT STUDENTS TO THEIR FUTURES

Bill believes our City must create what many educators call a “seamless transition” from primary and secondary school through college and beyond. As we nurture children in the lower grades, we help them transition to the next phase of their education.

That is why, as Mayor, Bill will:

• Create a pre-K to 16 continuum that will reorient our schools to embrace a vision of lifelong learning.

• Expand the College Now Program. The College Now program enables New York City high school students to use the CUNY system to take additional course work and prepare themselves for college.

As President of the Board of Education, Bill was proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with CUNY chancellor Matt Goldstein to reinvigorate the College Now program. Before Bill’s tenure as President at the Board, College Now was serving 8,500 students in 36 high schools. In 1999, Bill made a substantial new commitment to the College Now program and seven years later, the program boasted some 35,000 students from more than 200 schools.

Bill Thompson will expand the College Now program into new areas, whether it means replicating College Now in the SUNY system or beginning it even earlier in middle school.

• Link every high school with an institution of higher education, providing students with an opportunity to graduate with both a diploma and an associate degree. We have some of the finest public universities in the nation, and we must begin to better leverage these valuable resources.

• Expand our career and college counseling services.

• Develop partnerships with City employers to create internships and apprenticeships that provide students with valuable skills, experience, and hope for what they can achieve if they stay in school. Bill understands that internships and apprenticeships help connect youth to society as a whole, inspiring them to do better by providing them with a clear map of the pathways to success.

• Appoint a Deputy Mayor for Youth. This mayoral appointee will be responsible for dismantling the silos of City government and improving collaboration between City agencies, schools, youth-focused nonprofits, and youth employment programs.

• Appoint borough-wide Youth Champions. These highly respected young people will be employed by our youth-service organizations. They will convene monthly meetings between their respective organizations and—through the Deputy Mayor for Youth—advise the Mayor on needed youth policy initiatives.

• Create a Citywide Council for Youth policy. The Council will be comprised of the Schools Chancellor, Youth Champions, and the commissioners of the New York City Departments of Cultural Affairs, Health, Police, and Youth and Community Development. Led by the Deputy Mayor for Youth, the Citywide Council will work to implement Bill Thompson’s youth platform.