‘Who’s driving the bus?’

| 14 Jan 2016 | 04:41

By Abby Wolf
— Nearly $34 million.

That was the amount shelled out in 2014 by privatization interests in New York State on campaign contributions, lobbying and independent expenditures.

In terms of political spending, 2014 was a real milestone: For the first time, those who wish to privatize education outspent education unions and their allies by about $17 million.

Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, a good-government watchdog organization, addressed the issue of how the influence of big money in politics is driving education policy in New York State and across the country at Fair Funding NY’s panel discussion held Jan. 5 at Monroe-Woodbury High School. The event attracted about 200 concerned citizens, representing stakeholders – such as parents, teachers and school board members – from the Hudson Valley and beyond.

As public schools around New York State begin their budget season – and as school boards are working with an assumed zero percent increase to the Consumer Price Index, reduced revenue streams and the pressure to stay within New York State’s two percent tax cap – Fair Funding NY invited Lerner to examine what’s at stake for public education.

Lerner’s presentation covered the influence of private money on New York’s public education system today and what citizens can do about it.

Lerner, founding member of Common Cause, presented findings from an analysis she authored for the organization entitled, “Polishing the Apple: Examining Political Spending in New York to Influence Education Policy.”

She laid out the driving forces behind APPR (a controversial teacher evaluation system), Common Core, standardized testing, charter schools, voucher programs, etc.

Later in the discussion, Sparrow Tobin, a Washingtonville schools social studies teacher and representative from New York State United Teachers, would succinctly connect those dots.

She said that the agenda pushed by such groups as the American Legislative Exchange Council “is to underfund schools, as we’ve seen in other states. They mandate tests to label schools and teachers as failures. They create crisis and use it to push for charter schools and scholarships for them.”

Also included in the roundtable discussion were Tim Kremer, executive director of the New York State School Boards Association; Robert Lowry Jr., deputy director for Advocacy, Research & Communications for the New York State Council of School Superintendents; and moderator Barry Lewis, executive editor of the Times-Herald Record.

Warwick Valley School Board President Lynn Lillian, who has been an active member of Fair Funding NY for the past three years, introduced Lerner.

“Public education is worth fighting for,” she would say later in the discussion, “because it prepares kids for a successful future.”

A ‘Watershed’ year for political spending

Common Cause doesn’t have a position on education, Lerner said, “but people need to know who’s influencing their elected officials and why. Common Cause arms people with information so they can make informed decisions, hold elected officials accountable to represent all of us, so that people don’t feel left out, just because they don’t have lots of money.”

According to Common Cause’s analysis, 2014 was a “watershed” year for political spending on education issues in New York State.

For the first time, “privatization interests” total political spending exceeded the combined spending of education unions by over $16.8 million, according to Lerner/Common Cause NY.

Common Cause used data from the New York State Board of Elections and the Joint Commission on Public Ethics to examine the past decade of political spending to ascertain the combined total amount’s impact on public policy.

Based on its analysis, the group figured that the Education Tax Credit proposals pending in the state Legislature would unfairly favor wealthy credit and scholarship recipients more than similar programs in other states.

Key takeaways from analysis
Lerner found the following:

• Combined political spending by education privatization interests, including campaign contributions, independent expenditures and lobbying for the period between 2005 and 2014 totaled $93.3 million.

• The greatest amount was spent in 2014: $33.8 million spent by interest groups favoring privatization – nearly double that of teachers’ unions.

• The top three recipients of pro-privatization largesse were: The state Senate Republican Housekeeping account ($5.04 million); Cuomo-Hochul 2014 (the governor’s election campaign) ($3.06 million); and the Independence Party Housekeeping account ($1.2 million).

• Education unions’ combined political spending from 2005-2014, including campaign contributions, independent expenditures and lobbying, totaled $205 million.

• The top three beneficiaries of union contributions were: The state Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee ($916,600); the Working Families Party ($874,550); and the state Republican Campaign Committee ($772,387).

• In contrast with the groups supporting privatization, education unions in this same period gave $436,400 to the Senate Republican Housekeeping Committee, and less than $154,000 to Cuomo-Hochul 2014. (The latter amount has led some political observers to suggest that Gov. Andrew Cuomo may be withholding or minimizing state education aid as retribution to the teachers’ unions.)

Transparency
Major pro-privatization donors in New York also contribute to education privatization efforts in other states.

Top beneficiaries of donations from privatization proponents (Senate Republicans and Cuomo) have introduced more extreme versions of education tax credits than those in other states, according to Common Cause. Accordingly:

• These proposals privilege affluent taxpayers and scholarship recipients over those who are from low and middle-income levels.

• A high income eligibility for scholarships - $500,000 family income limit in the Senate bill – that is almost 400 percent higher than the highest income limit in other states.

• There are no caps on private school tuition costs, which can exceed $40,000 a year.

• The proposals before the state Legislature lack the oversight and accountability safeguards found in other states.

During the discussion that followed, most of the panel members said they were impressed with the conclusions reached by Lerner and Common Cause.

POV: Superintendents
Lowry, the representative for the New York State Council of School Superintendents, described the information as “eye-opening.”

His concern, he said, is that tax money is being taken away from public schools and then moved to private or charter schools.

“Everyday voices are being drowned out during this ‘Clash of Titans,’ but we are bigger than (the lobbyists) are: parents, teachers, school board professionals, etc.

“We can get there if we take time to talk to and listen to one another,” Lowry added. “There are big concerns, though: funding, mandate relief, instruction issues.”

Lowry also said most of his members “are positive about Common Core, but are opposed to linkage of scores to teacher evaluations. We need to listen to administrators, teachers and parents in order to fix testing and evaluating.”

POV: School boards
Kremer, the director of the state School Boards Association, said he is often in contact with elected officials in Albany, where he keeps them in touch with the associations’ concerns.

He said it seemed as if the report was slanted because it appeared that union spending was okay.

“My currency is information,” Kremer said. “Government officials need me, even though I don’t write checks.”

He added: “We try to take advantage of what’s offered to us – we can’t fight the big money of both sides; we try to pick our spots.”

Kremer also noted that there have been what he called significant revisions to the tenure process, due to private interests. For instance, there’s now a four-year probationary period for non-tenured teachers. It had been three years.

“On the other hand, there have been increases in state aid, thanks largely to NYSUT,” Kremer said. “We’ve opposed the growth of charter schools. These things didn’t happen without lobbying.”

“Common Core was an attempt, though ill-conceived, with a poor rollout,” he added. “But we all want our kids to succeed. The initial concept (college and career readiness) was good, but the details have been messy.”

“We’re caught in a bad place,” Kremer said. “Put a moratorium on some of the high-stakes tests. (The problem is) the federal government requires testing. People are still opting out, I’m not trying to defend this system, but want to fix it.”

POV: Teachers
Tobin, the Washingtonville teacher and representative of the state teachers’ union, described the report as “refreshing. Daylight is the best disinfectant. It’s good to see what the spenders’ agenda is.”

She said the 600,000 members of the state teachers’ union have $2 taken out of every check to support the NYSUT.

Her recommendation would be to “get the curriculum first, then figure out assessments. There’s too much ‘ready, fire, aim’.”

“There’s too much high-stakes ELA (English Language Arts) and math (testing), to where other subjects get short-changed, so kids aren’t well-rounded,” Tobin added.

There needs to be more local control. “What works in Monroe,” she said, “won’t work in Rochester or New York City.”

Find out more
For Common Cause NY’s full report, see “Polishing the Apple,” at www.commoncause.org/states/new-york/research-and-reports/polishing-the-apple-examining.pdf