School

City January 24, 2012 11:20 AM

District, Teachers' Union Need to Get Serious on Evaluation Agreement

Buffalo Rising 13

By Jason Zwara:

The deadlines set by State Education Commissioner John B. King, Jr. and Governor Andrew Cuomo for school districts to reach agreement with teacher and administrator unions on a new teacher evaluation system is quickly approaching, with a significant amount of state aid on the line. 

Commissioner King froze the $9 million in aid the State had awarded Buffalo Public Schools to improve five failing schools; Governor Cuomo raised the stakes, tying proposed increases in state aid to school districts to the success in reaching agreement on a new evaluation system.  

If the Buffalo Public Schools, the Buffalo Teachers Federation, and the Buffalo Council of Supervisors and Administrators fail to reach agreement on a new evaluation system that weighs both student performance and classroom observations,

 

New York state owes poor schools $5.5 billion: advocates

Reuters – 2 hrs 6 mins ago

(Reuters) - Education advocates on Wednesday pushed New York State to increase funding for schools in impoverished areas in the budget for the new fiscal year, saying those schools are owed $5.5 billion under a 2007 court ruling.

The Education Law Center, which absorbed the advocate group that had won the historic school funding lawsuit, did not specify how much extra funding it is seeking in the budget for poor school districts for the budget for fiscal 2013, which starts April 1.

New York's top court in 2007 had ruled that the state had failed to provide students in poor areas with the constitutionally required "sound, basic education."

New York had started to fulfill the court ruling by agreeing to a four-year increase in aid for students in so-called high needs areas. Spending rose more than $1 billion in 2007 and 2008, according to the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, the group that had won the lawsuit. There was no funding increase in 2009, however.

Money on way for low performing schools

Updated: Wednesday, 20 Oct 2010, 8:45 AM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 20 Oct 2010, 8:45 AM EDT

• Zachary Kineke
• Posted by: Emily Lenihan

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Millions of dollars are on the way to help turn around Buffalo's lowest performing schools.
State Education officials approved the district's plan to help improve School 45, the Martin Luther King Institute, Bennett and South Park high schools.

They'll be getting almost $8 million in aid.

Copyright WIVB.com