Eliot Spitzer had been governor for less than a month when he addressed a crowd of dignitaries at the state Education Department. The department's historic building was an appropriate setting for a historic proposal: pumping more money into public education than ever before, in return for more accountability than ever. Read More
Contracts for Excellence (C4E), the centerpiece of former Governor Eliot Spitzer’s reform agenda for New York state schools in 2007, “could now more accurately stand for Commitments for Expenditures” because of the program’s emphasis on educational inputs over educational outcomes, says a Policy Briefing issued today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
Spitzer’s expansion of education funding and restructuring of the school aid formula may be his most important legacy. Unfortunately, C4E has been seriously hobbled by flaws in its assumptions about the mechanisms of reform, by misguided beliefs about “what works” in achieving excellence, and by a compressed timeline for adoption and implementation. Read More
School districts across New York State will increase their per-pupil spending next year by nearly one and a half times the current rate of inflation -- despite falling real estate values and clear signs of an economic slowdown -- according to an analysis issued today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
LAST week's state Senate approval of Gov. Paterson's proposed cap on school property taxes seems to have induced a nervous breakdown in the powerful statewide teachers' union. Read More
The “people’s right to know” is a hollow concept when government can withhold vital information until it is too late for the people’s voice to be heard. Read More
Education advocates in the Hudson Valley and throughout New York state are predicting thousands of teachers and aides will lose their jobs if the Legislature adopts Gov. David Paterson's proposed school-aid cuts for the coming year. Read More
The often opaque world of school finances has become more transparent with a new tool that allows New Yorkers to analyze how their school districts spend money and to compare them to nearly 700 other districts around the state. Read More