Submitted by David, Nov 25, 2006 14:30

School districts in New York frequently bear the brunt of Albany's dysfunction. As a sitting school board member in Westchester County, I see first hand the affect that Albany;s unfunded mandates have on school districts -- and consequently the property taxpayers. It's not clear to me that many of the advisors named to the Governor-Elect's education policy transition team have immediate, direct experience in dealing with the realities of K-12 schooling in New York today. The public sector unions continue to have undue influence over policy making in Albany. Most recently the State Assembly and State Senate nearl unanimously passed legislation to penalize public sector employers (read school districts) in their efforts to pull back on some of the historic, systemic giveaways to the teachers unions. The legislation (which, fortunately was vetoed by outgoing Governor Pataki) would have exacted financial penalties against school districts if the district was bargaining "in good faith" in settling contract negotiations. No such penalty would be assessed against a union not negotiating in good faith. The purported rationale for union-backed proposed amendments to the Taylor Law -- was to "level the playing field." That's patently absurd -- right now in Albany the political decks are stacked against the school districts. Unions have all the power and sway in Albany -- much more so than school boards and the taxpayers they represent.

While I think that Mr. Wolf's critique of the composition of the educational advisory group is somewhat ideologically based, mine is more practical: who will advocate for the abolition of the Wicks's Law -- which precludes school districts from undertaking construction projects on the model used in the private sector(known as design-build) - and therefore adds time and dollars to school construction projects. Who will advocate to ensure that attempts to "tailor" the Taylor Law to be more pro-union are stopped? Who will measure the cost to school districts -- and therefore property taxpayers -- on more mandates from Albany to the school districts?

Goveror-Elect Spitzer is smart; and I hope he is surrounding himself with smart advisors willing to take on the real, systemic problems facing school districts.

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