Introduction

Thank you for inviting me to address the West Side Chamber breakfast.

And I’d like to thank Chamber Chair James Fenniman in particular for that introduction, and Chamber Executive Director Andrew Albert for setting up the event.  This is a distinguished group and I am really pleased to be here.

I’d like to use this opportunity to present the third in a series of policy addresses and ideas on the future of New York City.  I’ll be discussing a comprehensive approach to education – what needs to be done in Washington and some specific proposals that we should be addressing at all levels of government.

In previous addresses I’ve spoken about the growing problem of child hunger in New York.  Many people say the economy of New York City is fine, and I am trying to remind everyone that for literally hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens, things are not fine —  including the 500,000 New York City children who needed emergency food assistance last year, whose families stood in line because they did not have enough to eat. I mention this problem to every group I see because it’s a moral one, and one we can easily solve by better coordinating economic and social policies.

Two weeks ago, I presented a five borough economic development blueprint that offered specific alternatives to the current path. I suggested ideas like a comprehensive ferry system to complement our subways and help those in the outer boroughs – for which I believe money is available in Washington. And I suggested a range of policies that would help small businesses across the city, instead of centralizing our public investment capital.

Today I’d like to discuss another urgent problem, our school system, and offer some different ideas for it.

You might ask why I would raise this subject before your organization.  In general, this issue is hashed out before the traditional “stakeholders” in the system:  teachers, union officials and parents.

But I am here to talk about education because you are also key stakeholders in our education system.

A business that operates in New York needs a steady supply of the best and the brightest.  Especially in the fiercely competitive world of globalization and outsourcing, a supply of literate, skilled graduates is essential for businesses of any size to thrive.

Education in this city is not someone else’s problem – it’s the problem of business in New York.

That said, there are a few teachers here this morning that I’d like to thank for their service.  And one I’d like to thank for being my mother as well.  My mother Fran recently retired after 33 years teaching New Yorkers in Brooklyn, and she continues to be dedicated to improving our schools.  Thank you.

Back to Basics

I believe the most pressing need now is to refocus on the central problem: a loss of focus on the basics.

We must prioritize three goals: ensuring safe schools; attracting and retaining good teachers and principals; and making sure that our scarce funds go into the classroom, not into the bureaucracy.

I have a bias here.  I am a product of public schools.  PS 39,  JHS 51 and Brooklyn Technical High School.  My mom and dad did the same.

I spend a lot of time in the schools in my district.

Anyone who spends time in our schools will tell you how remarkably committed the teachers and staff are.  How enthusiastic and hopeful parents are when they drop off their children.

So I am not one that will argue as some in Washington do, that our schools are failures.

But we have to recognize the current reality. The fact is that too many kids do not have a safe school, too many good teachers are being pushed out of our schools, and we are investing too much in failed experiments and an inefficient bureaucracy.

Let’s be honest, it is not enough to criticize.

Mayor Bloomberg deserves credit for trying. But trying is not enough. George Bush says he is trying too. But I believe too many times the Administration here and in Washington are still headed in the wrong direction on education policy.

I want to work with Mayor Bloomberg to try and get all the federal resources we can, but those resources need to be spent making our schools better.

Making our Schools Safe

The first place to start is school safety.

Every day we ask — we legally require — parents to send their children to schools. The absolute minimum that parents should be able to expect back from schools is that their children will be safe.

Many parents are rightfully worried. Every day seems to bring more news about the continued violence in our schools.  What do we need to do to restore order?

As education scholar Diane Ravitch has pointed out, and I agree, the key to declining discipline is a long-term erosion of authority for teachers and principals in our schools.

And why do teachers and principals lack authority to maintain discipline in their schools? Because their hands have been tied in red tape and bureaucratic rules.

I have a chart here – researched and designed by the think tank Common Good —  that shows the process a New York City principal employs to suspend a student.

Our first priority must be to make our schools places where education can happen. And that requires leadership to make it possible for our principals and teachers to do their jobs.  Someday this system will change, and if I have anything to say about it, it will be as soon as possible.

As you take a look at this, it becomes a lot clearer why troublemakers in our schools are so rarely disciplined.  My mother would so often remind me – it only takes one student acting out to make teaching the other 29 impossible.

I believe if we put discipline back in the hands of those closest to the problem — principals and teachers — we’ll take a crucial first step in restoring the respect and order so lacking today.

The Bloomberg administration has followed the historical impulse of New York’s education bureaucracy. They haven’t helped teachers. Instead, they’ve added more layers of regulations to an already astounding list. The situation is so bad that, according to Common Good, there are 60 different sources of laws and regulations covering the New York City Schools. The suspension policy alone can take 105 days to complete.  It can take 99 different bureaucratic steps to hold a sporting event or replace a heater.

It’s great for kids to read Kafka in school, but they shouldn’t have to live it.

This chart is an embarrassment to the city – and real education reform should target it first.

Retaining and Attracting Good Teachers

A second key step is to encourage good teachers to join our schools and to stay in them.

This is such common sense, you wouldn’t expect it to be controversial.

Yet on this issue, the city is headed in the wrong direction.

It starts with a top-down approach that introduced an untested and discredited curriculum.  Chancellor Klein, a man with no education background, chose a curriculum without the input of the teachers who had to implement it.

Teachers will tell you that the worst aspect of the curriculum is that it replaces tried and true learning devices like multiplication tables and vocabulary drills with gimmicks.

Equally problematic, teachers in this system are graded on the condition of their bulletin board or the way the chairs in the classroom are situated.

The city has replaced a curriculum with something that resembles a code of conduct for teachers.

It is an approach that views the 1.1 million kids in school as a mass market rather than the ultimate individual encounter.

The Mayor’s made a lot of his effort to end social promotion in the 3rd and 5th grades.  A system-wide test followed by a $32 million investment in extra summer attention for those that failed.

But a skilled 1st grade teacher can look around his or her classroom after a month or so and be able to point out the children that need help and those that need more challenges.

This is the skill of teaching.  This is the part of the job that teachers find so thrilling. Each student is an individual challenge, not just an abstraction in an education school thesis paper.

I do not believe George Bush’s approach to education rewards great teaching, and I don’t believe Mayor Bloomberg’s top down approach does either.

Successful classrooms acknowledge the dignity of teachers and allows them to practice their craft.

When the school system denied this, the result was a predictable exodus of veteran teachers from the classroom.

Ten years ago one in thirteen teachers quit after their first year — now it’s one in four.

 40% of the system’s teachers currently have less than five years of experience.

I hear almost everyday from good teachers who are leaving the schools out of frustration.

The problem is not just low morale.  It is also lagging salaries.

A few years ago, Scarsdale raided Bronx High School of Science for math teachers, pointing out that in Scarsdale teachers can make $30,000 more a year than they can here. It’s a testimony to the devotion of our teachers that we haven’t lost more of them to higher-paying jobs elsewhere. But in the long run, counting on altruism isn’t enough.

We should pay talented teachers what they deserve – and let them run their classrooms.

If we can figure out a 30-year strategy to build a gigantic football stadium no one wants, we can surely find a way to pay teachers what they deserve.

We need leadership that respects teachers, listens to their opinions, and makes tough demands on them without micro-managing them to distraction. Learning happens in classrooms in this city – not by regulation or fiat. And we need to help teachers teach – not dictate to them and drive them from the classroom.

Spending the Money In the Classroom

As we all await the decision of the state legislature and the courts on how much additional state aid we’ll get as a result of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, let’s agree that now is the time to return to the basic idea that every dollar possible should go into the classroom.

We are diverting more money than ever to bureaucracy and political pet projects.

Did you know that we are currently paying 1,200 parents to serve as eyes and ears for the mayor?  We are paying them a total of $43 million a year, plus even more to pay for their cell phones.

Did you know we are funding a so-called “leadership academy” for a favored class of prospective principals at a price tag of more than $250,000 per graduate? That funding comes at a cost to the vast majority of teachers and principals.

And we have all read about the breathless sprint to squeeze experimental theme high schools into the already overcrowded existing ones.  They are funding these micro schools by taking some pretty big bucks out of the traditional high schools.

And in perhaps the most surprising development – the reorganization of the school system has actually created more bureaucracy not less.

I suggest we adopt an approach that emphasizes and invests in the basics.  If the money doesn’t go to getting more resources in the classroom, reducing class size or expanding educational opportunities for the kids – we shouldn’t do it.

Put another way – if I had a choice between investing $250,000 in teaching leadership to one principal, or hiring back 7 or 8 music teachers or upgrading technology in a computer class, I would choose the kids every time.

Let’s not forget that smart spending also means fighting for all the money we can get – these days especially from Albany and Washington. That doesn’t come easy, and it doesn’t just come from nice talk. It means negotiating and demanding and putting together coalitions. And the reason to be aggressive here is not just because it is fair and right, but because our schools and kids depend on it. And we have learned the hard way that courteous talk with the Governor does not get the job done.

Even with all the focus on the budget in Albany, the Mayor and all of us should be fighting the way the Bush Administration has shortchanged our kids with the No Child Left Behind Act.  The law was supposed to be a deal we all could live with – the feds would impose a battery of new requirements and cities like New York would get a dramatic increase in help for our schools.  The costly regulations were implemented but the money got “left behind” – to the tune of $2.5 billion for New York City.

We can’t solve our education problems with money alone, but a law that promises more money must be fully funded.

Conclusion

These pillars of an educational excellence plan are seemingly simple – safe schools, good teachers, smart investments.

They’re clear, but that’s not to say that they’re easy. Achieving them will take effort and someone willing to fight the system and stand up for the schools.

I know they will work. I grew up in our public schools and I hear everyday from a woman who devoted her life to teaching.

And I don’t believe that fixing our educational system should be about politics – it requires us all to work together.

Parents, teachers, local business and government.

Federal, state and local.

But it will also require us to start work right away.

This is not an issue that can be talked about for years or be subject to more failed experiments.

The future of our children can’t wait, and neither can the future of our city.

Thank you.