Governor Andrew Cuomo has inexplicably been sitting on bills to appoint state monitors for two failing Long Island school districts for six months. The bills die if Cuomo does not act before the end of January. The school districts, Hempstead and Wyandanch, have long histories of failing school children and the bills were proposed by local state legislators, so they have community support. The Hempstead monitor bill was sponsored by Assembly Representative Taylor Darling of Hempstead and State Senator Kevin Thomas of Levittown. The Wyandanch bill was introduced by Assembly Representative Kimberly Jean-Pierre of Wheatley Heights State Senator John Brooks of Seaford.
A deeper look exposes Cuomo’s refusal to act as not so inexplicable. It is based on political considerations, not educational concerns for children or principles like community control.
One reason Cuomo ignores the needs of Hempstead and Wyandanch is that if he appoints state monitors for those districts, he will be under increased pressure for state intervention in larger failing urban districts including Buffalo, Rochester, and Albany.
During the 2015-2016 school year half of the fifty schools in the Buffalo City School District were in state receivership as failing schools. One of the reasons the district is struggling is that more than a third of its students live in poverty. A 2017 study by Stanford University found that Rochester, New York ranked last in the country on annual student academic progress, while Albany High School has been on the failing school list off-and-on for two decades. Under Cuomo, the State Education Department keeps trying to revive education in these cities without major intervention and with limited impact.
Another reason for Cuomo’s inaction is that he does not want to alienate a powerful religious school lobby that opposes appointment of state education monitors. Much of the opposition comes from Catholic school groups, but the real concern is ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious schools. In New York City, Young Advocates for Fair Education (YAFFED) has pressed charged since 2015 that children in dozens of Jewish religious schools are “denied a basic education as required by law.” According to a recent report issued by the city’s Department of Education, only two of 28 ultra-orthodox yeshivas investigated during the past three years met state legal standards.
Governor Cuomo, the magnitude of education problems in New York State is a mandate for action, not an excuse for inaction. Stop playing politics at the expense of children and sign the Hempstead-Wyandanch school monitor bills.