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1 1 BEFORE THE NEW YORK STATE SENATE FINANCE AND ASSEMBLY WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEES 2 ------------------------------------------------------ JOINT LEGISLATIVE HEARING 3 In the Matter of the 2020-2021 EXECUTIVE BUDGET ON 4 ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION 5 ------------------------------------------------------ 6 Hearing Room B Legislative Office Building 7 Albany, New York 8 February 11, 2020 9:38 a.m. 9 10 PRESIDING: 11 Senator Liz Krueger Chair, Senate Finance Committee 12 Assemblywoman Helene E. Weinstein 13 Chair, Assembly Ways & Means Committee 14 PRESENT: 15 Senator James L. Seward Senate Finance Committee (RM) 16 Assemblyman Edward P. Ra 17 Assembly Ways & Means Committee (RM) 18 Assemblyman Michael Benedetto Chair, Assembly Education Committee 19 Senator Shelley Mayer 20 Chair, Senate Education Committee 21 Assemblyman Sean Ryan Chair, Assembly Committee on Libraries 22 and Education Technology 23 Senator John Liu Chair, Senate Committee on New York City 24 Education 2 1 2020-2021 Executive Budget Elementary & Secondary Education 2 2-11-20 3 PRESENT: (Continued) 4 Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee 5 Assemblyman Michael Reilly 6 Senator Robert Jackson 7 Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton 8 Assemblyman Steven Otis 9 Senator Anna Kaplan 10 Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman 11 Senator Elizabeth O'C. Little 12 Assemblyman Harry B. Bronson 13 Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon 14 Senator Jen Metzger 15 Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh 16 Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis 17 Senator Andrew Gounardes 18 Assemblyman Harvey Epstein 19 Assemblywoman Rebecca A. Seawright 20 Senator Michael H. Ranzenhofer 21 Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon 22 Assemblyman David I. Weprin 23 Senator Sue Serino 24 Assemblyman Robert C. Carroll 3 1 2020-2021 Executive Budget Elementary & Secondary Education 2 2-11-20 3 PRESENT: (Continued) 4 Assemblyman Félix Ortiz 5 Senator John E. Brooks 6 Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy 7 Assemblywoman Inez E. Dickens 8 Senator James Gaughran 9 Assemblywoman Kimberly Jean-Pierre 10 Senator Kevin Thomas 11 Assemblyman Charles D. Lavine 12 Senator Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr. 13 Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan 14 Senator Brad Hoylman 15 Assemblyman Daniel J. O'Donnell 16 Senator Patrick M. Gallivan 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 4 1 2020-2021 Executive Budget Elementary & Secondary Education 2 2-11-20 3 LIST OF SPEAKERS 4 STATEMENT QUESTIONS 5 Richard A. Carranza Chancellor 6 Lindsey Oates CFO 7 NYC Department of Education 12 23 8 Shannon Tahoe Interim Commissioner 9 NYS Education Department 10 Andrew Pallotta President 11 New York State United Teachers -and- 12 Michael Mulgrew President 13 United Federation of Teachers 321 333 14 Jaime Alicea Superintendent 15 Syracuse City School District Terry Dade 16 Superintendent Rochester City School District 17 Dr. Edwin M. Quezada Superintendent 18 Yonkers City School District Kaweeda G. Adams 19 Superintendent City School District of Albany 20 Dr. Will Keresztes Chief of Intergovernmental Affairs, 21 Planning & Community Engagement Buffalo Public Schools 22 -and- Jennifer Pyle 23 Executive Director Conference of Big 5 24 School Districts 364 376 5 1 2020-2021 Executive Budget Elementary & Secondary Education 2 2-11-20 3 LIST OF SPEAKERS, Continued 4 STATEMENT QUESTIONS 5 Dr. Bernadette Kappen Cochair 6 Tim Kelly Cochair 7 4201 Schools Association -and- 8 Christopher Treiber Associate Executive Director 9 InterAgency Council of Developmental Disabilities Agencies 10 -and- Lindsay Miller 11 Executive Director New York Association on 12 Independent Living 391 406 13 Jasmine Gripper Legislative Director 14 Alliance for Quality Education 419 423 15 Robert Lowry Deputy Director 16 New York State Council of School Superintendents 17 -and- Mark Cannizzaro 18 President Council of School Supervisors 19 and Administrators (CSA) -and- 20 Cynthia E. Gallgher Director, Government Relations 21 School Administrators Association of New York State (SAANYS) 22 -and- Brian C. Fessler 23 Director, Governmental Relations NYS School Boards Association 443 463 24 6 1 2020-2021 Executive Budget Elementary & Secondary Education 2 2-11-20 3 LIST OF SPEAKERS, Continued 4 STATEMENT QUESTIONS 5 Michael Borges Executive Director 6 NYS Association of School Business Officials 486 490 7 David A. Little 8 Executive Director Rural Schools Association 9 of New York State 492 498 10 James Merriman CEO 11 NYC Charter School Center 505 510 12 Christopher Goeken Executive Director 13 Association of Public Broadcasting Stations of NY 513 517 14 Randi Levine 15 Policy Director Advocates for Children of NY 521 528 16 Briana N. McNamee 17 Director of Government Relations & Advocacy 18 NY Library Association 534 539 19 Kyle McCauley Belokopitsky Executive Director 20 Lorey A. Zaman President 21 NYS Parent Teacher Association (NYS PTA) 22 -and- Roberto Rijos 23 President Yonkers Council of PTAs 542 548 24 7 1 2020-2021 Executive Budget Elementary & Secondary Education 2 2-11-20 3 LIST OF SPEAKERS, Continued 4 STATEMENT QUESTIONS 5 Fred Koelbel Director of Facilities 6 and Transportation Port Jefferson UFSP 7 -on behalf of- NYS School Facilities 8 Association 557 561 9 Barbara Bartoletti League of Women Voters of NYS 10 -and- Ian Rosenblum 11 Executive Director The Education Trust-NY 562 572 12 Gamileh Jamil 13 Director of Upstate Advocacy New York Immigration Coalition 576 581 14 Helen Roussel 15 Executive Director Dyslexia Advocacy Action Group 585 591 16 Kelly Caci 17 School Psychologist Newburgh Enlarged City School District 18 -on behalf of- New York Association of 19 School Psychologists 594 20 James D. Cultrara Executive Secretary 21 NYS Council of Catholic School Superintendents 22 -and- Rabbi Yeruchim Silber 23 Director of New York Government Relations 24 Agudath Israel of America 598 608 8 1 2020-2021 Executive Budget Elementary & Secondary Education 2 2-11-20 3 LIST OF SPEAKERS, Continued 4 STATEMENT QUESTIONS 5 Karen Belanger Executive Director 6 Westchester Putnam School Boards Association 7 -on behalf of- Lower Hudson Education Coalition 614 624 8 Alli Lidie 9 Steering Committee Member NYS Community Schools Network 627 10 Marion Waldman 11 Executive Director Teach My Kid to Read 632 12 Naftuli Moster 13 Executive Director YAFFED 637 644 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 9 1 CHAIRWOMAN WEINSTEIN: Good morning. 2 We're about to get started. I'm Helene 3 Weinstein, chair of the New York State 4 Assembly Ways and Means Committee and cochair 5 of today's hearing. 6 Today we begin the 10th in a series of 7 hearings conducted by the joint fiscal 8 committees of the Legislature regarding the 9 Governor's proposed budget for fiscal year 10 2020-2021. The hearings are conducted 11 pursuant to the Constitution and the 12 Legislative Law. 13 Today the Assembly Ways and Means 14 Committee and the Senate Finance Committee 15 will hear testimony concerning the Governor's 16 budget proposal for elementary education. 17 I'll introduce the members of my 18 conference who are here, and then 19 Senator Krueger, chair of Senate Finance, 20 will introduce her conference. 21 We have with us Assemblyman Benedetto, 22 chair of the Assembly Education Committee; 23 Assemblyman Ryan, chair of our Libraries 24 Committee; Assemblywoman Jaffee, 10 1 Assemblywoman Lifton, Assemblyman Otis, 2 Assemblywoman Simon, Assemblyman Bronson, and 3 Assemblywoman Seawright. 4 Senator Krueger? 5 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you. 6 Good morning again. We have John Liu, 7 the chair of the New York City Education 8 Committee; Shelley Mayer, the chair of the 9 Education Committee; Senator Gounardes, 10 Senator Jackson, Senator Metzger. 11 We also are joined by Senator Seward, 12 my ranker on the Finance Committee, and 13 Senator Betty Little, the ranker on the 14 Education Committee. 15 CHAIRWOMAN WEINSTEIN: And now our 16 ranker, Ed Ra, will introduce members of his 17 conference. 18 ASSEMBLYMAN RA: We're joined this 19 morning by Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh, the 20 ranking member on the Education Committee, 21 and Assemblyman Mike Reilly. And 22 Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis as well. 23 CHAIRWOMAN WEINSTEIN: Thank you. So 24 just a couple of -- go ahead. 11 1 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Sorry. And we've 2 also been joined by Senator Ranzenhofer. 3 CHAIRWOMAN WEINSTEIN: A couple of 4 ground rules before we get started. 5 I think a lot of the members have been 6 here before, but just for everybody's 7 attention, we have those clocks that count 8 down the amount of time both for the witness 9 and for the member to ask questions. There's 10 a green light when your time is starting. 11 When the yellow light goes on, it's one 12 minute. And when the red light flashes, you 13 should be finishing up. 14 And in terms of amount of time, the 15 governmental witnesses will have 10 minutes. 16 Then we go to the chairs of the respective 17 relevant committee who have 10 minutes for 18 questions and answers. Only the chairs will 19 have a second round of five minutes if they 20 need it; all other members have five minutes. 21 And when we get to the nongovernmental 22 witnesses, I'll just explain the time frames 23 then, so we can get going. 24 So today we are happy to have with us 12 1 as our first witness the Chancellor of the 2 New York City Department of Education, 3 Richard Carranza. 4 Chancellor, please. 5 CHANCELLOR CARRANZA: Good morning, 6 Chair Krueger, Senate Education Chair Mayer, 7 Senate New York City Education 8 Subcommittee -- that's a mouthful -- Chair 9 Liu, Assembly Ways and Means Chair Weinstein, 10 Assembly Education Chair Benedetto, and 11 members of those respective committees. 12 Joining me today is Lindsey Oates, our 13 chief financial officer for the New York City 14 Department of Education. 15 It is my honor and distinct pleasure 16 to come before you today to advocate for New 17 York City's public schools and our 18 1.1 million students and their families.
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