Advocates make arguments against bus idling
On World Asthma Day today, several legislators, experts and elementary school students urged the state Board of Regents to ban school-bus idling on school grounds. The board, which makes state...
View ArticleSUNY wants to appoint new chancellor this summer
  The State University of New York is making progress on finding a new chancellor for the 64-campus system and is on track to make an appointment during summer, Board of Trustees Chairman Carl...
View ArticleMom, apple pie and school budgets
  As voters prepare to cast ballots on school budgets and board members Tuesday, New York State United Teachers has launched a $1 million ad campaign urging them “to remember that opportunity for...
View ArticleWaiting for budget proposals
  Gov. David Paterson’s Division of Budget was waiting today for budget-cutting proposals from the dozens of state agencies that have to reduce their spending plans by 3.35 percent this year. The...
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Sex-ed advocates hope this will be the year
  Clergy members, teens and other advocates for what’s become known as the Healthy Teens Act were at the Capitol Monday to lobby for the bill. It has passed the Assembly for the past four years but...
View ArticleTax-cap idea still dead
  Foes of a cap on property taxes apparently wanted to make sure today that, like Francisco Franco, the idea is still dead. Labor, school-board, parent-teachers and other groups gathered to tell...
View ArticleComptroller nabs four Southern Tier attorneys
  The flap over service credits for the New York State and Local Retirement System has hit the southern tier, with Thomas DiNapoli announcing that he revoked membership in the plan for three...
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Resign? Gov. tells SUNY trustee no way
  Despite a resignation letter to the contrary, former New York Comptroller H. Carl McCall remains on the State University of New York’s Board of Trustees. He is scheduled to lead a meeting of...
View ArticleGov spends time in the “Cowboy State”
  Gov. David Paterson is in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, today to attend a “strategy retreat” of the Alliance for School Choice, which bills itself as the nation’s largest organization promoting school...
View ArticleSchool union weighs in on tax caps
  New York State United Teachers are striking out in an expensive way at proposals to implement a 4 percent annual cap in the growth of school property taxes. The union, which has about 600,000...
View ArticleA hunger for information
  The Empire Center for New York State Policy’s new www.SeeThroughNY.net Web site received more than 40,000 unique “hits” in its first day, which was more traffic than expected and bogged the site...
View ArticleUnion: cuts may force SUNY to turn away students
  United University Professions, a union of 35,000 professional and academic faculty, says Gov. David Paterson’s call for more state-budget cuts will take another $96 million away from the State...
View ArticleState document thief to get prison time
  A former state employee pleaded guilty today to second-degree grand larceny, a felony, for stealing more than $50,000 worth of artifacts and documents from the state archives, Attorney General...
View ArticleAnti-tax-cap ads coming
 Just four days after the Senate approved a cap on increases in school property taxes, foes of the idea plan to launch a statewide ad campaign against it. The Alliance for Quality Education, the...
View ArticleTeachers union: cuts would have “devastating toll”
  New York State United Teachers is trying to push back against Gov. David Paterson’s proposed cuts to the State University of New York and the City University of New York, saying they would take a...
View ArticleTax-cap supporters may start to pay price
    The 38 senators who voted for a tax cap this week may start to pay a political price today: the state’s largest teachers’ union is expected to not endorse them. The vote by the New York State...
View ArticleComptroller cracks down on more school attorneys
  State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli just announced that his office revoked the state and local retirement system of three attorneys (Joseph Pondolfino, Thomas DeBoy and Gilbert Henoch) and...
View ArticleNew law requires more training on autism
  A new state law requires all special-education teachers and administrators to be trained in the needs of children with autism, the fastest-growing developmental disability in the country. Gov....
View ArticleSchool boards worried about economic downturn
  School board members from around New York who were polled by the state School Boards Association said their top concerns for the year included adequate state school aid (37 percent), the rising...
View ArticleAbout 225 NY districts don’t have teacher contracts
Forty-seven districts will begin the new school year at impasse with teacher unions, 13 percent lower than last year, according to the state Public Employment Relations Board. About 175 other...
View ArticleNo more MYOB (Mind your own business) on BMI
  Selected schools will begin reporting body mass index (BMI) data to the state Health Department this year, information that will be used to guide obesity prevention efforts in New York. To...
View ArticleMore details on SUNY budget cuts Sept. 29
  At a meeting scheduled for Sept. 29, the State University of New York’s Finance and Administration Committee expects to receive reports on how its campuses will implement $40 million in...
View ArticleGroup hires former lawmaker to lobby on school control
  One of the big tasks for an ex-assemblyman just hired by the state School Boards Association for government relations work will be to keep the Big 4 city school districts—Yonkers, Rochester,...
View ArticleState expenses being revised up in many cases
The mid-year update to the state budget makes some changes in estimated costs for 2009-10. In most cases, programs will be more expensive to operate, according to the financial plan. Examples...
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Swan song for chief judge
Judith Kaye, New York’s longest serving and first woman chief judge, will deliver her final annual State of the Judiciary report tomorrow in Albany. Kaye is stepping down Dec. 31 because she is “aging...
View ArticleEducation cut could affect CFE resolution
The Campaign for Fiscal Equity could pursue reopening its court case or new litigation if state lawmakers and Gov. David Paterson implement the governor’s $836 million in cuts this school year to...
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Gov.: reprieve for education ends in 2009-10
Lawmakers did not take action last week on a budget-cutting measure that would have made mid-year education reductions of $836 million this school year, as Gov. David Paterson had recommended. The...
View ArticlePaterson to release budget Tuesday
Gov. David Paterson will deliver what is predicted to be a devastating budget Tuesday, as the state struggles with a deficit of $1.75 billion for this fiscal year (which ends March 31) and more...
View ArticleNo chancellor, but an officer in charge for SUNY
The State University of New York doesn’t have a new chancellor yet, but the 64-campus system now has an officer in charge. SUNY’s Board of Trustees’ Executive Committee voted unanimously today to...
View ArticlePaterson: No deal on SUNY-CUNY plan
Gov. David Paterson today rejected the Legislature’s compromise proposal on a plan that would grant new powers to New York’s public colleges. Paterson spokesman Morgan Hook said in a statement that...
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