Subject:
Repeal Receivership
Message:
Dear Legislator,
As a constituent who cares deeply about public education, I urge you to pass S.3393 (Skoufis), which repeals the current receivership law and instead establishes a streamlined accountability system to identify schools in need of support and assistance. These struggling schools would then develop an improvement plan, with input from a community engagement team, to address the issues they are facing. Community engagement teams would consist of key stakeholders, such as parents, teachers and other school staff, to assist with the development of an implementation plan and to ensure that these schools are able to meet their performance targets. Schools that meet these targets can then be removed from this classification. If schools are unable to make progress, the bill provides a path for escalating interventions to make demonstrable improvement.
Schools that are in receivership serve our highest need populations i.e., undocumented students, English language learners, students with special needs, students living in poverty and homeless students. Currently, there are 37 school buildings in receivership in 11 school districts. The current receivership law created a flawed accountability system and imposed dire consequences on struggling schools. These provisions, which were enacted in 2015, label schools and educators as failing but do little to address the underlying deficiencies or improve schools.
The existing receivership law does not provide additional resources or support services for these schools, nor does it encourage positive collaboration between students, parents, educational stakeholders and community members. Furthermore, because the receivership law labels schools and educators as "failing," this deters educators from working in struggling schools, which often serve large high-need populations. Therefore, it is critical that these schools retain effective teachers to increase student achievement ― not push them away.
Accordingly, I urge you to pass S.3393, which puts forth a revised accountability system that creates a concrete path to identify and assist struggling schools. This legislation would provide a stable structure for our neediest populations and will ensure that all students in New York have access to a sound, basic education.
Thank you for your consideration of this very important issue. I respectfully ask that you bring up this issue with your conference and I would greatly appreciate a response to this email.
Sincerely,
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