Your Local School Board is Avoiding Having a Real Voice for Change
NYSSBA Business Meeting to Vote for Its Annual Resolutions is Scheduled for 10/16/2023
The New York School Board Association (NYSSBA) meets annually to develop their formal mission statement. This is developed from a series of resolutions that are submitted from their 675 member school districts (there are over 800 school districts statewide) from around the state. These are reviewed by the Resolution Committee, and then further evaluated by the DEI Committee (by request of NYSSBA’s Board of Directors). The DEI committee is the only committee directed to approve or oppose any or all of the proposals. The final approved resolutions will be used in advocating for local schools in Albany for this upcoming 2024 Legislative Session in Albany.
A local school board, as part of a statewide organization like NYSSBA, has influence at the New York State Legislature. Yet most school boards do not participate in this process. When speaking to local school board members, parents are often scolded for showing up at school board meetings and asking for change when it should be done at the state level. There are two things that are skewed in this view:
Parents individually have a difficult time getting a state legislature to take their considerations to the point of producing bills.
This argument ignores or denies that local school board members have more power as elected representatives to influence legislation than parents do, for now anyway.
Recently we have been asking our local school boards if they will participate in this vote scheduled for October 16, 2023 at 4 PM local EST via Zoom. Only a few are, and they don’t seem to appreciate the level of influence they have. We have heard that this meeting will last 4-5 hours and is mostly viewed as a waste of time or boring.
This year, NYSSBA is considering 56 proposals for this year's platform. The first one would create a completely different culture in Albany:
Proposed Resolution 1: NYSSBA opposes any legislative and regulatory mandates that would impose new unfunded or underfunded mandates.
As much as we hear from school administrators that they have to protect the budget and funding, you would think every school board would want to attend this meeting just to vote this one into NYSSBA’s official position.
Proposed Resolution 2: NYSSBA supports legislation at the state level to hold school districts financially harmless whenever the unanticipated, significant loss of revenue due to tax certiorari cases or the unexpected loss of significant portion of the value of taxable property.
Again…why wouldn’t they protect the financial health of their local school districts by supporting this type of legislation.
Proposed Resolution 24: NYSSBA will include as a legislative priority issue, reforms to funding for charter schools, hereby removing the burden from high need districts and shifting the burden to New York State and federal sources.
Resolution 24 passes the buck to the state and the federal government to fund charter schools so tax money from districts do not go to charter schools in their area. The DEI committee supports this idea. Why not remove accountability to failing schools? Shift the burden to the state so then the focus in not on individual schools to fight with the state about laws, policies and mandates that keep their students from achieving academic excellence.
If this passes, the local school districts do not have a reason to argue with the state because the beloved budgetary items are now protected.
Other resolutions discuss various topics to include but not limited to:
the length of school year
Medicaid funding
School safety
Funding for mental health
Pre-K funding
WIFI
Exemptions to tax caps
School resource officers
Tenure
Gun control in schools
Childcare costs Access to Narcan at schools
Zero-emission transportation mandate
Parental Rights
Free meals at school
Early voting for budgets & School Board elections
If you have attended any school board meetings within the last couple of years, you may have heard presentations dealing with the current state mandate to convert all school buses within New York State to zero-emission. Only zero-emission buses can be sold in New York State by 2027, and only zero-emission buses can be on the road by 2035.
You will have also seen BOE members shaking their heads, or school budget or accounting officers explain the lack of funding or infrastructure currently in place to make this happen. The expense of this transition alone is catastrophic to schools. Zero-emission buses retail for approximately $400,000. Compare that to the current price tag of $100,00 for diesel or other fossil fuel buses. This does not include the new charging stations and bus barns that will have to be constructed to support these vehicles. Add the stress of not knowing how reliable this type of transportation for long distance or in extreme temperatures will be. These resolutions could change the mandate currently in place:
Proposed Resolution 19: NYSSBA advocates for the State to conduct feasibility studies/review regarding utilities/infrastructure, logistical, and fiscal apsects of the zero-emission school vehicle mandate, and to revise the mandate as the reviews/studies deem necessary.
Proposed Resolution 35: NYSSBA supports legislation at teh sate and/or federal level for a waiver for small and rural school districts from the law that mandates that all school vehicles be zero emission vehicles.
Proposed Resolution 36: NYSSBA supports the repeal of the law that mandates all school vehilces be zero emission vehicles.
Considering the angst school districts are feeling with this one issue, why wouldn’t local school boards participate in this meeting to ensure these resolutions pass?
In addition, several other resolutions should be of interest. They would put local controls back the schools and parents:
Proposed Resolution 38: NYSSBA opposes any legislation or Budget initiatives that would allow NYS to overrule local zoning ordinances.
Proposed Resolution 46: NYSSBA will advocate for the reinstatement of the religious exemption to immunizations.
Proposed Resolution 47: NYSSBA will advocate for adoption of Parental Rights Legislation.
Proposed Resolution 48: NYSSBA will oppose any mandates from the State Education department regarding matters pertaining to academic standards/subjects (ie math, science, reading, writing social studies) that have not been approved by an up/down vote of the NYS legislature.
Proposed Resolution 49: NYSSBA will advocate for local control by school boards and/county executives.
Proposed Resolution 50: NYSSBA will oppose any legislation or NYSED regulation mandating comprehensive K-12 gender and sexuality education.
Proposed Resolution 51: NYSSBA will oppose any reduction to the requirements and/or standards related to history and civics in the NYS school cirriculum. In addition, advocate to keep Regents exams in US History, Government and Global History as a requirement of the end of year course work.
It's worth noting that the NYSSBA DEI committee opposed resolutions 38, 46-51. Perhaps supporting local control, parental rights and History standards does not suit the current progressive agenda. It's also a possible consideration to understand why progressive or big city school district will show up for this meeting, and more rural and smaller districts (more conservative to moderate leaning) will not.
Moderate to conservative minded areas have willingly surrendered their power to the state. I do not say that lightly. I understand the fatigue that comes from fighting Albany and New York City with different value systems across this state. It is just maddening to see that our rural and smaller districts outnumber the bigger districts. IF they would show up and vote their values, this entire mission statement would look different. These are not weighted votes. Bigger districts do not get more say than smaller districts. The majority of these districts are moderate to conservative and either do not attend this vote, or abstain from voting certain resolutions. Why?
The 675 member school districts are represented by NYSSBA in Albany. NYSSBA is the lobbying body that advocates for/against local policies for these school districts. This process has more power to change the power structure in Albany and progressives know that. Conservatives and moderates are not as serious about policy because they have no idea what this meeting can actually accomplish.
Perhaps it's time parents and taxpayers remind our locally elected school board members the power they have is affecting change in Albany, just not the change we all need, want or support. They need to attend these meetings every year, and vote the for their community values.
Thank you for this! Very informative!