State Sen. Shelley Meyer chairs the Education Committee and is committed to fully funding New York's schools, ensuring children receive a quality education, and ensuring that educators receive justice. We strive to reward you. Meyer told the city and state about reversing proposed education cuts, promoting career and technical education, and expanding the role of public schools in fighting poverty.
What are your top legislative priorities this year as it relates to labor and the workforce, specifically New York schools?
As the Governor proposed significant cuts across all schools, some net cuts and some much lower than expected cuts in the Foundation Aid formula, my focus was on restoring those cuts. In that context, career and technical education are critical to workforce development. I have asked for a change of carrier and technical compensation. Whether it leads to a credentialed community college or a four-year apprenticeship, it continues to be undervalued in our world. Children want to learn skills and learn jobs.
We are fighting to increase the salary accrual for career and technical education instructors under state law to $60,000 over the next three academic years. Under the current cap, he can't hire a retired master plumber for more than $30,000 and not get the quality he needs to exceed that reimbursement cap. And the 9th grade is no more. My school district has a Blue Ribbon school, one of the top (career and technical education) schools, and I enroll through 9th grade, and my tuition is non-refundable.
Another important thing besides reimbursement is that both of these early college programs across the state are on track to provide students with skills and guidance to enter the job market. about it. Her PTECH in 25 schools and Early College High School where you can earn college credits while still in high school. With the support of mentors, PTECH successfully places children into well-paying jobs. We want to help these programs continue and become financially sustainable. I also believe in union apprenticeship programs to get people into unions after high school.
What's happening this year with pension tier reform, which is Labor's top priority?
I think full-scale Tier 6 reform is necessary. There are too many workplaces where the majority of local government employees are in Tier 6. They don't have a big incentive to stay. Additionally, morale issues arise when some people still receive more generous severance pay. We need to encourage people to work for government, and Tier 6 is a disincentive. I talk to people in the uniformed services, police and fire services. In one of the fire unions in my district, about 70% of our employee firefighters are in Tier 6; Therefore, his 36% of membership in the Teachers' Retirement System requires him to serve until age 63, that is, a maximum of 40 years. Level 4 allows for up to 40 years of service from age 55 (age). For teachers he has 40 years, but I don't think it lasts that long, especially for teachers who demonstrate valuable skills. That's just within the school. That's what I'm worried about.
I think Tier 6 needs to change. There are pressures in the education sector, and that applies to uniforms as well as the public sector as a whole. You won't be able to hire employees. That's not how public services should be. You agree to perform these tasks for a certain amount of profit. This served as an incentive to retain talented people. I'm all for the amendment. There is more organized advocacy for Tier 6 than ever before.
What specifically would you change?
We haven't had a chance to discuss it together as a conference, but the chairman of that committee, (State Sen. Robert) Jackson, is a very strong advocate. He wants to change it to 3% (from 6%) over the life of the service. He will be the point person, but many of us will have strong opinions.
How does poverty affect schools? What are lawmakers planning to do on this front?
I just completed a tour of 11 school districts across the state to address post-COVID learning loss, and what struck me was the proactive approach taken by the more successful schools… , who were on the front lines dealing with poverty in their families. Some schools offer help before your child starts school or have clothing and laundromats on site. Many of these schools provide clothing that is sent to students over the weekend. One school was reaching out to families. This has a lot to do with poverty there, and almost everywhere we went, schools had a more active role. This is a phenomenon that happened after COVID-19, and you work on the front end, whether you're waiting for things to get worse or teachers are feeding kids out of their pockets.
We want to expand our school lunch program and that's part of this priority. It's not just about hunger, it's about creating a unified school community, where everyone eats together, everyone has the right to the same things, and minimizing status differences within the school based on wealth. That's it. We want to support these proactive efforts to reach families.
And we're supporting more community schools. Schools play a role in this wraparound to help families with poverty. It's part of this challenge of providing a sound basic education, and now it's a much more proactive wraparound service. We believe that every child needs an after-school program. Parents aren't done with work at 3 p.m. Schools must open later for various services. All of these address poverty and its associated social isolation, as well as improving school performance. We want tangible results. We want our kids to come home from school prepared, but we don't do enough.
Will non-compete agreements be reviewed after the governor vetoes the ban?
Although we haven't discussed it as a council, I think it should definitely be reconsidered.
Is there any discussion or discussion about charter school expansion in this Congress? Or is that issue likely to take a backseat this year, given the agreement to reallocate 22 so-called zombie charters?
We are not proposing charter expansion. To make the process better, we have several bills that would address charter saturation in upstate cities and require more transparency. Proposals to expand the charter are not on the list.
