City & State - 09282015 - Setting the Agenda part 2

September 28, 2015

Meet A refugee. A student. And in the New York school system, the odds are stacked against him.

By JUSTIN SONDEL

Spotlight:

SETTING the A G E N D A

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@CIT YANDSTATENY

SEAN THATCHER Barry Goldwater Scholarship 2015 College of Staten Island

EVGENIYA KIM Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans 2015 Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College

JACOB LEVIN Harry S. Truman Scholarship 2015 Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College

JOHNATHAN CULPEPPER National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship 2015 Medgar Evers College

CARLA SPENSIERI Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Grant 2015 Hunter and Queens Colleges

KYLE CHIN-HOW Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship 2015 Queensborough Community College

CUNY students are winning the most prestigious, highly competitive awards in the nation. In the past five years, they have won 81 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships, 79 Fulbright Awards for research and teaching English abroad, and 12 Barry Goldwater Scholarships for outstanding undergraduates who intend to pursue research careers in mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering. And two CUNY doctoral candidates captured prestigious prizes that are rarely awarded to students — a Pulitzer Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship, both for poetry. Providing quality, accessible education has been CUNY’s mission since 1847, a commitment that is a source of enormous pride, as are these students.

— James B. Milliken, Chancellor

Join the winners’ circle!

For more information about The City University of New York visit cuny.edu/welcome

CONTENTS September 28, 2015

CITY

8.......

Now a dominant power, the Progressive Caucus finds its vision complicated

By Sarina Trangle

BUFFALO

10......

Advocates say clean water is key to Western New York’s economic development

By Justin Sondel

STATE

11.......

With ‘upstate Hunger Games’ bids due soon, mayors keep plans close to the vest

EDUCATION IN EXILE

12.......

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

Michael Gareth Johnson Executive Editor

Watching the Syrian refugee crisis unfold through video reports and print articles has been gutwrenching and heartbreaking at times. Especially hard to witness are the stories of children traveling hundreds of miles by boat or on foot with just the clothes on their back and maybe a backpack full of personal items. For many, the natural inclination is to want to help these people. Compassion compels us to ask why more is not being done by the nations of the world to help these people in need.

Answering that question leads us to the truth of tragedies: They are complicated. Good intentions quickly conflict with concrete realities. Moving, housing, feeding and educating large groups of people can only happen with patience, persistence and unwavering political will.

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We see these complications play out in New York as well. In 2014, the state resettled more than 4,000 refugees, primarily from Burma, Bhutan, Somalia and Iraq. Of them, 3,870 were settled in upstate communities, with Erie County taking in the most – 1,380, according to the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

Our cover story by staff reporter Justin Sondel introduces us to a refugee from Erie County, Henreh Too. His story of seeking an education is uplifting, yet it highlights the complications the school system faces for English language learners in upstate communities. We decided to put Henreh on the cover of the magazine not because of his past – growing up in a refugee camp in Thailand after his family was forced to flee their homeland – but because of his present situation. His experience in school in Buffalo highlights both the great opportunities available to him, but also the gaps and complexities in our existing system.

This issue also has an update on the Upstate Revitalization Initiative competition, dubbed the “upstate Hunger Games” by many in the state. Staff reporter Ashley Hupfl checks in with mayors from around the state to get an update on the status of their bids, due next week, and to talk to them about this controversial process.

And in New York City, staff reporter Sarina Trangle also has a story examining what ideological goals separate members of the city’s Progressive Caucus from other Democrats who have not joined the clique. One councilman suggests there is nothing separating the two groups, and another refers to the Progressive Caucus as a Rorschach inkblot – a memorable quote and an intriguing read.

Young refugees find the odds stacked against them in New York’s schools

By Justin Sondel

SETTING THE AGENDA, PART II

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3

Proposed $15 minimum wage … Scaffold Law reforms … Common Core, teacher evaluations and school funding … the Dream Act … toxic chemicals in toys … microbeads … gel fracking … clean energy

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OPINION

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BACK & FORTH

Alexis Grenell is skeptical about the Women’s Equality Party … Bruce N. Gyory says de Blasio’s dispute with Cuomo ignores the state constitution …

Norman Oder says the Barclays Center should drop the “Barclays” name

A Q&A with mayoral candidate and former New York Jet Michel Faulkner

September 28, 2015

Meet A refugee. A student. And in the New York school system, the odds are stacked against him.

By JUSTIN SONDEL

Spotlight:

SETTING the A G E N D A

CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

@CIT YANDSTATENY

Cover: Photo

by Nancy Parisi

CITY & STATE — September 28, 2015

PROCYK RADEK

By Ashley Hupfl

61 Broadway, Suite 2235 New York, NY 10006 Editorial (212) 894-5417 General (646) 517-2740 Advertising (212) 894-5422 info@cityandstateny.com

CITY AND STATE, LLC Chairman Steve Farbman President/CEO Tom Allon tallon@cityandstateny.com PUBLISHING Publisher Andrew A. Holt aholt@cityandstateny.com Vice President of Advertising Jim Katocin jkatocin@cityandstateny.com Events Director Jasmin Freeman jfreeman@cityandstateny.com Director of Marketing Samantha Diliberti sdiliberti@cityandstateny.com Business Development Scott Augustine saugustine@cityandstateny.com EDITORIAL

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Executive Editor Michael Johnson mjohnson@cityandstateny.com Associate Editor / Senior Correspondent Jon Lentz jlentz@cityandstateny.com Web Editor/Reporter Wilder Fleming wfleming@cityandstateny.com Albany Reporter Ashley Hupfl ahupfl@cityandstateny.com Buffalo Reporter Justin Sondel jsondel@cityandstateny.com Staff Reporter Sarina Trangle strangle@cityandstateny.com Editor-at-Large Gerson Borrero gborrero@cityandstateny.com

Editorial Assistant Jeremy Unger junger@cityandstateny.com

KYLE LEE /SHUTTERSTOCK

CITY & STATE — September 28, 2015

Copy Editor Ryan Somers rsomers@cityandstateny.com

PRODUCTION Creative Director Guillaume Federighi gfederighi@cityandstateny.com Senior Designer Michelle Yang myang@cityandstateny.com Marketing Graphic Designer Charles Flores cflores@cityandstateny.com Illustrator Danilo Agutoli

What are the top issues that state lawmakers will face next legislative session? Check out Part II of our Setting the Agenda spotlight to find out, starting on page 18.

Digital Strategist Chanel Grannum cgrannum@cityandstateny.com Multimedia Director Bryan Terry bterry@cityandstateny.com

City & State is published twice monthly. Copyright Š2015, City and State NY, LLC

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CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY AWARDS

City & State Reports honored outstanding professionals from the state’s health care, hospitals and pharmaceuticals industries on Sept. 17 at Hunter College. The breakfast event featured a panel discussion with Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, United Biomedical Inc. Co-CEO Mei Mei Hu, Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. President and CEO John Connolly and Mount Sinai Hospital’s Chief Diversity Officer Gary C. Butts, moderated by NYU Medical Center’s Dr. Marc Siegel.

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CITY & STATE — September 28, 2015

ARMAN DZIDZOVIC

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HOW DID YOUR COUNTY DO ON THE TEST? With bus stops packed with students in the morning and the leaves starting to change, school season is in full swing, and that means the topic of test scores is back to the forefront. With issues such as teacher evaluations, Common Core standards and mayoral control of New York City’s school system all expected to be on the docket for the upcoming legislative session, we compiled a top 10 list of the highest and lowest performing counties on the state’s standardized tests in 2015. Rankings were determined by measuring the percentage of students who scored proficient or above on English language arts and math tests.

Note: Large numbers of students in some counties, especially on Long Island and in central New York, did not participate in last year’s tests as part of the “opt out” movement, which opposes the Common Core standards that became the basis for New York’s standardized tests in 2013.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

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GRADE 3 - TOP 10

GRADE 3 - BOTTOM 10

GRADE 8 - TOP 10

GRADE 8 - BOTTOM 10

Hamilton Nassau Saratoga New York Westchester Putnam Queens Richmond Rockland Warren

Sullivan Chenango Yates Bronx Cortland Cayuga Franklin Montgomery Ulster Orleans

Hamilton Saratoga Tompkins Nassau Westchester Albany Putnam Richmond Wyoming Warren

Montgomery 18.4% Bronx 19.2% Yates 21.4% Franklin 22.4% Seneca 24.7% Cortland 25.4% Fulton 25.7% Sullivan 26.9% Chemung 27.1% Ulster 27.7%

68.4% 42.7% 39.3% 38.6% 38.2% 37.6% 35.3% 34.9% 34.8% 34.1%

15.4% 19.1% 19.6% 19.8% 19.9% 20.0% 20.2% 20.9% 21.0% 21.2%

50.0% 49.2% 49.1% 44.7% 43.6% 43.2% 42.9% 42.5% 40.4% 40.0%

CITY & STATE — September 28, 2015

MATH GRADE 3 - TOP 10

GRADE 3 - BOTTOM 10

GRADE 8 - TOP 10

GRADE 8 - BOTTOM 10

Saratoga Nassau Hamilton Tompkins Wyoming Westchester Warren Putnam Genesee Ontario

Bronx Sullivan Franklin Columbia Montgomery Fulton Chenango Orleans Washington Schenectady

Saratoga Westchester Albany Putnam Livingston Queens New York Madison Lewis Cayuga

Franklin Columbia Herkimer Greene Seneca Hamilton Sullivan Schoharie Fulton Schuyler

56.1% 54.0% 52.6% 51.7% 50.0% 49.9% 49.4% 49.4% 48.4% 47.3%

26.8% 26.9% 28.0% 29.0% 29.4% 33.1% 33.4% 33.8% 33.8% 33.9%

37.4% 34.8% 31.4% 30.6% 29.2% 27.9% 27.3% 25.8% 25.7% 25.6%

5.8% 6.4% 8.1% 9.7% 10.7% 11.1% 11.7% 11.9% 12.2% 12.9%

Don’t miss Justin Sondel’s report on the challenges refugees face in upstate schools on page 12. And for more on the education issues state legislators will face in the upcoming session, turn to page 24.

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BUT ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A FIFTH-GRADER? Before you go too hard on the students who didn’t pass – or their teachers – you might want to try taking the test for yourself.

Here are some of the sample math questions the state Education Department released from this year’s Common Core-aligned tests. How many of them can you answer? And no cheating!

GRADE 3

GRADE 5

GRADE 6

GRADE 7, CON’T

1) Noel read 90 minutes each day for 6 days. Tyra read 60 minutes each day for 8 days. What is the difference, in minutes, between the total amount of time Noel read and the total amount of time Tyra read?

5) The fifth-grade classes at Brookfield School used five identical buses to go on a field trip.

• There were a total of 40 seats on each bus.

• All of the seats on four buses were filled.

• The fifth bus had of the seats filled.

• of all the passengers on the buses were adults.

How many adults went on the field trip with the fifth-grade classes?

7) A high-speed elevator can rise 480 feet in 30 seconds. Which expression represents the rate, in feet per minute, of the elevator?

10) Gary buys a 3 -pound bag of cat food every 3 weeks. Gary feeds his cat the same amount of food each day. Which expression can Gary use to determine the number of pounds of cat food his cat eats each year? (1 year = 52 weeks)

2) Which number sentence is true?

A. 2/2 = 2/6 B. 4/6 = 2/2 C. 1/2 = 3/6 D. 2/6 = 1/2

A. 20 B. 24 C. 25 D. 32

8) Erica drew the parallelogram below.

Which expression can Erica use to find the area of the parallelogram?

A. The figure has opposite sides that are perpendicular and angles that measure 135°.

B. The figure has opposite sides that are perpendicular and angles that measure 45°.

C. The figure has opposite sides that are parallel and angles that measure 135°.

D. The figure has opposite sides that are parallel and angles that measure 45°.

4) The price of a board game is $24.

The price of the board game is 2 times as much as the price of a jigsaw puzzle.

What is the price of the jigsaw puzzle?

A $12 B $22 C $26 D $48

6) In a math game, a player chooses two numbers, as described below.

• First number: a mixed number between 2 and 10 • Second number: 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 Which statement describes the product of the two numbers a player chooses?

A. The product must be a whole number less than the second number.

B. The product must be a value less than the second number.

C. The product must be a whole number greater than the second number.

D. The product must be a value greater than the second number.

B. × C. 3( × ) D. 3( × )

GRADE 8

GRADE 4 3) Which statement best classifies the figure below?

A. ×

A. 5 × 4 B. (5 × 4 ) C. 2 ×(5 × 4 ) D. 5 ×4

11) The winning time for the men’s 400-meter race in each of the Olympic Games from 1976 to 1996 can be modeled by the equation y = − 0.054x + 44.54 , where x is the number of years after 1976 and y is the winning time in seconds. If the relationship continues, which equation could be used to predict the winning time in the year 2020?

GRADE 7

A. y = −0.054(1976) + 44.54 B. y = −0.054(2020) + 44.54 C. y = −0.054(24) + 44.54 D. y = −0.054(44) + 44.54

9) During a sale, a store offered a 40% discount on a particular camera that was originally priced at $450. After the sale, the discounted price of the camera was increased by 40%. What was the price of the camera after this increase?

12) Which exponential expression is equal to 2−5 • 28 ?

A $252 B $360 C $378 D $450

A. B. C. D.

ANSWERS: 1. C; 2. C; 3. C; 4. A; 5. B; 6. D; 7. C; 8. A; 9. C; 10. A; 11. D; 12. D. … How many did you get right? 1-4 correct = Didn’t you learn anything in third grade? 5-8 correct = Time to start thinking about summer school. 9-11 correct = There’s nothing wrong with being a ‘B’ student. 12 correct = Congratulations! You’ve got what it takes to graduate middle school!

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CITY & STATE — September 28, 2015

A. 30 B. 40 C. 60 D. 80

A. 480 × 30 B. 480 ÷ 30 C. 480 × 2 D. 480 ÷ 2

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THE PITFALL OF POWER

NOW DOMINANT, THE PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS FINDS ITS VISION COMPLICATED

city & state — September 28, 2015

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Now that New York City’s Progressive Caucus holds the mayor’s office, more than one-third of the City Council and the speakership, it’s practically a Rorschach inkblot, fulfilling the functions that individuals seek in it, according to caucus member Councilman Ritchie Torres.

“When we had a Republican mayor, the caucus could easily define itself in relation to and in opposition to the mayor,” Torres said. “The rationale for the Progressive Caucus is more complicated than it has been historically. … I think of it as a support service, not as a litmus test, not as a substitute for a party; it’s a policy support service.”

Queens Councilman Donovan Richards agreed it is difficult to put a finger on what ideology distinguishes the Progressive Caucus from the rest of the chamber, but sees the cohort as a counterweight to the boroughs’ Democratic parties.

Manhattan Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal called the 19-member organization a mechanism to briskly line up votes for left-leaning policies. And Manhattan Councilman Ben Kallos described the group as leading, rather than just supporting, progressive causes.

Progressive Caucus members have struggled to express one coherent vision, in part because there seems to be more legislative support for its policy platform across the City Council, and also because it can no longer claim to strictly eschew politics in favor of legislation, now that it has propelled two from its fold to the forefront of City Hall – Mayor Bill de Blasio and Speaker Melissa MarkViverito.

Brooklyn Councilman Brad Lander helped found the caucus in 2010 with the goal of advancing policies meant to eradicate inequity and make New York City more just. Although many share these goals, Lander said the Caucus has committed to governing with these ideals “front and center.”

PHOTOS BY WILLIAM ALATRISTE FOR THE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL

By SARINA TRANGLE

Progressive Caucus members Margaret Chin, I. Daneek Miller, Ben Kallos and Daniel Dromm with Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Additionally, he said several shifts have made the council, and its counterparts, more progressive: rising global inequities drawing more to the cause and progressives nudging mainstream Democrats left on issues such as a $15 an hour minimum wage.

Progressivism has not historically been much more concrete. It emerged in America amid concerns that unregulated capitalism was producing imbalances in the wake of the Civil War, according to Notre Dame Professor Emeritus Walter Nugent in “Progressivism: A Very Short Introduction.” Though there were many varied interpretations of the movement, the early progressives generally believed the government should temper economic and social ills, with the goal of producing a more fair society – at least for white, native citizens.

New York City’s more modern reincarnation promotes providing opportunity to those who have been left out of prosperity and combating discrimination. During its inception under Bloomberg, the caucus articulated its support for measures such as living wage legislation and paid sick leave in a way that made its goals easily identifiable. But under the new administration, what policies divide the caucus from other Democrats is no longer as evident.

Manhattan Councilman Mark Levine, a caucus member, and Kallos, the caucus’ vice chairman for policy, said it has a very collaborative nature, which can belie how it spearheads successes behind the scenes. For instance, Kallos said he started a caucus committee so all City Council members can come workshop progressive legislation. Open-door

policy aside, both councilmen said the caucus’ members had triumphed in their negotiations with colleagues to get legislation passed, including the Fair Chance Act, which prevents most employers from inquiring about applicants’ criminal records until a conditional work offer is made (passed with votes from 45 of the council’s 51 members), and a measure preventing most employers from using consumer credit history when screening applicants, (passed with only three dissenters).

“The fact that on almost every piece of legislation that we pass, there was pretty lopsided majorities … shouldn’t be confused with being proof that there was not a really spirited debate,” Levine said. “That, in part, is because they felt like they aired their concerns, they saw the bill was going to pass, and they all of a sudden wanted to be on the side of the speaker and the majority.” cit yandstateny.com

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THE ALLIANCE

Richards, co-chairman of the caucus, however, said the two measures singled out by Levine and Kallos did not face opposition. “No, absolutely, not,” he said of the legislation. “I’m a member of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, and we had overwhelming support in the BLAC caucus on these issues as well. So I would say the politics may be different, but the ideology is – we’re not going to be far apart because we’re all Democrats.”

Non-caucus members agreed.

Queens council members Karen Koslowitz and Rory Lancman said several colleagues outside of the caucus identify as progressive, and they could see no clear ideological divide between the caucus and other Democrats.

“With all due respect,” Lancman said, “there’s not a person in the City Council who can out-progressive me. And I’m not in the Progressive Caucus.” He noted that his bill to outlaw NYPD officers’ use of chokeholds and the push to decriminalize some nonviolent offenses were examples of the progressive streak permeating the council as a whole. “(The caucus is) just a political power base for one group of progressives to rally around, and that’s fine.”

Asked about Lancman’s selfidentification as a progressive, most caucus members said they do not want to police who is and is not progressive.

Instead, they said the caucus represents a commitment to ideas, not identity (like the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus or LGBT Caucus) or geography (like most borough parties). “Neither I nor anyone in the caucus has a monopoly on the label ‘progressive,’” Levine said. “In some cases it’s really not about policy cit yandstateny.com

differences, but people who join the caucus are people who are willing to act independently of particular county organizations and other institutional forces to push a progressive agenda.”

Caucus members took pains to differentiate it from the Progressive Caucus Alliance, which Lander helped form in 2012 to campaign for like-minded politicians. All but five caucus members are in the alliance – Mark-Viverito, Rosenthal and council members Margaret Chin, I. Daneek Miller and Ydanis Rodriguez.

Still, some conceded it is impossible to completely eradicate politics from the caucus because it needs to amass enough members and supporters to legislate.

And how successful the caucus is in extracting politics and leaving it at the steps of City Hall is a matter of opinion. One source said some council members have expressed frustration with how infrequently the caucus promotes plans opposed by the speaker or mayor. Perhaps a testament to its ranks and power, at least 10 non-caucus members declined to discuss its ideology or politics on the record.

Caucus members point to the Fair Chance Act, the credit check legislation, a bill that would tax shoppers for plastic bags in an attempt to prevent pollution and the Right to Know Act, a package of bills that would require police to identify why they are stopping someone and inform them that they can decline certain searches, as initiatives that did not initially or do not currently have the speaker’s and mayor’s backing. “That is a rare situation,” Kallos emphasized.

“But the Progressive Caucus is here to

pull the mayor and the speaker left, when necessary, and that is a role we are comfortable with.”

Lander said the caucus naturally tends to side with the establishment, but it would be “silly to not be honest” about how the caucus is more thoughtful about criticizing allies than it was in taking on Bloomberg or the relatively moderate former Speaker Christine Quinn. Still, he said, the caucus’s and alliance’s commitment is not contingent on who ascends to

members of the Progressive Caucus, a lot of them do very well from contributions from the real estate world and other supposed boogeymen of progressive politics.”

There were, however, a few differences in who was investing in the campaign committees of Lynch and Grodenchik, the Queens Democratic Party pick, ahead of the primary. Lynch received more support from unions – the Council of School Supervisors and 32BJ gave her $2,750 each, at least 10 Teamsters affiliates donated to her account, and one horse carriage driver bundled $885 from colleagues on top of money from their Teamsters Local 553. But some of Grodenchik’s top donors were also organized labor groups, including the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association, which gave $2,700, and the Transportation Workers Union Local 100, which contributed $1,500.

Some of the city’s biggest unions did not appear to invest much more, fiscally, in one candidate over the other. The United Federation of Teachers endorsed Grodenchik, but did not donate to either campaign; the Hotel Trades Council backed Lynch, but only gave her $220; and Local 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East did not endorse or contribute to either candidate.

Grodenchik took in more money from business associations – $500 from the Realtors Political Action Committee and $2,750 from the real estate industry-backed Taxpayers for an Affordable New York PAC – while Lynch’s campaign took smaller amounts from brokers, an Airbnb employee and those affiliated with real estate investment firms.

speaker or mayor.

“We have a set of people who passionately share the goals of making the city a more just, fair, more equal place, and that’s what drove them into politics,” he said. “That was true last term … and it’ll be true in the future, regardless of who is president and who is governor and who is mayor and who is speaker. It’s going to take us a long time to make progress toward those goals. We’re not going to do it in one term.”

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city & state — September 28, 2015

Progressive Caucus co-founder Brad Lander chats with Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Unlike the Progressive Caucus, the Progressive Caucus Alliance was explicitly formed to campaign for progressively minded politicians. But how greatly the alliance’s and borough parties’ political bases differ is a matter of perspective.

Most recently, the alliance got involved in a six-way primary for an eastern Queens seat vacated by Mark Weprin. Alliance founder and Brooklyn Councilman Brad Lander said the group met with three candidates – former de Blasio aide Rebecca Lynch, attorney Ali Najmi and the eventual winner, former Assemblyman Barry Grodenchik. The alliance took an internal vote and backed Lynch.

Precisely why depends on who you ask. Manhattan Councilman Mark Levine said there were “stark policy differences” that made her stand out, but declined to name specifics.

Another alliance member pointed out that Lynch supported authorizing noncitizen voting, which Grodenchik did not. Bronx Councilman Ritchie Torres said he knew Lynch, and therefore did not need to delve too deeply into the nuances of the candidates’ platforms. And Lander said it could not be parsed down to a policy list, because the alliance also considered who had a history of supporting its goals, who would make a well-rounded council member, and who had a viable shot at victory.

Queens City Councilman Rory Lancman, who is not a member of the caucus, said the borough party loyalists and progressives had similar campaign finance sources. “You’ll see a tremendous amount of overlap in unions,” he said. “If you look at

BUFFALO

CLEANING THE WESTERN WATERWAYS ADVOCATES, LAWMAKERS SAY ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION IS KEY TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

city & state — September 28, 2015

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After a successful push to ban the sale of cosmetics containing plastic microbeads in Erie County earlier this year, county Legislator Patrick Burke is continuing the effort to bring attention to pollution in the Great Lakes watershed.

At a public hearing this month that brought together water systems experts from the public, private and nonprofit sectors, Burke pointed out that while there has been substantial development of the waterfront in recent years, pollution limits the ways that the public can enjoy the water itself.

“We’re investing significant public money in waterfront amenities, but not enough in the actual water,” Burke said.

Many at the hearing pointed to the economic benefits of investing in the cleanup of the environment, particularly waterways.

Fredrick Floss, the chairman of the economics and finance department at SUNY Buffalo State, pointed to a 2007 Brookings Institute study suggesting that the long-term benefits of investing in the cleanup of the Great Lakes would be immense, bringing an influx of jobs and people to the region.

“The real key here is are we, as a community, willing to pay the price now to have strong economic development later,” Floss said.

In Buffalo, sewage often finds its way into the waterways after rainfall, a result of the aging combined sewer and stormwater systems. And while the city is currently carrying out a federally mandated plan to fix the problem, the infrastructure upgrades will take as long as 15 years to complete, at an estimated cost of $500 million.

And the issue is not limited to Buffalo.

RICHARD CAVALLERI / SHUTTERSTOCK

By JUSTIN SONDEL

Buffalo is carrying out a plan to fix its sewage and stormwater runoff problem, which will take 15 years and $500 million to complete.

Joseph Fiegl, deputy commissioner of the Erie County Department of Environment and Planning, said efforts are underway to implement infrastructure changes in towns across the county, but that funding can be hard to find.

In addition, Erie County contains dozens of disjointed wastewater systems, and many different municipalities shoulder the burden of cleaning water in their own towns.

Other counties in the state, such as Monroe, take a more regional approach to treating wastewater, with only a few large plants servicing the whole area.

“Water doesn’t follow municipal boundaries, and I think therefore a regional solution is more

favorable,” Feigl said.

Jill Jedlicka, executive director of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, said area leaders should also be looking to “living infrastructure,” such as rain gardens, green roofs and buffer zones for farmland and roads, as a more affordable way to help reduce runoff and stop overflows.

Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, which has also helped secure millions of dollars in funds for projects like the Buffalo River cleanup, released a report in 2011 suggesting that through the implementation of living infrastructure the city could reduce combined sewer system runoff by as much as 45 percent.

But keeping the Great Lakes and other area waterways clean will take

more than just one method, Jedlicka noted; it will require a well-planned, multifaceted regional approach, she said. But no such plan exists.

“We have action plans. We have priorities,” Jedlicka said. “We do not have a comprehensive strategy as a state or as a county how our water or how our Great Lakes resources can be protected and economic drivers at the same time.”

After the hearing, Burke said he plans to host similar discussions in the future.

“I think this is the beginning of something,” Burke said. ¢ To read about the environmental issues state lawmakers will face in the upcoming legislative session, turn to page 30. cit yandstateny.com

GAMES BEGIN WITH BIDS DUE SOON FOR ‘UPSTATE HUNGER GAMES,’ MAYORS MUM ABOUT PLANS

By ASHLEY HUPFL

With only one week left to submit

bids for the Upstate Revitalization Initiative competition, most upstate New York mayors are hesitant to speak publicly about their plans for their cities for fear of jeopardizing their chances.

The competition was quickly dubbed the “upstate Hunger Games,” named after a series of books in which children must participate in an annual televised death match.

“This is what happens when you have a ‘Hunger Games’ kind of process where the merits of your position are complicated by your relationship with the decision-maker,” former Assemblyman Richard Brodsky said.

“When you’re getting this kind of mass silence, you’re getting a message that there’s an audience of one for these kinds of things – and it ain’t the public.”

During his State of the State address in January, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the initiative, which would award $500 million each to three of seven eligible regions.

The Capital Region, Central New York, Finger Lakes, Mid-Hudson, Mohawk Valley, North County and Southern Tier regions must all submit their plans to the regional Economic Development Councils by Oct. 5. Long Island, New York City and Western New York were excluded from the competition.

City & State reached out to the mayors of Binghamton, Syracuse, Utica, Yonkers and Plattsburgh. They either did not immediately respond to interview requests or declined to speak.

Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren, however, is excited about her city’s prospects and what the funding could do for her city.

“We don’t have the ability to

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dictate the way it should be done – we just want to be able to access those dollars and we know those dollars will be beneficial to our citizens,” Warren said. “I think that it’s the governor’s prerogative to roll out the process the way in which he feels is best and our region is ready to compete.”

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan said whichever regions ultimately win the awards, upstate New York is better off because of the competition. She declined to discuss any details about her city’s plan, but said Capital Region stakeholders have created a website about their bid, the Capital 2020 plan.

“I think it’s a process that every region needed to go through,” she said. “I think we’re going to end up with regions that have a roadmap for economic development that’s not just small projects looking at one year, but (plans like) the Capital 2020 plan, which is a 5- to 10-year plan for growth in the Capital Region and makes a compelling case for investment.”

The competition aspect of the initiative has garnered criticism, and Brodsky argues the process pits upstate cities against one another when it should be about community development.

Still, Sheehan and Warren are focused on the benefits the money could bring.

“We have to take all (the stakeholders’) perspectives together and look at what the governor’s goal is,” Sheehan said. “The (reason) the Legislature approved this funding was really around, ‘How do we change the trajectory and really grow jobs in the regions that are eligible for this competition?’ … So is that a diplomatic way of saying, ‘I wish there was $500 million for each of the regions?’ Of course I do! I’d be crazy not to say that, but these are the rules.” ¢

Papal Papal Invite Invite Validates Validates Carwasheros’ Carwasheros’ Struggle Struggle

By Stuart Appelbaum, President, By Stuart Appelbaum, President, Store Union, Retail, Wholesale and Department Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, RWDSU, UFCW RWDSU, UFCW ew Yorkers of every faith have been ew Yorkers every faith have been inspired by of Pope Francis’ visit to our city. inspired by Pope Francis’ visit to ourleader city.

The Pope is an extraordinary moral The Pope is anfor extraordinary leader on economic justice all people inmoral this world. on justice for all people in this world.

He economic inspires me, he inspires low-wage workers He inspires me, he inspires low-wage workers seeking dignity and justice, and he inspires seeking humanitydignity acrossand thejustice, globe. and he inspires humanity the globe.

Car across wash workers in New York City have have Car wash workers in York Cityand also been an inspiration toNew immigrants also been an inspiration to immigrants and working people in New York. Workers at the city’s working people in New York. Workers at the city’s car washes – who call themselves “carwasheros” carbywashes – who call themselves – have been exploited unscrupulous employers, and “carwasheros” live in the – have been by their unscrupulous employers, and live in the shadows out exploited of fear that shadows outuse of fear their bosses may theirthat immigrant bosses may use theirCar immigrant status against them.

Wash The invitation for status against Wash The invitationto for operators havethem. been Car forced to pay carwasheros meet with operators been carwasheros to meet millions ofhave dollars as forced a resulttoofpay the Pope serves as a with millions of dollarsbyasthe a result of the Pope serves as aworker charges brought New York message that every charges the New York message every worker General by and New York Attorney brought is entitledthat to be treated and for Newstolen York Attorney General is entitled be respect. treated Department of Labor with dignitytoand Department of Labor for stolen with dignity and respect. wages, tips, and overtime pay. wages,Carwasheros tips, and overtime pay.hours work long Carwasheros work longcare, hoursor other benefits. Workers’ with no paid time off, health with no paid time off, health care, or otherroutinely benefits.keep Workers’ schedules are unpredictable, and bosses them on schedulesfor arehours unpredictable, and bosses routinelypay. keep them on premises and send them home without Workers handle premises forcaustic hours and send them home provided without pay. handle dangerous, chemicals and aren’t withWorkers the proper dangerous, caustic chemicals and aren’t provided with the proper protective equipment. protective equipment. operates in a culture of exploitation. But workers The industry The industry are fighting back. operates in a culture of exploitation. But workers are fighting back.

With the help of the RWDSU and community groups Make the With the theYork RWDSU and community groups Make Road New Yorkhelp and of New Communities for Change, they are the taking Road York lives. and New York Communities for Change, they are taking controlNew of their By winning union contracts and representation control their lives. contracts and join representation with theofRWDSU theyBy arewinning provingunion that when workers together, they with the RWDSU they are proving that when workers join together, they can make a difference in their lives. can make a difference their that lives.Pope Francis chose to include That’s why it is soinfitting PopeDenicia, Francis and chose to include That’s why it is so fitting that carwasheros Patricio Santiago, Refugio Jose Reynaldo carwasheros Jose Sanchez in hisPatricio visit toSantiago, Our Lady Refugio Queen ofDenicia, Angels and School in Reynaldo East SanchezThe in his visit to Our Lady Queen Angels School in East Harlem. invitation for these RWDSUofmembers to meet with the Harlem.

The invitation for these members to meet the Pope serves as a message to allRWDSU people in this country thatwith every Pope serves as a message to alldo people in this country worker, regardless of what they or where they came that from,every is worker, regardless of what they doand or where they came from, is entitled to be treated with dignity respect. entitled to be treated with dignity respect.

Francis has called for and an end to an economy he calls one Pope has calledThe for an end totoaninclude economy he calls one Pope Francis of “exclusion and inequality.” decision of “exclusion andin inequality.”

The decision the carwasheros his visit makes a strongto include the carwasheros in hisworkers visit makes strong statement that when standatogether, statement that stand together, they can win thewhen voiceworkers – and the dignity and they can–win – and the dignity and respect thatthe allvoice workers deserve. respect – that all workers deserve.

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For more information, visit For more information, visit

www.rwdsu.org www.rwdsu.org

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city & state — September 28, 2015

LET THE

STATE

Our Our Perspective Perspective

12

IN

EXILE

HOW THE ODDS ARE STACKED AGAINST REFUGEE STUDENTS IN NEW YORK’S SCHOOLS

PHOTOS BY NANCY PARISI

city & state — September 28, 2015

EDUCATION

By JUSTIN SONDEL

cit yandstateny.com

H

commonly used languages in Myanmar. Instead, his translator will speak to him in Burmese, the official language of the government that prompted his family to flee, carrying out atrocities on many minority groups. Spoken by about two-thirds of Burmese people, the language operates as a lingua franca in the ethnically complex culture.

“Testing here is kind of difficult for refugee kids because we are second language and coming to learn and have education,” Too said.

While the refugees most commonly found in Buffalo are Burmese, children from a wide range of countries arrive each year, speaking dozens of different languages – more than 45 at Lafayette.

In addition, Spanish-speaking children, many from Puerto Rico, have also come to call Buffalo home.

And all those students must take the state’s English language arts and math tests one year after they arrive if

“We have to make it so that the upstate cities don’t suffer at the hand of rigid state ed policies for being welcoming and accepting to international refugees.”

- Assemblyman Sean Ryan

cit yandstateny.com

they are in grades three through eight, and must take Regents exams the same year they arrive if they come into the country at a high school age.

Too says that is unreasonable and he has watched fellow refugee students struggle, sometimes dropping out, as they try to work their way through a brand new language and education system.

“We have to have more time to understand and to be able to pass Regents exams,” Too said. “Not for me, but for all the students.”

SYMPTOMATIC While the situation at Lafayette is a particularly dire case, English language learner students are struggling to keep up with their native English speaking counterparts across the state.

Other upstate districts with high numbers of limited English proficient students also have abysmal graduation rates for that population. Head east on Interstate 90 to Rochester, the rate was 13 percent in 2014. Next stop, Syracuse, and it’s a little higher at 25 percent. Albany saw a significant bump recently, registering a 23 percent graduation rate in 2014 after posting just 12 percent for that population in 2013.

Even Utica and New York City, considered districts that drive best practices and serve as models for other educators, saw just 27 percent and

33 percent of students with limited English graduate in 2014. (Utica had a 38 percent rate in 2013.)

Many schools with high populations of students learning English have found themselves on the state’s list of struggling schools. Under a law passed in 2014, they could be handed over to a third-party receiver or, like Lafayette and Syracuse’s Fowler High School, could be phased out and closed permanently.

Over the years so much change has happened at Lafayette it’s difficult to keep track of. The school took students from two closed schools, a move that some believe led to a culture of violence that had Lafayette in the news for out-of-control fights during the mid-2000s. More recently, the district worked with Johns Hopkins University on a turnaround plan, but it was abruptly terminated last year.

Meanwhile, the school has seen its English language learner population rise from 10 percent in 2007 to almost 70 percent this school year.

As of now, there are two schools operating out of the building with their own administrative staff and a third that is expected to begin preparations to move in. Lafayette, the one with the 16 percent graduation rate in 2014, has stopped accepting new students and will no longer exist after the last of its current students have graduated. The Newcomer/STAR Academy program, which works with newly arrived

13

city & state — September 28, 2015

enreh Too sits in his bedroom in his West Side home in Buffalo, looking over course materials that will likely be on the history test he’ll take next summer.

Too, who arrived in the city on June 2, 2009, from the Burmese refugee camp in Thailand where he was born, is entering his senior year at Lafayette High School.

He wanted to take summer classes, but his teachers encouraged him to take the summer off to pursue one of his other passions: working in his community as an ambassador for other Burmese refugees.

Still, the 17-year-old’s focus has remained relatively singular. He spends many hours of the humid Buffalo summer in his top-floor bedroom, a finished attic. Stacks of books and papers rest on the floor near the head of his bed.

“For me, I just want to go back to school,” Too says. “Because when I stay home I’m not learning, I’m not doing anything, so I like to go back to learn different stuff.”

Too is on track to graduate on time, and that makes him an anomaly among his peers. The on-time graduation rate at Lafayette was 16 percent in 2014, the most recent year for which verified data is available.

Students categorized as “limited English proficient,” a federal classification that the state calls English language learners, had a graduation rate of 14 percent at Lafayette that year, slightly less than the 17 percent for students in the same group districtwide. The rate for refugee children, which is not tracked separately in the official state education numbers, is likely lower.

Too’s English is good enough for him to hold a conversation, but he still stutters as he searches for words at times. When he takes his history exam next June, a translator will help him with any words he can’t make out.

But even then he won’t be helped in his home language. Too’s family speaks Karenni, one of about 100

“The people at the ground level know what we need to help these refugees and these students to succeed. But it’s selling that to state ed, who has their own set of ideas, which aren’t working.”

-Donna Peperone, education director at Journey’s End

city & state — September 28, 2015

14

refugee and immigrant children, as well as students who have fallen behind on the path to graduation, will continue to operate out of the building, with no plans for closure. Meanwhile, a plan for a phase-in of a new Lafayette High School (it’s unclear if the name will remain) is in the works, but has yet to be finalized. The district is courting a highly respected administrator from New York City’s international schools, and word around the building is that he will have an office in the school this year.

All the change has made for a great deal of turbulence for the school.

Naomi Cerre, Lafayette’s principal since 2011, was moved to another school despite glowing feedback from academics, teachers, students and community members on the work she did to garner more resources and attention for the struggling school.

Assemblywoman Crystal PeoplesStokes, educators and community members decried her removal at

an early August rally calling on the state to allow a turnaround plan to be implemented.

As a result of the phase-out, 35 teachers have been transferred to other schools this year.

Patrick Foster was one of the teachers who spoke at the rally in support of keeping the school open. As a history teacher at the school since 2001, he has witnessed the immense changes firsthand. He says that with the constant shuffling of people, resources and requirements, it’s tough for the school to maintain progress.

He points to a double-digit jump in the graduation rate last year, noting that Cerre was removed from her post just as things were starting to look better. Indeed, preliminary numbers show that the 2015 graduation rate was nearly 32 percent, twice the 2014 mark.

“Even the gains we were able to make, we’re not going to be able to sustain them because we’re going to be

dealing with an all-new faculty,” Foster said.

Every time the school seems like it’s beginning to get things straightened out, he said, something new is thrust upon teachers and administrators, bringing a whole new set of challenges.

He pointed out that just as the school was getting its violence issues under control, the I-Prep school at Grover Cleveland High School – then the program that worked to get new refugee and immigrant children on track – was phased out and Lafayette became the welcoming center for those students.

“Now we’re not in trouble for discipline,” Foster said. “The climate is pretty wonderful here. It’s really for test scores and graduation rates. Now we’re getting hit for a totally different kind of thing.”

Foster admitted he’s worried about the future. He doesn’t want to move on to a new school. But the prospect of the phase-in plan, and the highly

touted administrator rumored to be tapped to run it, gives him some hope.

“Despite all that, I am optimistic,” he said.

CHANGES ON THE WAY Angelica Infante, the state’s commissioner of bilingual education, said the amount of attention paid to the issue of educating refugee children has increased dramatically over the course of the last few years.

Multilingual education has always been important in a state that has long been home to so many newcomers, but over the last 18 months it has been on the agenda of nearly every meeting of the state’s Board of Regents.

“It’s an important population and it’s a population that we are focused on as a state and we are looking at how they develop very seriously, how teachers work with them,” Infante said.

The state is in the process of implementing the Blueprint for English Language Learners Success, a plan that sets updated guidelines on goals every district will work toward in an effort to get all English language learners on track.

In addition, the commissioner has amended requirements for districts teaching English language learners to be more clearly defined and to address some of the challenges that have arisen. Those changes are also set to be implemented this school year.

“We’ve put a lot of focus on this,” Infante said. “We spent all of last year, a lot of time talking about this issue.

We also changed the regulation that had not been changed in 30 years.”

One area the new Blueprint plan focuses on is the idea of training students in English while they are learning other subject matter. Many districts are already doing this in some form, but before the change to the regulation, they were not required to provide anything more than standalone English classes. Under the new rules, districts across the state will be required to provide standalone instruction in English as a new language while also weaving English lessons into other subjects in classes either taught by a dually certified teacher or co-taught by a language instructor and another teacher.

The idea is that a kid whose home language is Nepali will be learning English terminology with a language teacher by their side during their lesson on the Pythagorean theorem.

“It’s built into the instruction,” cit yandstateny.com

student needs and abilities instead of using a similar rubric to educate all English language learner students.

“What we’re trying to do as a state and working with all the districts is differentiate each type of (English language learner),” Infante said.

It’s unclear exactly what percentage of each district’s English language learner population is refugee, but Infante argues that all districts with large newcomer populations have their fair share of SIFE students, and so educating those students in New York City or Buffalo or Utica is not all that different.

“The major difference is how they got here and where they end up,” Infante said. “But, in terms of the education system, it’s more or less the same education and the same scaffold of support.”

POSITIVE GAINS

cit yandstateny.com

requested that the federal government waive English language arts tests for newcomer children beyond one year, but was denied, Infante said.

Still, the state will continue to ask for relief.

“We’re pursuing it,” Infante said.

“We feel that a year is not enough time.”

The state Education Department was also unsuccessful in its push to get an additional $85 million in funding during the budget process last year, some of which would have gone toward the implementation of these changes.

Infante said that with proper scheduling, training and planning, districts should be able to implement the changes without additional resources, as the amount of total time spent on English lessons will actually decrease with the integrated model.

“When we start talking about cost and maybe new teachers, it’s all relative,” Infante said. “It depends on how you look at it.”

VARIED BACKGROUNDS “Refugee” is a specific legal status granted by the U.S. Department of State. Upstate city schools may have a higher percentage of children classified as refugees than downstate, but there are still many in New York City classified by the state as “students with inconsistent/interrupted formal education,” or SIFE. Many English

language learner students in New York City have come as asylum seekers of a different status. People fleeing Central American countries like El Salvador to escape drug violence, for example, are not recognized as refugees by the U.S. government and so are labeled migrants. Some families may have fled violence on their own and made it to the U.S. without the help of the federal government through traditional means and are classified as immigrants.

Others may have been granted refugee status and resettled in another city, but then moved as their parents chased an economic opportunity.

And while the state Education Department website does not break English language learners into subgroups, the breadth of academic experience and ability within that group is expansive.

Some kids have gone years without going to school and are barely literate, even in their home language, while others have had regular schooling in a refugee camp, but with a curriculum that would not meet New York state’s standards. Still others have had a comparable or better education in their home country than in the U.S. Moving forward, however, the districts will be required to break English language learners into subgroups, as spelled out in the Blueprint plan and policy changes.

This, Infante says, will allow educators to better tailor learning plans to specific

15

city & state — September 28, 2015

Infante said. “Not as an outside piece or something they do after school, but part of their instructional practice.”

Also part of the policy shift is a heavy focus on teacher training for all teachers who will have English language learners. Whereas previously teachers in schools with high numbers of English language learners were only required to get professional development specifically dealing with that population if they were language teachers, all teachers will now need to dedicate 15 percent of their professional development training to the education of newcomers, with a focus on co-teaching strategies and integrating English as a new language into their lesson plans.

“I think there needs to be a focus, a very strategic focus, on this population to try to support the teachers and work with them,” Infante said. “We’re very conscious that the teachers need professional development to move forward.”

Infante said that part of the difficulty comes in that there are regulations tied to federal funding and programs, like President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top and President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind before that.

The state has asked the federal government to relax some of the requirements, but has not had much luck in getting the U.S. Department of Education to agree. The state

Buffalo has continuously welcomed more refugees to the city every year over the last decade. In 2014 the city saw about 1,500 people resettled here, with the state taking in more than 4,000 – behind only California and Texas.

Like other upstate cities, Buffalo is attractive for resettlement agencies, since affordable housing makes the $900 stipend given by the U.S. State Department and other social service supports stretch a little further. The counties that constitute New York City and Long Island took in just 5 percent of the refugees that entered the state in 2014, while Erie and Onondaga counties became home to more than 2,500 of the newcomers, according to data from the state Bureau of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance.

Buffalo Assemblyman Sean Ryan sees that as a good thing. The first positive population growth in Erie County in decades, meager as it may be, is largely attributed to the influx of refugees. And the diversity of cultures brought by the refugee community makes the city a more vibrant place, he added.

However, children coming from refugee camps, often fleeing violence and persecution, bring a particular set of challenges, and Ryan argues that the state Education Department has yet to create an effective system to meet those challenges.

“We have to make it so that the upstate cities don’t suffer at the hand of rigid state ed policies for being welcoming and accepting to international refugees,” Ryan said.

city & state — September 28, 2015

16

As he sees it, making kids take Regents exams months after they set foot in the U.S. is setting them and their schools up for failure in a way that creates a cycle of shuffling students around and closing schools.

Gathering children with similar challenges in a single school makes sense, he said, but only if there is a reasonable method for assessing their learning.

“We won’t be able to maintain that system if we keep having a system that penalizes districts for doing that,” Ryan said.

In addition, districts with a large number of refugees are often dealing with many other issues – high rates of poverty, low attendance – and have the least means to address the challenges that accompany such a population.

With low tax bases caused by depressed property values – the very thing that makes the cities attractive for resettlement – the schools are taking on more high-needs students without the resources to help get those children caught up, Ryan said.

“It’s almost exclusively a situation that places with low housing values are facing,” Ryan said. Refugees are settling in “areas that generate the least amount of property tax and have the least ability to implement their own programs.”

As the chairman of the Assembly’s Committee on State-Local Relations, Ryan intends to travel this fall to upstate school districts facing issues

similar to Buffalo’s. He plans to ask what they feel can be done to create an effective system for facing those challenges in order to develop a set of recommendations to hand off to the state.

He will also explore what can be done through legislation, he said.

“The municipalities that are accepting refugees are all facing this common problem, but they’re being made to develop solutions independent from one another,” he said.

Ryan is aware of the state’s plans to change its regulations and implement the Blueprint plan, but he is less than optimistic. Despite assurances that the new plan will not require an increase in teaching staff or other resources, he wonders how all the changes can happen without additional funding.

The phase-in of a new school at Lafayette, something he described as “shuffling the chairs on the deck of the Titanic,” is emblematic of the larger shifts going on at the state level.

Without significant policy changes to account for students who arrive late in their high school years, or delays in counting their test results toward teacher evaluations, Ryan sees Lafayette as being set up to fail again under a new name.

“Lafayette is a clearing house right now,” Ryan said. “If a kid comes in mid-year, that’s where they go.”

Donna Peperone is the education director at Journey’s End, one of the nonprofits largely funded by the U.S.

State Department that act as the federal government’s boots on the ground in Buffalo, finding housing for newly arrived refugees, helping them sign up for social services and getting their children enrolled in school.

Peperone, a former educator herself, called teachers who work in schools with high English language learner populations the “best of the best.” She, like Ryan, says the main hurdles at those schools are top-down policies driven by the state and federal governments.

“The people at the ground level know what we need to help these refugees and these students to succeed,” Peperone said. “But it’s selling that to state ed, who has their own set of ideas, which aren’t working.”

She, too, is skeptical about the new rule changes and whether they will do enough to create a stable system of education for refugee children.

“If New York is committed to bringing refugees to the state, we need to be committed to providing the right services so that they can be successful, and our education system is not doing that,” Peperone said.

LOST IN TRANSLATION Tamara Alsace spent nine years as the director of multilingual education for Buffalo Public Schools before retiring at the end of last school year.

Alsace, who continues to volunteer

as a multilingual expert with the district, said that one of the biggest challenges for districts like Buffalo, Utica and Syracuse is keeping up with the changing populations.

While the languages in New York City tend to stay relatively stable, those spoken in cities with large refugee populations are constantly shifting as new waves of groups arrive based on need. When there is a conflict or human rights violations in one part of the world, upstate cities will eventually see more people from that region seeking refugee status.

Somalis were some of the first refugees to arrive in large numbers to Buffalo. Since then, there have been Burmese, Bhutanese-Nepali, Sudanese, Iraqi and others. Soon, with the civil war and parts of their country controlled by the Islamic State, Syrian refugees will likely be coming to New York in large numbers.

Over a five-year period, a district’s top languages may turn over completely, Alsace said.

In addition, the top five languages in the Buffalo school district have little overlap with the top five languages spoken statewide, a trend driven largely by the massive amount of English language learners in New York City and Long Island, where 83 percent of those students go to school.

As a result, testing and other materials are often not available in the languages spoken by refugee students, Alsace said.

“Keeping up with the types of supports we know are important, like home language support, communication with family, materials in the home language, some of those are more difficult to come by with these low-incidence languages,” Alsace said.

“The state provides more materials and supports in those top languages.”

Alsace, who has worked with the state Education Department throughout her time in the multilingual department, said that if the right system and supports are put in place, any child can succeed.

The key, she said, is making sure that, even at the first stages of learning English, other subject matter does not fall by the wayside. And she emphasized that evaluations of English language learners have to be tailored to take into account the varied ways learning can be measured.

“Because the student doesn’t speak English doesn’t mean that they’re not expected to learn from the time that they come into the school to the time that a test can happen,” Alsace said. cit yandstateny.com

cit yandstateny.com

liability. That’s being recognized more and more in the state, but we have to keep working towards it.”

ON THE WAY OUT In the past year alone, significant progress can be seen at Lafayette. The state Education Department sent out press materials honoring Lafayette’s three highest-achieving students in the 2015 school year – all refugees – and the graduation rate has doubled.

But the school is still on the path to closure.

For many at the school, these achievements are bittersweet. Under the phase-out plan, the last cohort of students at the 112-year-old school will finish in 2020. Scores of educators are adjusting to new schools around the district after being transferred from Lafayette.

Still, Henreh Too is feeling excited about his senior year. He gathered with a group of students, some wearing hijabs and head scarves of black, teal and magenta, others in dark skinny jeans, high tops and T-shirts, talking in the morning chill of September as they prepared to enter the school.

“It’s going good,” he said.

Too said his goal is to finish the year, and pass his final two Regents exams, English and U.S. history, before deciding what to do next. He’s not sure if he will go to college. He likes music, but isn’t convinced that will set him on a path toward a good career.

At a recent college fair, he spoke

“I try to make my parents happy, because they always tell me ... ‘We come here for you to have a good education and to help us.’”

17

- Henreh Too with representatives from Erie Community College, Buffalo State and Canisius. Perhaps the best plan is to start at community college and transfer to a four-year school, he said.

In the end, he will defer to his parents.

His mother, who cleans the offices of an insurance company, and his father, a dishwasher at a restaurant, went to immense lengths to make sure that he and his four younger siblings – ages five to 14 – would have a chance at an American education, he said.

“I try to make my parents happy, because they always tell me, ‘Get your high school diploma. We come here for you to have a good education and to help us,’” Too said. “They worry about us.”

Too spends his evenings in his attic bedroom taking practice Regents exams online and scanning textbooks.

Some afternoons he runs crosscountry or volunteers at his Catholic church.

He often gets calls from members of the Burmese community asking him

to come help them fill a prescription or complete social services documents.

Sometimes has to say no – too much homework – but he tries to help whenever he can.

He trusts that those favors will come back to him someday.

“I’m thinking about the future,” Too said. “When I have a family, they will help me.”

Too is well aware of the phase-out plan at Lafayette. He was one of the speakers at the rally in support of keeping the school open. He stands by that sentiment. His teachers at the school have been great to him, and he wants to make sure that his brothers and sisters, as well as other children working toward a high school diploma while learning English, have the same opportunity to learn from such supportive people.

“I just want to fight for all the people, my siblings, my brother and sister too,” he said. “I want to fight for them to have a good education, because we’ve got wonderful teachers there.”

city & state — September 28, 2015

“But we have to look at the type of assessments we’re providing. We can’t compare students who are newly arrived to students who were born here or who have been here for a given length of time, especially on tests that are designed for English speakers.”

She reiterated that many refugee students have had educational experiences that can’t fairly be compared to the highly structured American education system. In light of this, she said, the state should reconsider how it counts graduation rates – one of the main factors in the criteria for failing schools – for SIFE students.

“If the student arrived two years ago not speaking any English and has interrupted, informal education, that student is not going to graduate on time,” Alsace said. “It’s very unlikely.”

Other ways the state might consider improving graduation rates for refugee students would be counting course work completed in previous schooling toward the student’s diploma and offering credits for classes taken in the student’s home language.

The state needs to create a clear pathway to graduation to get more students engaged and invested, Alsace said.

Beyond policy, getting on the right track will take resources, something that is not always easy to come by in districts like Buffalo. And all teachers need to be trained to teach SIFE children, she added.

“We need more counselors who are aware of the needs of this population and can help to guide the students ... and their parents to help them understand the process for what’s required in American schooling to get kids to graduate,” Alsace said.

From what she’s seen of the Education Department’s Blueprint and other planned changes, Alsace thinks the state is taking its work seriously.

“They’re going in the right direction, and districts are following suit,” she said.

While a great deal of work remains, Alsace sees a bright future in the education of refugee children in Buffalo and across the state.

“I know that we can do it,” she said. “I think that we have made progress and I think that we can continue to make progress. While this population poses challenges, they pose a lot of wonderful qualities and opportunities and we need do more to tap into what these students bring and view them as an asset rather than a

SETTING THE AGENDA

SETTING THE AGENDA, PART II City & State continues its annual Setting the Agenda special section, a look at the most pressing issues that will be debated in the 2016 legislative session in Albany.

Part I in our previous issue looked at the daunting year ahead for rookie legislative leaders Carl Heastie and John Flanagan; the debates over the organ donor registry and the statute of limitations for medical malpractice claims; the pressure lawmakers face to curb corruption; upstate’s concerns that New York City will monopolize transportation infrastructure funding; and the work that still needs to be done to write Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recent criminal justice reforms into law. Catch up at cityandstateny.com.

But as any fan of “The Godfather” knows, sometimes Part II can be every bit as riveting as Part I. So for the conclusion of our indepth series, read on.

CONTENTS: LABOR 18 … The fight for a $15 minimum wage across the state 20 ... The odds of seeing any Scaffold Law reforms next year

EDUCATION 24 … Issues like Common Core, teacher evaluations and school funding will test state lawmakers 28 ... Supporters urge Cuomo to include the Dream Act in the budget –and keep it there

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT 30 … Bills seek to crack down on toxins in everyday products 32 … Lawmakers work together to produce cleaner energy in New York

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WAGING WAR

GOVERNOR’S PROPOSED $15 MINIMUM WAGE SET TO DOMINATE 2016 SESSION

When Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for a $15 per hour statewide minimum wage earlier this month, his support for the proposal immediately put it on track to be the biggest labor issue that will be taken up next year – if not the biggest issue overall in 2016.

Assembly Democrats were quick to support the governor, with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie saying it would be a top priority. Senate Republicans have not ruled out a wage hike outright, but they are wary of an increase due to concerns about the cost burden it would put on companies.

State Sen. Jack Martins, a Republican who chairs the Labor Committee, told City & State that lawmakers would be assessing the impact on small businesses that might struggle to pay the higher

wages. Martins argued the $15 figure announced by the governor was simply a political figure and not backed up by any analysis.

“On the minimum wage and the viability of small businesses to continue to provide those jobs that we count on as we try and build this economy, you can’t increase the minimum wage and kill your small businesses,” Martins said. “It just can’t happen. So let’s have the discussion and figure out where that sweet spot is, where that number should be, but let’s do it properly, let’s do it with deliberation, let’s do it with all sides coming to the table, and let’s do it fairly.”

“The last thing anybody wants to see is policy being set arbitrarily,” he added. “Unfortunately, the governor is being arbitrary.”

KEVIN P. COUGHLIN / OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

city & state — September 28, 2015

By JON LENTZ

cit yandstateny.com

CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

said that there is growing support for state legislation ensuring that agricultural laborers get one day off per week, workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance and overtime pay – including backing from some Senate Republicans.

“By treating them right, it’s very simple: A day off of work, getting paid overtime, having the right to collective bargaining and having some type of workers’ compensation bill,” Espaillat said. “That’s like having a no-brainer.”

WHAT GOT DONE IN 2015 * Fast food wage hike * Two-year extension of design-build project delivery

LABOR

will continue to focus on workforce development. As co-chairman of the Senate Task Force on Workforce Development, Martins said he would continue to hold hearings and work with the State University of New York system and state community colleges to find ways to better connect unemployed or underemployed New Yorkers with jobs.

Across the aisle, Democrats will be pushing legislation to provide more protections for farmworkers. Espaillat

WHAT’S ON THE AGENDA * $15 minimum wage * Paid family leave * Workforce development * Farmworker bill of rights

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On the line every day.

We’re family, friends and neighbors doing the work that matters.

NEW YORK’S LEADING UNION DANNY DONOHUE, PRESIDENT

SMART. DYNAMIC. CARING. DEDICATED.

CITY & STATE — September 28, 2015

Republicans have also pointed out that the state is already in the process of phasing in a higher minimum wage that was approved with bipartisan support. It is currently set at $8.75, and will rise to $9 an hour at the end of this year.

The proposed minimum wage builds on the governor’s Fast Food Wage Board recommendation of a $15 minimum for fast food workers, which the state Labor Department officially accepted earlier this month. The Wage Board process has also drawn criticism from Republican lawmakers, although it comes with a long-term phase-in (hitting $15 at the end of 2018 in New York City and July 2021 in the rest of the state) that could be a model for raising the statewide minimum wage.

Democrats note that New York’s minimum wage currently lags behind several other states in the region, and they assert that a higher minimum wage would not hurt the economy.

Instead, they argue, it would help combat homelessness and reduce government subsidies.

“If you’re making $6 or $7 more an hour, you’re not going to take a vacation to the Caribbean, you’re going buy to milk and you’re going to buy Pampers,” said state Sen. Adriano Espaillat, a New York City Democrat.

“You’re going to buy basic, essential products that you need, and that will help small businesses. I think it’s a great tool that not only puts money in the pocket of people that need it, but also helps the economy across the state of New York.”

One labor-oriented measure where both houses and both parties could find common ground is paid family leave legislation. The Assembly passed a paid family leave bill last year that would allow workers to keep their jobs and still receive some pay while taking time off to take care of a baby or an elderly relative or due to a medical emergency. Martins said he was open to passing similar legislation and that his conference expected to hold hearings on the issue.

“The question is how we deal with temporary disability insurance, which has not been, frankly, properly addressed since the late 1980s,” Martins said. “How do we do it in a way that is fair, so we’re not putting additional burdens on our business community at a time where they’re still frankly struggling with underwhelming economic indicators?

They’re still struggling coming out of this recession.”

Additionally, Martins said that he

People working together to make a better New York for all.

9174_Kristi 7.458x10 CS Clr.indd 1

9/21/15 1:52 PM

LABOR

THE STEADFAST SCAFFOLD LAW New York’s Scaffold Law, a provision that was put in place decades ago to protect workers at construction sites, has divided state lawmakers for years.

The law, known as Labor Law 240, holds construction companies and developers fully liable whenever a worker is hurt in a “gravity-related” accident, unless every precaution was taken to protect the worker. Even if a worker is partially responsible for the injury, the company is considered to be fully responsible in such cases, resulting in substantial settlement payments that drive up insurance costs.

Lawmakers have introduced legislation in recent years that would introduce a comparative liability standard that would make an injured worker partially liable if found to be at fault.

But supporters say the law is essential to ensure worker safety, and have

opposed efforts to reform it. Organized labor groups, immigrant advocates and trial attorneys have joined a number of state legislators in defending the longstanding law.

Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, considered a friend of the trial lawyers lobby, was widely seen as a key reason that the law was kept in place, but nothing changed after he stepped down as leader during this year’s legislative session.

State Sen. Jack Martins said that he hasn’t taken a side on the matter, but the Senate Labor Committee chairman suggested that changes could come if steps are taken to ensure that construction workers are adequately protected while working.

“From a labor standpoint, the labor community views it as a workforce safety issue, and I think it’s important that we work with the labor community to ensure that our workers are protected,” said

Martins, a Republican. “Construction, specifically, is a dangerous profession.

It just is. Any time you’re on a work site anything can happen, and people get hurt far too often. If we can take steps to address workforce safety in conjunction

with labor, I think that may go a long way toward making them more amenable to looking at the Scaffold Law and tweaking it, but it means going right to the root of what the issues are, as opposed to trying to deal with it politically.”

PRYZMAT

By JON LENTZ

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Mazumber Mohammed Security

Jordanny Bueno Baggage Handler

Joan Brannigan Security

Isabel Marte Wheelchair Attendant

Curtis Latta Baggage Handler

Poverty Wages Don’t Fly

New York airport workers are standing together in the Fight for $15 to raise their families and their communities out of poverty.

CITY & STATE — September 28, 2015

Juan Jimenez Terminal Cleaner

Dominise Wright Terminal Cleaner

Tell the Port Authority #povertydoesntfly

Marianela Greene Terminal Cleaner

Paid for by 32BJ SEIU

Hector Moronta Terminal Cleaner

CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

LABOR

EXPERT OPINION

DANNY DONOHUE President, Civil Service Employees Association CSEA’s priority in the year ahead is to put our economy into balance.

Economic inequality is a problem that plagues New York more than any other state. We must raise wages and make sure people get paid for the work they do for the good of families and our state.

More tax breaks for corporations

that don’t need it and lack of accountability in misguided economic development programs are not the answer for a better New York. We need an economy that works for all.

Too many New Yorkers don’t receive wages to sustain a family on. We’ve seen retirement security eliminated and we’ve experienced the erosion of the middle class. It hurts our communities and our quality of life.

There’s something seriously wrong when too many New Yorkers are working harder than ever and earning less for their effort.

CSEA’s mission as a union is to seek fairness for the people we represent. It is a challenge that we work at every day.

We also know that applying fairness more broadly for other working people is good for everyone – and New York’s economy.

CSEA will use every opportunity to build alliances between working people so that we can all have a better future.

Working for New Yorkers New York State Public Employees Federation,

AFL-CIO

Representing 54,000 professional, scientific and technical employees .ORG

Wayne Spence President

Kevin Hintz Secretary-Treasurer

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STUART APPELBAUM President, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union

CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

Earlier this year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo convened a Wage Board that raised the minimum wage for fast food workers to $15 an hour. While this is a historic first step toward addressing income inequality in New York state, there is still more that needs to be done.

A top priority for the RWDSU this upcoming legislative session in Albany is to push for government action to raise the minimum wage for ALL workers in the state. Recently, Cuomo announced a new campaign to increase the minimum wage to $15 for all workers. This is a powerful move to help working people. We must support and expand efforts to ensure that retail workers, car wash workers, food service workers, and many in other industries receive higher pay. For these New

Yorkers, it is a struggle just to survive.

In retail, the average retail salesperson in New York state earns less than $27,000 a year, while a cashier makes closer to $20,000 annually.

We don’t need to do the math to understand that that is a paycheckto-paycheck existence, barely enough for an individual worker to survive on in New York City or upstate New York.

Yet many of these workers are the sole providers for their families.

New York has an opportunity to lead the nation by being the first state to ensure that all people who work full time have an opportunity to rise out of a vicious cycle of poverty. Our current economic model is broken and it must change. When the legislative session begins in January, labor will join the

governor, Assembly and Democrats in the Senate in calling for a $15 minimum wage. Working people should be able to earn enough in our state to live in dignity.

While increasing the minimum wage is important, the best solution to income inequality and other workplace issues is still a union contract. Working people have concerns that go beyond wage rates – from scheduling to health and safety to protection against discrimination – which are best dealt with by the protections a union provides. What we need are government policies that encourage and protect collective bargaining, so that workers will have a voice on the job as well as dignity and respect.

CITY & STATE — September 28, 2015

EXPERT OPINION

LABOR

EXPERT OPINION

HÉCTOR FIGUEROA President, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union

As the largest property services union in the nation, with more than 145,000 members, 32BJ SEIU has been on the front lines fighting on behalf of working men and women for more than 50 years in every corner of New York and up and down the Atlantic states from Boston to Miami.

In addition to fighting for contracted airport workers, school cleaners, security guards, doormen, building superintendents and janitors, we are focused this year on legislative change in Albany that will benefit workers in New York City and all across New York state.

Our top priority is to fight alongside Gov. Andrew Cuomo and our allies to raise New York’s minimum wage to $15 for all working men and women. Low wage workers across the country, led by fast food workers, have set $15 an hour plus indexing as the new minimum

wage working people need to support themselves. The state Wage Board has approved the $15 minimum for fast food workers and we will be fighting to expand it to all workers.

Despite claims from conservative pundits and some business leaders, the raise will not have apocalyptic consequences. It will be phased in over three years in New York City and six years across the state. Studies show any price increases would be small, and that most cities that have raised the minimum have actually gained jobs, rather than lost them.

The Legislature must implement the Fair Elections Act, which would provide public matching dollar-fordollar support for candidates who raise small amounts from local residents.

We need this now so a handful of fatcat donors and hedge-funders cannot drown out the voice of voters and

small donors.

We also will fight for the Paid Family Leave Insurance Act, which would give working families 12 weeks of paid leave a year to care for a new child or a seriously ill family member. This would be entirely employee-paid through small payroll deductions and will piggyback on our existing temporary disability insurance fund, which will minimize any additional administrative requirements for businesses.

32BJ is also committed to help pass the Dream Act to ensure tuition assistance for undocumented students.

The act would allow undocumented students to receive funding for higher education through the Tuition Assistance Program. This will help them reach their full potential, contribute to their communities, and support the growth of our state’s economy.

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EDUCATION

‘NEEDS IMPROVEMENT’ STATE FACES TESTS ON COMMON CORE, TEACHER EVALUATIONS, SCHOOL FUNDING

CITY & STATE — September 28, 2015

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During the 2016 legislative session, state officials will once again try to cut through a thicket of thorny education topics, from education standards and teacher evaluations to charter and parochial school issues and mayoral control of the New York City school system.

But just like every other year, they’ll first have to hash out how much money to allocate for education in the state budget and how to distribute it across the state.

“The overarching issue for our committee is always as an advocate for proper funding for our schools,” said Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan, the Democratic chairwoman of the Assembly Education Committee.

“How do we make sure the schools have the resources?”

In a potential funding milestone sought by school officials and advocates for years, lawmakers say the upcoming session could finally mark the end of the Gap Elimination Adjustment.

The GEA, a major budget cut to help balance the budget in the wake of the Great Recession, has slashed billions of dollars in education funding since its implementation in the 2009-10 school year. The gap has been gradually

DARREN MCGEE / OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

By JON LENTZ

Students rally in support of charter schools last year on the steps of the state Capitol. reduced, including in the 2015 session, when lawmakers in both parties agreed to add an additional $603 million toward closing the GEA, leaving only

“I’m glad the governor has acknowledged that there are problems that have been problems with the Common Core. ... I’m glad the governor’s involved, because he’s got the biggest bully pulpit in the state.”

- state Sen. Carl Marcellino, Senate Education Committee chairman

a $434 million gap.

“If we can increase state aid to schools and try to offset some of the property tax burden on local residents, that’s important,” said state Sen. Carl Marcellino, the Republican who chairs the Senate Education Committee.

“We’ve committed, and I think the governor has said he would join us, in the elimination of the Gap Elimination program, which was put in a few years ago, which we thought was unfair to begin with. So we got rid of most of it last year, and we’re going to get rid of what’s left of it next year.”

Apart from budgetary matters, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is taking another pass at revamping the controversial Common Core education standards and the teacher evaluations tied to Common Core-aligned tests.

This year, 1 in 5 New York students opted out of the state’s standardized tests, a sign of growing dissatisfaction with the standards. Blaming the backlash on a poor rollout by the state Education Department, Cuomo said this month that he would put together another education commission to review the standards and tests and offer recommendations in time for his State of the State address.

The Education Department, under new Commissioner MaryEllen Elia, is conducting a similar review, and has also suggested renaming the Common Core. State lawmakers, who appoint the Board of Regents, which sets education policy in New York, say they’ll be studying the matter too and weighing in on the governor’s reforms.

“I’m glad the governor has CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

Working for students, working with our communities.

Karen E. Magee, President Andrew Pallotta, Executive Vice President Catalina R. Fortino, Vice President Paul Pecorale, Vice President Martin Messner, Secretary-Treasurer

Representing more than 600,000 professionals in education, human services and health care.

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EDUCATION

DARREN MCGEE / OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

EXPERT OPINION

Gov. Andrew Cuomo will again try to revamp the Common Core education standards.

city & state — September 28, 2015

26

acknowledged that there are problems that have been problems with the Common Core,” Marcellino said.

“Teachers are concerned as to how it was implemented, how it’s going to be evaluated based on tests that they’ve indicated they have no faith in, and they’ve encouraged and parents are encouraging the opt-out movement.

That seems to have grown over the last couple of years. ... But I’m glad the governor’s involved, because he’s got the biggest bully pulpit in the state.”

Marcellino said that Senate Republicans would also continue pushing for the education investment tax credit, which would encourage donations to private as well as public schools. Cardinal Timothy Dolan has championed the measure in recent years, and it has drawn bipartisan support. But during the 2015 session, the Assembly did not pass it and the Legislature instead boosted funding for private schools by $250 million.

“We did a lot for parochial schools this year,” Nolan said. “I think we’ve really done right by our parochial schools and it’s a substantial amount of money, and we’ll see happens next.

With the governor’s initiative, you’d have to ask him about whether it’s coming back or not.”

Another hot-button issue that will be back again next year is mayoral control of New York City’s schools.

Senate Republicans last year ensured that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s control of the city’s schools would only be extended for 12 months, even though his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, had been given a seven-year period to work with.

“I certainly support the mayor,” Nolan said. “I would make it

permanent or give him a long period of time, you know, sunset it with a sevenyear period or something like that.

We’re going to keep working on that too.”

Marcellino suggested that the brief renewal period was linked to de Blasio’s opposition to charter schools.

The mayor has been viewed as a foe of the charter school movement, while Cuomo has sided with charter advocates. Last year the state raised the city’s charter school cap to 50.

“I think the mayor has made some comments and got himself into a bit of a conflict with the charter school people and I can understand from the union’s perspective what their concerns are relative to the charter schools, but a lot of communities want charter schools and appreciate charter schools, and they’re viable in some cases,” Marcellino said. “They do a job.

So they’re worth a discussion. They’re worth looking at. And rejecting them out of hand, I don’t think is a good idea.”

WHAT GOT DONE IN 2015 * $603 million toward closing the Gap Elimination Adjustment * Raising the charter school cap in New York City * One-year extension of mayoral control in New York City WHAT’S ON THE AGENDA * Common Core overhaul * Closing the Gap Elimination Adjustment * Education investment tax credit

ERNEST LOGAN President, Council of School Supervisors & Administrators

Now that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s universal pre-K initiative is a success, naysayers are attacking the rest of his education plan.

The programs the mayor announced in his Sept. 16 “Equity and Excellence” speech would be taken for granted in suburban, private and, yes, charter schools. Detractors who chided the mayor for not being visionary now see his transformational idea: What’s good for suburban, private and charter school kids is good for our students.

These are simple but game-changing proposals, like the notion that all second-graders read at grade level and all ninth-graders be proficient in algebra.

The second-grade literacy initiative is the most urgent of de Blasio’s concepts. Reams of research show that children who aren’t reading by the end of third grade are unlikely to catch up with their peers academically.

Under the plan, each elementary school would receive support from dedicated reading specialists – approximately 700 of whom would be in place across all elementary schools by fall 2018. School leaders must use these specialists effectively and find new ways to enlist families as learning partners.

The mayor vows that every student will complete algebra no later than ninth grade. Research indicates that algebra is the gateway to higher-level math and science. About 60 percent

of our middle schools now offer algebra to eighth-graders. The mayor wants algebra in all middle schools by 2022, with the first new classes and prep programs starting in fall 2016.

The mayor also wants to give all students access to computer science and Advanced Placement courses. To do that, principals will need the best teachers, and will need to make sure these educators get the necessary professional development.

Computer literacy is another prerequisite in our technology-centric society, and for good reason. In 2014 New York’s high-paying high-tech industry was creating jobs four times faster than the rest of the city’s economy.

Over the next 10 years the city will introduce computer science classes in first through 12th grades, giving every student access to fundamental programming, coding, robotics and Web design.

Expanding Advanced Placement courses is also part of the plan. Starting in fall 2016, the city will offer at least five AP classes at each of our 400 high schools.

I can think of no reason not to back these initiatives and others in the proposal, including College Access for All and the revolutionary Single Shepherd, a family educational mentor plan.

I urge our school leaders to embrace this agenda.

cit yandstateny.com

EDUCATION

ONLY DREAMING? In recent years, Democratic lawmakers have pushed to insert the Dream Act into the state budget, hoping to force it through by attaching it to the annual spending package. Gov. Andrew Cuomo did just that this year, but after he pulled it out mid-session, supporters are pushing to put it back in the budget next year – and leave it there.

“The budget is a document that impacts both sides of the aisle, and both sides of the aisle have priorities for the budget process,” said state Sen. Adriano Espaillat, a New York City Democrat who has championed the measure. “That would make it easier to pass the Dream Act. It’s also a fiscal matter because there’s a cost, so it should be included in the budget.”

The bill would let some young immigrants living in the country illegally to qualify for financial aid to attend

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college in New York. While it has widespread support among Democrats, Republican lawmakers have repeatedly shot down the legislation. During debate before a Senate vote in 2014, Republicans argued that the state should not spend money at the expense of U.S. citizens struggling with the rising cost of higher education.

“We’ve made it very clear that we’re not doing the Dream Act,” state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan said earlier this year. “Republicans have argued taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund incentives for students in the country illegally.”

Despite the lack of movement in the Senate, Democrats say they are optimistic that next year could be the year the bill finally becomes law. Some observers say that the Republicans’ opposition to the Dream Act played well with voters in upstate districts, but Espaillat said that the higher – and

younger and more diverse – turnout expected during the presidential election could help the bill’s chances in Albany.

“You will find that things like the $15 minimum wage has a 60 percent approval rating across the board,” Espaillat said. “I think next year with the

presidential election that the pendulum will swing more towards the left. So it will probably be beneficial for Republicans to be more moderate and support pieces of legislation like the minimum wage and perhaps the Dream Act that have broader appeal.”

LONG ISLAND WINS

By JON LENTZ

city and state Sept 2015.qxp_Layout 1 9/22/15 10:56 AM Page 1

Council of School Supervisors & Administrators

city & state — September 28, 2015

LOCAL 1: AMERICAN FEDERATION OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS, AFL-CIO www.csa-nyc.org 40 RECTOR ST., 12TH FL., NEW YORK, NY 10006 TEL: 212 823 2020 | FAX: 212 962 6130 ERNEST A. LOGAN PRESIDENT MARK CANNIZZARO EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT RANDI HERMAN FIRST VICE PRESIDENT

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EXPERT OPINION

KAREN E. MAGEE President, New York State United Teachers

A monumental shift is underway in education – thanks to the groundswell of passionate activism by New York state’s parents and educators.

You might call it a return to sanity.

It’s evident in public opinion polls that affirm our union’s advocacy for more learning, less testing, and for teacher evaluations that are fair and meaningful. It’s evident in the growing consensus by elected leaders and policymakers that it’s time to end the era of “test-and-punish” and reclaim the joy of learning. And it’s undergirded by the commitment New York voters make, year in and year out, to quality public education as the gateway to opportunity for our children.

Unprecedented momentum supports our positive education agenda for New York state – one that puts children front and center.

An action agenda must include these

“to-dos”: • Upend the broken system of testing and evaluations. Parents and educators – who are finally being heard – must be in the forefront of necessary changes.

• Overhaul Common Core. This has been a debacle for students, teachers and parents statewide. Educators – not profit-making corporations – should develop standards, curricula and tests that are appropriate and relevant to what’s being taught. Doing this right means ensuring students and teachers have the resources, professional learning and time they need to succeed.

• Provide teachers and prospective teachers with support, not faultfinding.

The testing overkill so prevalent in K-12 is also having a chilling effect on the pipeline of future teachers. We need to reverse this now to prevent a mass exodus from the noble profession of teaching.

• Stand firm against “failing schools” rhetoric and tackle what’s really at issue: poverty. Persistent poverty is the common denominator of schools on the state’s “receivership” list. Dismantling school communities is not the answer.

They deserve support, resources, wraparound services and respect for the difficult but essential work of combating the effects of poverty on a daily basis.

• Invest in our schools, colleges and communities in a sustained and serious way. Local school districts need to be freed from the top-down constraints of state caps. SUNY, CUNY and our community colleges also must be a priority investment for the state – to redress years of shortfalls and restore opportunity for all.

Positive momentum is building – now is the time for action. Let’s work to ensure this isn’t a “wish list,” but a “to-do list” that puts our children front and center.

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KIM NAMKOONG Co-President, Parents for Excellence, Bethlehem, and a member of the High Achievement New York Coalition

cit yandstateny.com

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent announcement of a task force to review Common Core implementation presents a significant opportunity to improve how the standards work for our teachers and children. This group, which includes members of the High Achievement New York coalition, will have the chance to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the standards and their implementation in an environment devoid of the political rhetoric that has too often poisoned the public discourse and clouded the conversation.

As a parent leader, I’m optimistic that continued improvements to the implementation of standards will build confidence in them among more New Yorkers. Whatever implementation improvements are made, however, New York must keep higher learning standards and the assessments aligned

to those standards. Higher standards are essential for ensuring that all of our children, no matter where they come from, have an equal chance at success in the future.

As this work begins, it is also critical to remember that New York has already made significant and impactful improvements; we’ve capped state testing at 1 percent of in-school time, released more test questions than any other state, and committed to computerized testing.

In a letter HANY recently sent to the governor’s office, we outlined successful strategies from other states that we hope can serve as examples for the task force’s work, including: • Renaming the standards: Several states have dropped the “Common Core” moniker to put their own stamp on the standards.

• Public comment and review of

individual standards: Kentucky, Louisiana and Tennessee collected comments on individual standards, meaning feedback was tightly focused on the actual education standards and improving their implementation.

However, some of the loudest critics driven by self-interested political motivations will not be satisfied unless the standards are eliminated – an outcome that is simply unacceptable.

Going backwards on higher learning standards would mean returning to a system that let thousands of students, especially lower-income and minority children, fall through the cracks. That is not a solution.

What the task force is focused on is improving the standards so that more children graduate ready for college and 21st-century careers – and that’s a goal we can all get behind.

city & state — September 28, 2015

EXPERT OPINION

BILLS AIM TO CRACK DOWN ON CHEMICALS IN SKIN PRODUCTS AND CHILDREN’S TOYS

city & state — September 28, 2015

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Despite the state issuing a formal ban on hydraulic fracturing and releasing its long-awaited, oft-delayed renewable energy plan, lawmakers will once again face several big environmental conservation issues when they return in early 2016.

Last session, environmental bills like the Child Safe Products Act and the Microbead-Free Waters Act fell by the wayside, to make time for more prominent arguments over expiring rent regulations and the 421-a program in New York City. The Legislature is certain to take both bills up again, along with other environmental concerns.

TOXIC TOYS The Child Safe Products Act, which seeks to regulate what chemicals and materials can be used in children’s toys, died in the Republican-controlled Senate last session, after sailing through the

Democrat-led Assembly. But the bill’s failure to come to the floor was not due to a lack of support, according to bill sponsor Sen. Brad Hoylman.

“The Child Safe Products Act had virtually unprecedented bipartisan support, from a supermajority of the Senate, yet it was still blocked from coming to the floor for a vote,” Hoylman said. “I think it had over 40 co-sponsors, yet we still couldn’t get it to the floor.”

State Sen. Tony Avella, the vice chairman of his chamber’s Environmental Conservation Committee, shared Hoylman’s frustration over the bill’s failure.

“It’s now two years we’ve been close, but still we can’t get it done, and that is just disgraceful, that we can’t protect children from these unsafe products,” Avella said. “That’s going to be a major point of contention again. It’s just mind-boggling that we cannot pass this bill.”

Hoylman blamed the toy manufacturing industry

for the bill’s troubles. The toymakers, wary of the cost of compliance with the bill’s chemical bans and regulations, fought long and hard to ensure that the version of the bill presented for a vote was undesirable for either side, he said.

“I think that the industry, the toy companies, have problems with the tough standards that are sought in the original bill. So the 11th-inning play was to produce an amended version, and back the Democrats into a corner,” Hoylman said. “We thought that things were too weak, and so I led a movement to pull our names off the amended version. But we definitely think that industry ... had a role in bringing forward an amended version that they saw as addressing the issue in some milder fashion.”

The amended bill, carried in the Senate by state Sen. Phil Boyle, had “loopholes so big you could drive a truck through them,” according to Hoylman. He said he and fellow Democrats would not pass a “watered-down” version of the bill, and that they intend to once again fight hard for passage of the original version of the bill.

Boyle, meanwhile, defended the rewritten bill.

“Anybody who’s saying that this is not an environmentally friendly piece of legislation is just playing politics, unfortunately,” he said. “Everyone knows any piece of legislation needs to be compromised and have some insights from all sectors, and we spent many hours trying to address the legitimate concerns of industry while still having what would be, if not the strongest, one of the strongest Child Safe Products Acts in the country.

Frustration with the lack of progress on the bill has led some local legislatures to take the matter into their own hands, with Albany, Suffolk and Westchester counties all passing their own versions of the bill.

MICROBEADS The Microbead-Free Waters Act, meanwhile, would ban the sale of cosmetics and other products containing tiny, abrasive beads, typically sold in exfoliating products, from being distributed in New York. Advocates of the bill argue that the beads pose an environmental hazard, as they are made of plastic and can absorb toxins and poison wildlife.

The bill cleared the Assembly, much like the Child Safe Products Act, but likewise failed in the Senate.

Republican senators balked at the thought of imposing the restrictions on companies and potentially costing the state business, while Democrats – including Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who proposed the ban initially – called the bill an imperative. cit yandstateny.com

ALEXEY RUMYANTSEV

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

TOXINS ON AISLE 12

BIZOO_N

Since the end of the session, localities have taken to writing their own laws to deal with microbeads. A ban passed in Erie County and is being considered in Albany County.

GEL FRACKING The state is currently considering an application from an energy company for a permit to use gelled propane instead of water to engage in hydraulic fracturing in the Southern Tier. For once, antifracking advocates and gas companies are in agreement: The state’s existing administrative ban on fracking doesn’t cover this different form of the practice.

To ban gelled propane, either a state regulatory body would need to create a new policy, or the Legislature would need to pass new legislation.

Hoylman said that these methods of sidestepping the existing fracking ban, and the fact that gas companies from out of state can still transport and dump fracking waste in New York, are reasons the Legislature should continue pushing for a bill to ban all forms of fracking and related practices.

“The ban was tremendous, and I have to commend (Health Commissioner Howard Zucker) and the governor for their work,” Hoylman said. But the work is not done, he said, and he and his colleagues will “take these victories in small steps.” A legislative ban on fracking and “ancillary issues” like the transportation of fracking waste would make it impossible for a future administration to singlehandedly roll back the restrictions.

“The truth is, under a different governor you could have a different outcome,” Hoylman said.

New York is also using more fracked natural gas than ever before, by allowing companies to transfer the gas in from other states to fire their power plants.

And with pressure on Cuomo’s administration to cit yandstateny.com

There are other environmental issues facing the state as well, but some fall outside of the Legislature’s reach, such as General Electric’s cleanup of PCB waste it dumped in the Hudson River decades ago.

A recent report found that the state had not put any pressure on GE to expand or finish its cleanup operations. Lawmakers and municipalities have called for GE to continue its work, and called for the state to take a harder line against the company, but Hoylman said it will be “public pressure,” not legislation, that will convince the company to continue its cleanup.

Avella, meanwhile, intends to push for “Cecil’s Law,” a bill that would ban the transport, possession or sale of animal carcasses from Africa within New York. A pet project of Avella’s, the bill was inspired by the lion Cecil, which was lured out of its African sanctuary and killed by an American dentist as a trophy, an act which was widely decried as inhumane.

Avella would also like to reduce the number of crude oil trains traveling through the Port of Albany, arguing that the trains pose an imminent danger to the city if they were to derail or spill. The Republicans, however, may well take issue at the suggestion of cutting down on oil transport in the state – as well as on further limits on how or where fracking could potentially be allowed.

Republican Sen. Tom O’Mara, who chairs his chamber’s Environmental Conservation Committee, did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the upcoming session, nor did his conference’s spokesman, leaving the future of major environmental issues uncertain.

WHAT GOT DONE IN 2015 * Brownfields reform * $50 million for infrastructure upgrades to sewer and drinking water * Increased funding for Environmental Protection Fund

WHAT’S ON THE AGENDA * Microbeads * Gel fracking * GE’s Hudson River cleanup

By Senator John A. DeFrancisco

Whenever government embarks on a new initiative, it’s crucial that we know how much it’s going to cost and who’s going to pay for it. Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) is a major new state initiative that seeks to rework our entire electric grid and transform how we generate, distribute, and pay for our electricity. Yet, the proposal is currently winding its way through state agencies without any analysis of what benefits the public will get versus the cost of new programs, and without any evaluation of impacts on taxpayers and ratepayers.

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

UP NEXT

Financial Transparency Needed on Major Energy Proposal

The problem is this: right now, before what may be an enormous investment in REV, New Yorkers already pay among the highest electricity costs in the nation, typically 60 percent more than the national average. Further, 25 percent of those hefty utility bills goes to the state in the form of taxes, fees, and surcharges—and while we’re told they go toward energy efficiency and renewability programs, we’re never told what the actual return is on our compulsory “investment” in these programs. So what we have is an administrative game of hide-and-seek, with all the advantage going to Albany.

What we need is transparency regarding the costs and accountability regarding where and to whom the expenditures go, and fiscal wisdom in protecting taxpayers and ratepayers who are already struggling to make a living and pay their bills.

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That’s why I’ve introduced legislation to ensure that the Public Service Commission provide an explicit costbenefit analysis for every aspect of REV—as every agency in Albany should do automatically for any initiative it undertakes. It shouldn’t take a law to force the state to hold the line on spending and give the details of an initiative to the people who will be paying for it. I will do what it takes to compel transparency and accountability for New Yorkers.

REV’s costs are potentially in the billions. And that may be a good investment—but we won’t know until we have all the information. Hardworking New York taxpayers and ratepayers deserve no less.

John A. DeFrancisco is the New York State Senator for the 50th District. First elected in 1992, he currently serves as Deputy Senate Majority Leader and was the former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

SPECIAL SPONSORED SECTION

New York AREA’s membership includes some of the state’s most vital business, labor and community organizations including the New York State AFL-CIO, Business Council of New York State, Partnership for New York City, New York Building Congress, National Federation of Independent Business and many more.

WWW . A R E A - A L L I A N C E . O R G

city & state — September 28, 2015

shutter old or failing coal-powered plants, it is likely that the demand for natural gas won’t be decreasing any time soon, which could make it difficult for the Legislature to further restrict fracking or related activities.

Avella said the state’s pipelines for transporting gas also need to be addressed. He expressed concern that pipelines are being run through “some of the best dairy farms” and other agricultural or environmentally sensitive areas, and he’d like to see the state take a harder tack against them.

“That’s more of a federal issue, unfortunately,” Avella conceded, though he promised he’d be doing his best to address the matter in the Legislature.

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

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KICKING THE CARBON HABIT

BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE WORK TOGETHER FOR CLEANER, MORE RELIABLE ENERGY

By WILL BRUNELLE

Though the majority of the state’s energy policy is under the administration’s control, the state Legislature will still have a handful of important related issues to address when it returns in January.

According to the chairs of the energy committees in each chamber of the Legislature, lawmakers will need to closely monitor the state’s implementation of its new Reforming Energy Vision plan. Developed, rolled out and overseen by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the state Public Service Commission, the plan demands that the state reduce its carbon emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2030.

To comply with the plan, the state will also need to draw 50 percent of its power from renewable energy

sources, compared with the 30 percent taken from them now.

Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, the Democratic chairwoman of the chamber’s Energy Committee, said that the finalized plan will be the guide for the session’s biggest pieces of energy-centric legislation.

“We’re all watching the REV, and clearly we’re going to have to put out a (renewable portfolio standard),” Paulin said. “The new RPS will need to be adopted, which may require legislative changes, so I think that is the most important issue, and key if we’re going to increase renewables in this state.”

The RPS will determine goals for how much renewable power each energy production facility will need to generate, and may have legislative components that will need to be approved by lawmakers before taking effect, Paulin said.

“We have to ensure that our plan going forward is

solid,” she said. “We’re going to be watching it to make sure it is solid, and then give the Public Service Commission and NYSERDA any legislative support they need to make that happen.”

Paulin said she anticipates the process will be mostly painless, because of her positive working relationship with Republican Sen. Joseph Griffo, who chairs the Senate’s energy committee.

“I think Sen. Griffo and I work very well together,” Paulin said. “We both have the same vision for New York, which is making smart renewables for New York, as fast as possible.”

Griffo agreed, telling City & State that he doesn’t see too much of a divide between Democrats and Republicans on the major points of the REV and other energy policies.

“I think generally we agree a general energy policy needs to be established, and I think we agree about

city & state — September 28, 2015

EXPERT OPINION

ARTHUR ‘JERRY’ KREMER Chairman, New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance

When the state Legislature reconvenes in January, they’ll have ample opportunities to address our energy challenges.

The governor’s Reforming the Energy

Vision initiative is working its way through demonstration projects aimed at fundamentally changing the way power is generated and distributed in New York. The New York 2015 Energy Plan has set ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, generating electricity from renewable sources, and cutting energy use through increased efficiency. In addition, the EPA’s Clean Power Plan puts even more pressure on us to find ways to minimize our carbon footprint from power plants.

Against this backdrop, it’s essential that New York maintain its clean sources of power, particularly hydro and nuclear, which emit virtually zero carbon. These plants form the backbone of our power supply, accounting for more than 50 percent of the state’s base load electricity. They make it possible for us to pursue the innovations that will take us into the

energy future.

New York needs to make large capital investments in clean electricity generation and renewables and in updating and expanding the transmission grid. Given that our average electricity bill is typically about 60 percent above the national average, the cost of these innovations should be borne by the private sector, without direct or hidden subsidies from already hard-pressed taxpayers and ratepayers.

Indeed, as the Legislature looks toward making New York’s energy cleaner and more reliable, affordability should be a high priority.

Affordability would immediately improve, especially for citizens with low or fixed incomes who suffer most from high utility bills, if the many taxes and fees that constitute fully 25 percent of the average electric bill were reduced or, in some cases, eliminated.

Many of these charges go toward programs whose costs have long been unnecessary.

To better protect taxpayers and ratepayers, state Sen. John DeFrancisco has introduced legislation that would require fiscal analysis of proposed REV projects. This commonsense bill has already passed the Senate with bipartisan support, and passing it in the Assembly should be a priority when they reconvene. An open and transparent process that attracts and supports a marketplace in new projects will provide the greatest value at the lowest price.

Ensuring an ample supply of affordable, clean and reliable energy for decades to come is important and timely.

Encouraging innovation through private investment and reducing costs for New Yorkers will make our energy future even brighter.

cit yandstateny.com

By John Kelly The Clean Power Plan is a bold new initiative by the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce carbon pollution from power plants by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

New York has one of the country’s cleanest electricity generating portfolios. But we still have significant challenges to address if we’re to meet these guidelines without spiking electricity costs or compromising reliability.

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

Meeting Tough Federal Carbon Reduction Requirements

LEE YIU TUNG

Over the past decade, New York has not only maintained, but has also increased the proportion of our power sources that generate clean energy. The average state gets 40 percent of its electricity by burning high-carbon coal; in New York, this figure is just 3 percent.

cit yandstateny.com

“This is the Energy and Telecommunications Committee,” Parker emphasized. He said that broadband is the “next digital divide,” and is another issue on which he and Griffo “see eye to eye.”

Paulin, meanwhile, said she would seek action on a program to allow schools to invest in solar panels.

And two measures she co-sponsored with Griffo that were punted out of the 2015 session are likely to be reintroduced this coming year. One bill would require gas companies to use a tiered system to report the severity of gas leaks at their facilities, to better inform residents and businesses of potential hazards. The other would offer incentives to homeowners investing in fuel cells as backup power generators.

Griffo said safety regulations for natural gas pipelines and incentive programs for homeowners looking to convert from coal to natural gas need attention, to ensure both are held to high standards.

The state’s rollout of the REV plan, along with its decisions on whether to keep aging power plants open, where to get power for the state, and how to regulate the energy industry as a whole, are all dependent largely on the Public Service Commission, out of reach of the Legislature. As Griffo told City & State, the lawmakers will first need to figure out “what, if anything” they can change, before looking to write new legislation.

WHAT GOT DONE IN 2015

If any of New York’s six nuclear power plants, which provide 32 percent of the state’s electricity, were to close our carbon reduction costs and challenges would rise significantly. Today— and for the foreseeable future—most of such replacement power would need to come from natural gas.

Let’s take Indian Point Energy Center in Westchester County as an example: if this plant were to close, it’s 2,000 megawatts of clean power would likely be replaced by new gas burning plants, resulting in the release of an additional seven million or more tons of carbon dioxide in New York per year. Furthermore, replacing nuclear power and more polluting fossil fuels with natural gas will come at a high cost that will be passed on to already hard-pressed ratepayers.

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Renewables are becoming ever more important. Developing them requires significant investment. It’s important that these funds come strictly from the private sector, not from taxpayers or ratepayers, in an open and transparent competitive process.

It’s also crucial that we update New York’s transmission grid, to assure reliability and allow renewable power, in particular, to be efficiently distributed throughout the state.

The Clean Power Plan poses an enormous challenge.

By working together we can help New York maintain its environmental leadership while protecting the wallets of hardworking New Yorkers who deserve to have affordable and reliable electricity.

John Kelly is a certified health physicist and retired as director of licensing for Entergy Nuclear Northeast. He worked in the nuclear industry for 40 years, including at Indian Point Energy Center and other nuclear plants in the Northeast.

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* Oil spill fund cap increases from $25 million to $40 million and industry fees for fund increased * Legislation making it easier for localities to negotiate with electric utilities over purchase of street lights, with the goal of making municipalities more energy efficient

WHAT’S ON THE AGENDA * Implementation of REV * Pipeline safety * Broadband Internet

The New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance (New York AREA) is a diverse group of business, labor, environmental, and community leaders working together for clean, low-cost and reliable electricity solutions that foster prosperity and jobs for the Empire State.

WWW . A R E A - A L L I A N C E . O R G

city & state — September 28, 2015

diversification,” Griffo said.

State Sen. Kevin Parker, the Democrats’ ranking member of the energy committee, also agreed that the issues generally are not contentious.

“Chairman Griffo and I have a remarkably congenial and collegial relationship and have worked really, really well together, and I speak to him often,” Parker said. “I don’t think these issues are partisan at all. I think everyone in the state is really invested in a reliable, safe grid, and making sure that consumers all over the state are protected.”

Griffo said he’ll be looking to ensure that the implementation of the REV is both responsible and transparent to spare New Yorkers from energy rate increases, citing East Asian countries that have too rapidly adopted renewables-centric energy plans.

Griffo said that despite Cuomo’s wide control over energy policy, the Legislature has a fair amount of leverage on the specifics, thanks largely to annual budget negotiations.

Beyond reviewing – and potentially modifying – the REV, the lawmakers named a handful of other projects they intend to focus on. All three legislators agreed that the state’s aging energy transmission lines need attention, especially in the wake of severe weather events in recent years.

“We need to continue to build out our transmission lines in the state,” Parker said. “As the governor says, we’re having 100-year storms every two years now. ... Transmission’s been a huge problem, so building out these transmission lines is a critical part of what we’re going to do.”

Griffo agreed, calling for “strategic” upgrades to the transmission infrastructure.

“Many are archaic now; they’re crumbling, like our bridges and roads, basically,” Griffo said. “So the same thing holds true here. If we don’t invest properly and try to modernize and upgrade them, we’re going to have a problem.”

Each lawmaker also listed other, less prominent bills and projects they are interested in pushing through the Legislature.

Parker said he would seek every opportunity for the Senate to be involved in improving access to highspeed, reliable broadband Internet.

Natural gas comprises 40 percent of New York’s energy supply, versus only 26 percent for the rest of the nation; nuclear power, 32 percent versus 20 percent; and hydroelectric, 19 percent versus 6 percent. As we look towards the goal of a cleaner environment, nuclear and hydroelectric plants emit zero carbon, while natural gas burned in new high efficiency plants emits about half the carbon of coal.

OPINION

OPINION

CITY & STATE — September 28, 2015

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ALEXIS GRENELL In 1916, suffragettes Lucy Burns and Alice Paul were frustrated with the slow progress of American voting rights. Across the Atlantic Ocean, British women were firebombing London and chaining themselves to government buildings.

So Burns and Paul decided to up the ante by founding the National Woman’s Party. Although not a true political party, the National Woman’s Party staged rallies, protests and a daily picket outside the White House.

Police officers beat women bloody in the streets, and hundreds went to jail, where they went on hunger strikes and prison guards force-fed them raw eggs.

Meanwhile, the National Woman’s Party lobbied lawmakers and managed to oust several anti-suffrage senators, shaming President Woodrow Wilson into action.

Four years later, Congress ratified the 19th Amendment.

The National Woman’s Party was a passion-fueled organization founded by women, for women. Nearly 100 years later, the Women’s Equality Party stands in stark contrast.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo established the Women’s Equality Party during last year’s Democratic primary against Zephyr Teachout. Despite the fact that the state Democratic Party supports equal rights for women, Cuomo created this new party as a transparent appeal to female voters. After

encouraging Democrats like former state Sen. Cecilia Tkaczyk to run on the Women’s Equality Party line, the governor embarrassed her by failing to collect enough valid signatures to do so. Tkaczyk lost, but Cuomo won, and his man-made party received the requisite 50,000 votes to secure a future place on the ballot.

“The Women’s Equality Party was just an extension of the governor helping himself,” Tkaczyk explained.

In August, Tkaczyk sued for control of the party, arguing that as long as the Women’s Equality Party exists, it should, at the very least, be a grass-roots movement led by women.

Tkaczyk’s argument was dealt a blow last week when an appeals court ruled that a state Supreme Court judge went too far in blocking Cuomo and his allies from nominating candidates on the party’s ballot line (though leaving the door open to allow challenges to individual Women’s Equality Party endorsements). But with Cuomo permitted to wield the Women’s Equality Party ballot line, it’s unlikely that the heroes of the suffragette movement would want him to.

“Working within the existing two-party system has been the priority for organizations like this for a very long time,” said Jill Lepore, a professor of American history at Harvard University and the author of “The Secret History of Wonder Woman,” referring to the National Woman’s Party, and to subsequent entities like the National Women’s Political Caucus.

Indeed, the women of the National Woman’s Party fought for the right to vote in major parties, literally dying to be recognized by the political establishment. They wanted to be mainstream leaders, not relegated to fringe-party status.

The Women’s Equality Party, and whatever it represents, flies in the face of feminist history. Even among supporters, it barely inspires devotion.

After the election, Cuomo’s special adviser and the party’s chief booster, former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, declined to

HARRIS & EWING / LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

THE WOMEN’S EQUALITY PARTY: A FAR CRY FROM THE SUFFRAGETTES

Suffragette Alice Paul leads a picket line in 1917 in defiance of threats of arrest.

enroll in the Women’s Equality Party, let alone lead it: “Christine Quinn has always been – and always will be – a Democrat,” a spokesman said last year.

It wasn’t until a full year later that the governor finally found a chairwoman, Barbara Fiala, his commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles. Shortly thereafter, Fiala stepped down to run for state Senate as a Democrat.

The current party chairwoman, Rachel Gold, is a longtime government lawyer who served in the Cuomo administration. Gold currently works as the director of operations for RedLand Strategies, a lobbying firm founded by former Republican state Sen. Mike Balboni. After leaving a message for her at the firm, I received an unsolicited statement from the governor’s press office on her behalf.

“We formed this party over a year ago, spent months organizing and campaigning, and ultimately achieved over 50,000 votes to establish the ballot line,” the email read. “Now, more than 400 candidates have sought the Women’s Equality Party nomination under its founders’ rules

for the upcoming election and we owe it to them to not have the opportunity denied to them.”

Aside from the fact that Gold was not part of the royal “we” who established the Women’s Equality Party, it’s unclear who these 400-plus candidates might be. The governor’s office ignored a request for further information, and Gold did not return my call.

But more importantly, the fact that the governor’s office responded to a request for Gold epitomizes everything that’s wrong with the Women’s Equality Party: It’s little more than a message-laundering service created by Cuomo to help deliver his own agenda to female voters.

Burns and Paul stood up to the president of the United States; they never would’ve taken marching orders from the governor of New York. ¢ Alexis Grenell (@agrenell on Twitter) is a Democratic communications strategist based in New York. She handles nonprofit and political clients.

CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

OPINION

DE BLASIO’S BEEF WITH CUOMO IGNORES THE CONSTITUTION

It would be a mistake to see the very real tension between Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo as a personality conflict. Instead, the mayoral-gubernatorial rivalry has at its core deep constitutional roots, important history and a now-chronic electoral deficit plaguing New York City. The solution lies not in a continuation of their public spat but in de Blasio realizing that any mayor needs a pragmatic and politically savvy “foreign” policy when it comes to cit yandstateny.com

Albany, based upon realpolitik.

First, under our state’s constitution, every locality, including New York City, exists as a creature of the state.

This is not a point of view; it is deeply embedded in Court of Appeals and U.S. Supreme Court decisions. A distinguished state constitutional scholar, Richard Briffault of Columbia Law School, said it best: “The state role of establishing local governments is fundamental … local governments are established by special state action

or in accord with general law, and derive their legal authority, their regulatory powers and their public service responsibilities from the state constitution, state statutes, and stategranted charters.”

Gotham’s mayors have long chafed at this constitutional reality. Last spring, I read Richard Norton Smith’s biography of Nelson Rockefeller and chuckled when I came across this quote: “Like every New York mayor before and since, Robert Wagner bitterly resented the city’s status as a ward of the state, unable to set its own property, sales or cigarette taxes without obtaining Albany’s permission.”

Wagner bristled at first, both under Govs. Thomas Dewey and Averell Harriman (a fellow Democrat) as well as in his early days with Nelson Rockefeller, but learned the importance of supporting Rockefeller publicly in order to secure results in Albany. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia turned contentious early political relationships with both Govs. Herbert Lehman and Dewey into productive governmental partnerships benefiting New York City. De Blasio would be wise to follow their path rather than imitating the John Lindsay/Rockefeller cold war turned hot, which hurt both men politically and all New Yorkers governmentally.

Second, de Blasio should ignore Anthony Weiner’s flawed punditry. In a recent op-ed in The New York Times, Weiner bemoaned that a senator in faraway Oswego should have a say on a housing incentive deal on 57th Street in Manhattan, calling for a “return” of more governing “authority” to New York City.

The problem is that Weiner’s postulate fails the test of law, history and politics. As Briffault reminded us, under our constitution, the state creates its cities, not vice-versa.

Weiner also ignores the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, when but for the state’s intercession New York City would have gone bankrupt. Taxpayers from Oswego, Otsego and Ossining kept New York City afloat after the city proved it could not run its subways, maintain CUNY or balance its budget

without state help. Nor does the city’s current affluence make it immune from the need for state support, as Nassau County has proven time and again.

Which brings us to the political source underlying any recent mayor’s governing dilemma vis-a-vis Albany: New York City today has 43 percent of the state’s population and 39 percent of its registered voters, but in the 2014 election cast only 26 percent of the vote for gubernatorial candidates.

It has been 32 years since the city cast over 30 percent of the state’s gubernatorial vote, when it hit a mere 31 percent share in 1982.

If de Blasio wants to have a bigger say in Albany, he should work tirelessly to build up the city’s share of the statewide vote in future elections, setting a benchmark for the gubernatorial share to at least 35 percent – the level from the state’s 2008 and 2012 presidential elections.

De Blasio would also benefit from building broader regional coalitions by working with upstate mayors and county executives from swing counties.

An unformed alliance with upstate school districts over shared interests in education funding formulas is there for the making.

Attacking the governor personally, however cathartic, thwarts those important goals. U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries got it right when he told The Times recently, “It shocked me when the mayor decided to go after Gov. Cuomo in such a highly personal way.

With each week, it appears to be more of a miscalculation.”

Meanwhile, the optimist in me believes that de Blasio can find a foreign policy that holds its own in Albany. To do so, he should remember, to paraphrase the Bard, that the fault is not in our stars; the solution is in ourselves. ¢

Bruce N. Gyory is a political and strategic consultant at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP and an adjunct professor of political science at University at Albany, SUNY.

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city & state — September 28, 2015

DARREN MCGEE / OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

By BRUCE N. GYORY

OPINION

WHEN BARCLAYS ADMITTED A FELONY, IT SHOULD HAVE LOST THE ARENA

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In 2008, when word surfaced that the German insurer Allianz was in discussions with the New York Giants and New York Jets to purchase the naming rights at their Meadowlands stadium, a firestorm of criticism emerged: How could these football teams make a deal with a company that had insured concentration camps?

Soon, the discussions ceased.

Fast forward to present day. After a felony plea by a bank with its name on an equally prominent New York sports facility, the Barclays Center (home to the Brooklyn Nets and, as of this year, the New York Islanders), the result is silence. Not only is this a moral cop-out by civic overseers, but existing contracts for the Brooklyn arena, I believe, require New York state to boot Barclays from the naming rights deal.

To be sure, the situations aren’t quite analogous. Barclays PLC, whose subsidiary is paying more than $200 million over 20 years in Brooklyn, didn’t plead guilty until this past May, some two and a half years after the arena opened. (Though there was criticism before construction about Barclays’ record on slavery and apartheid.)

True, Barclays’ criminal conduct – which was shared, in large part, by other banks – is not as viscerally damning as a Holocaust connection.

But the bank’s performance has been self-serving, deceptive and shameful.

city & state — September 28, 2015

MASSIVE FINES In May, Barclays agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to fix prices and rig bids for dollars and euros in the foreign exchange spot market, both in the United States and elsewhere, according to the U.S. Justice Department. The bank agreed to pay a criminal fine of $650 million.

Barclays paid nearly triple that in civil fines. The same day the bank pleaded guilty, it also agreed to pay $485 million to the state Department of Financial Services, $342 million to the Federal Reserve System, and $400 million to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. It also paid another $115 million to the CFTC for related offenses, and about $441 million to the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority. All told, Barclays paid nearly $2.4 billion.

“Put simply, Barclays employees

helped rig the foreign exchange market,” declared Benjamin Lawsky, then superintendent of the state Department of Financial Services.

“They engaged in a brazen ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ scheme to rip off their clients.” Indeed, as one banking executive bragged in a chat unearthed by regulators, “if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.”

THE 2012 PENALTIES These weren’t Barclays’ first civil penalties. In June 2012, the CFTC filed and settled charges with Barclays for manipulating Libor and Euribor, two global benchmark interest rates, over four years. Barclays agreed to pay $200 million in fines. It paid another $160 million after settling with the Justice Department.

Back then, months before the Barclays Center opened, branding mavens suggested the scandal would not affect the arena, because the facts were tough to grasp and, after all, Citi Field, the Mets’ stadium in Queens, had not been affected by sponsor Citibank’s role in the financial crisis.

Indeed, though Barclays’ chief executive Bob Diamond had to resign, and an internal Barclays report criticized an “at all costs” attitude, the arena emerged virtually untainted.

Perhaps, for a naming rights deal to fail, as with Enron Field in Houston, the sponsor has to go belly up. Instead, Barclays has soldiered on, as if such penalties are simply the cost of doing business.

EGREGIOUS CONDUCT Attorney General Loretta Lynch declared in May that the recent criminal penalties against Barclays “serve as a stark reminder that this Department of Justice intends to vigorously prosecute all those who tilt the economic system in their favor; who subvert our marketplaces; and who enrich themselves at the expense of American consumers.” She called the banks’ anticompetitive conduct “long-running and egregious.”

But will this conduct jeopardize Barclays’ naming rights?

The Barclays Center naming rights agreement was signed by Barclays Services Corporation, which is owned ultimately by the now-felonious Barclays PLC. (BSC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Barclays Group U.S., which itself is wholly owned by Barclays Bank PLC, for which Barclays PLC is the holding company.)

As naming rights partner, BSC contracted with Brooklyn Arena LLC (aka BALLC, an affiliate of arena developer Forest City Ratner), as noted in a May 2010 recognition agreement.

However, the development agreement for the overall Atlantic Yards project, which includes the arena, raises a big question. The agreement, signed in 2010 between New York’s Empire State Development Corporation (now known as Empire State Development) and several affiliates of Forest City, states that no affiliate of the developer “shall contract with ... a Prohibited Person

or any Person who shall become a Prohibited Person.” (Note: The arena is, nominally, publicly owned in order to enable tax-exempt bond funding.)

Evidence suggests that Barclays Services Corporation qualifies as a “prohibited person.” First, according to the development agreement, a “person” can include not only individuals, but any form of business or government authority.

Second, a “prohibited person” includes any person who “is controlled by ... a Person who has been convicted in a criminal proceeding for a felony.”

Since pleading guilty in May, Barclays Services Corporation seems to have become a “prohibited person.”

On July 23, I queried Empire State Development, asking whether the Barclays guilty plea impacted the naming rights agreement. Was Barclays, I asked, a prohibited person and, if so, what happens to naming rights? If Barclays does not qualify as a prohibited person, could they explain?

I have not received an answer, even after multiple queries, more recently indicating that a City & State piece was forthcoming. If there is a document or clause that undermines my premise, why wouldn’t they tell me? Might the state aim to avoid any such discussion while a sale of the Forest City-controlled share of the arena (55 percent) and Nets (20 percent) is pending?

If the naming rights deal were jeopardized, surely the arena operators would hate to lose the guaranteed $10 million a year. Surely the gubernatorial-controlled state agency, which has shepherded the Atlantic Yards (now Pacific Park) project, would be dismayed. (I do wonder if Barclays might feel it already got sufficient bounce from the deal.)

But it’s not the state’s job to ensure that private companies maintain the income stream they need to pay off arena construction bonds. The state gave away naming rights to the arena in the first place, rather than keeping a cut. The least it could do is follow its own rules and ensure the name doesn’t boost a felon.

Brooklyn journalist Norman Oder writes the daily blog Atlantic Yards/ Pacific Park Report, and is working on a book about the project.

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MASAMI REILLY

By NORMAN ODER

OPINION

Letters

to the

Editor

September 8, 2015

O ctOber 7 th

The following letter is a response to an article by Wilder Fleming, “Watching out for mom and pop: Proposals seek to protect small businesses amid skyrocketing rents,” in our Sept. 8 Manhattan special issue, which looks at why commercial tenants in New York City are more vulnerable to abrupt rent increases than their residential counterparts.

I believe every business in the city has to be licensed (my own agency did when I moved from Connecticut). If real estate ownership of commercial property also has to be licensed in some way, perhaps the city has some leverage.

My immediate neighborhood – within two blocks in any direction – has seen longtime small businesses – bodegas, restaurants, bars, florists, drugstores, clothing stores, beauticians, even a science education storefront – succumb to massive rent increases. Lots of local people lost jobs, and many of the storefronts sit empty for months, even years, while the owner waits for a chain that will pay such exorbitant rents. And it continues – down the street, around the block, the owners have nothing to lose; loss of rent is a tax deduction, after all.

Yes, businesses come and go so quickly in New York, but this is commercial predation, and it’s bad for the city. REBNY’s stranglehold on real estate policies and the owners’ complete lack of responsibility to their tenants are choking the middle and working class – not to mention the small business owner – right off the island and homogenizing the diversity of New York City.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer is right, promises have been made

@CIT YANDSTATENY

for decades. Former City Council member Robert Jackson tried to pass a bill, and was slapped down.

If this is TRULY a “progressive” administration, how about some action for all that talk?

– Anonymous, on cityandstateny.com

The following is a response to former New York City Traffic Commissioner Sam Schwartz’s article, “Congestion relief: Pricing plan could be the remedy for gridlock,” in our Sept. 8 issue, which details how his proposed Move NY congestion pricing plan would help reduce traffic in Manhattan’s central business district.

My idea, “Dana’s plan,” is to have all bridges and tunnels cost the same as a MetroCard swipe. If MetroCard and E-ZPass could be merged, that would be ideal, but if not, it’s possible a similar system could be instituted.

Everyone who crosses any bridge or tunnel must pay a swipe. Maybe not pedestrians and bikers, but all vehicles.

Small business owners with more than one truck or van can get a one-month unlimited card for each vehicle, or pay individual ride cards, similar to the subway MetroCard.

Tolls are way too high and free crossings are too cheap, but I don’t trust the congestion pricing plan because, in no time, toll crossings will be $10 or more.

Transportation in New York must be affordable for the everyday worker!

– Dana Parlier, on cityandstateny.com

To have your letter to the editor considered for publication, leave a comment at www.cityandstateny.com, tweet us @CityAndStateNY, email editor@cityandstateny.com or write to 61 Broadway, Suite 2825, New York, NY 10006.

Letters may be edited for clarity or length.

CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

Reach New YoRk’s eNeRgY LeadeRs! Notable SpeakerS:

37

richard Kauffman, Chairman of Energy & Finance for NY

rOn KirK, CASEnergy Coalition Co-Chair JOnathan bOwles, Center for an Urban Future

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Kathryn Garcia, Commissioner, NYC Dept. of Sanitation CONTACT JASMIN FREEMAN FOR SPONSORSHIP AND AD INFORMATION: JFREEMAN@CITYANDSTATENY.COM

CITY & STATE — September 28, 2015

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BACK & FORTH

CAMPAIGN KICKOFF We are two years away from the

2017 mayoral election in New York City, and Bill de Blasio already has his first challenger, the Rev. Michel Faulkner, a pastor at New Horizon Church in West Harlem. Faulkner announced his campaign this month, hoping to get a head start on making de Blasio a one-term mayor.

Faulkner, a Republican and former NFL defensive lineman who played one season for the Jets, spoke with City & State’s Nick Powell about his mayoral aspirations, his thoughts on policing and education, and whether he still keeps tabs on the gridiron.

The following is an edited transcript.

city & state — September 28, 2015

38

City & State: You announced your 2017 campaign for mayor this month. What was your thought process in pondering whether to run? Was there a tipping point in the direction the city is moving under de Blasio that motivated you to throw your hat in the ring?

Michel Faulkner: Some of it is the same reason I ran for Congress. As an American citizen, I really feel like our elected officials should be public servants and serve the greater good, and I don’t see that as the trend these days, and that’s across the board – specifically, as it relates to New York.

I love New York and I got so tired of seeing it divided into factions, and when I hear the mayor talking about the wealthy and blaming them for the woes of the poor, and then saying the solution is to tax them and distribute it to the poor, so that they can have what they need to be whole – I don’t believe that. That’s garbage. And the poor that I work among, that I live among, that I talk to, don’t feel that way either. That is a liberal philosophy which has kept my people in bondage for far too long.

C&S: But with such an enormous gap between the city’s wealthy and middle class, what is the root cause of income inequality?

MF: Is there a huge gap? Yes there is. Is it growing? Unfortunately, yes it is. The only way we will close it is socially, educationally and morally.

Social – you’ve got to really bring back

A Q&A WITH

MICHEL FAULKNER some family structure. Aimlessness in the inner city, it just doesn’t work, you need a family process that helps motivate people to get up and to get out.

Educationally, the deficiency is alarming. Nobody knows what to do.

We’ve spent more money than anyone else, we’ve got great teachers, we’ve got really good schools, and everybody works really hard, but you get these kids coming to schools that have all kinds of problems that don’t allow the teacher to teach. Then you’ve got a bureaucratic structure within the educational system, so that’s got to be looked at. But it really begins with the desire for kids to do better and parents motivated to help their kids do better.

We’ve got to address those issues, and it’s not all a government fix.

C&S: Based on what you’re saying, is it safe to assume you are pro-charter schools?

MF: Here’s one of the theories that I have: Charter schools really, really work because parents have to work hard to get their kids into school.

So you’ve got a motivated parent population. I don’t agree with the advocates who say that somehow

there’s a brain drain, or somehow the charter schools are taking the best and the brightest out. You have parents that care enough to read, to stand in line to do whatever it takes. You’ve got kids who are motivated, with a parental structure, that dynamic that says, “I want my kid to have the best, what does it take to get them into this school?” And then, by the fact that they’re in that charter school, the parents are gonna work a little harder to keep them in that school, they’re gonna care a little more about the grade, so naturally the kids perform a little better. I think we have to go back to parents and let them know that the education of their children is a partnership. The whole “takes a village” thing is cute, but it’s true.

We really do have to participate, and unless we all participate, we all fail.

C&S: I’m interested to get your take on policing issues. You’ve voiced your displeasure with the mayor’s relationship with the NYPD. MF: The relationship between City Hall and the police force is abysmal right now. It’s very disconcerting because it destabilizes the city, and

that’s a problem. The reason being, we have to have a police force that’s professional and accountable, but we also have to have a police force that’s beloved and affirmed. We started a blue-ribbon campaign, and it’s spreading throughout communities of color, where we wear blue ribbons saying we appreciate our cops, we affirm them, we’re gonna hold you accountable for being professional, but we are also as a community going to be accountable for how we treat you and how we interact with you. Do cops need better training?

Absolutely. We constantly need better conversations, we need cops to know the neighborhood, we all know those things. But you cannot start blaming the New York City Police Department for some of the social maladies and problems that we have.

C&S: As a former NFL player, do you still keep tabs on the NFL or the Jets, your former team?

MF: You can’t grow up in D.C. without being a fan of the Redskins.

It’s impossible. But I do stay in touch, and lately the NFL has had a real push on getting older players, they call us “legends,” involved. No matter how long you played, they really want to see you involved and in the lives of the community. The Jets have done an outstanding job with this new regime at bringing us in, every event, we’ve been invited to games and so forth. I’ve been participating in a lot of alumni functions, and seen some of the guys I’ve played with. Like I said, I was only there for one year. People ask me what position I play, I say “left out.” But as a fan per se, it’s hard for me because I’m so busy on the weekends, it’s very seldom I get a full three hours to sit down and really watch a game from beginning to end. Sunday’s a pretty busy day for me.

For the complete interview, including Faulkner’s thoughts on being a Republican in New York City politics, stop and frisk, and concussions in the NFL, visit cityandstateny.com.

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