Finance website WalletHub recently ranked New York as the best state in the nation to be a teacher across a variety of categories ranging from teachers’ income growth potential to the pupil-teacher ratio to public-school spending per student.
Education advocates say it rings true that New York is a good place to be a teacher, but from a legislative standpoint there is still improvement to be made for educators in the Empire State.
“We think you’re seeing the fruits of the labor of our members fighting for public schools,” Melinda Person, president of the New York State United Teachers, said of the result.
She emphasized, however, that halfway between last legislative session and next, there is still work to be done.
“All of the elements that create a better learning environment for students, create a better work environment for teachers,” she said.
New York is experiencing a teacher hiring shortage, and Person emphasized that solving it begins with curating that better working environment.
That’s why she’s urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign off on a bill passed this year that would establish a maximum temperature in classrooms. The bill is in response to what Person described as sometimes days of 95-degree temperatures in New York classrooms during heat waves.
“We’re tackling that issue head on and we’re hoping the governor will sign that bill into law this year,” she said.
She pointed out that when it comes to improving the working environment for teachers, additional headway was made this year.
“We’re also tackling the issue of over testing, and the over emphasis on tests in teacher evaluations,” she said.
Brian Fessler, director of governmental relations for the New York State School Boards Association, told Spectrum News 1 that those reforms to teacher evaluations signed into law earlier this year were a major step.
The altered system allows for local customization and doesn't use students' test performance to penalize educators.
“Based on what we are hearing from our teacher colleagues from across the state, we are hoping this will improve teacher morale,” he said.
In terms of recruitment, he explained that the certification and hiring system both on the classroom and civil service side need to be modernized.
“Trying to streamline some of those processes and make sure our certification process matches the needs of today and tomorrow,” he said.
Meanwhile, Person argued that recruitment is only part of the puzzle.
Advocates want to see further changes made to the state’s pension system to help with retention.
“When you are in a career and you are vested in a pension system you are much more likely to stay with that career through your lifetime,” she said.
For two consecutive years, improvements have been made to Tier 6, shortening how long until you can vest and adjusting annual salary calculations to be more favorable to employees, but advocates say work still must be done to bring it in line with Tier 4.
“By strengthening our pension system and the commitment we’re making to public employees, we can keep people in these important professions for life,” Person said.
She said that expanding community schools and continuing to tackle the issue of cell phone use in the classroom are other legislative priorities heading into next session.
The elephant in the room, though, is the Rockefeller Institute’s study of the outdated Foundation Aid formula. Person said “maintaining” school funding is crucial, and those on the front lines must have a say in any changes made to the formula.
“We are anxious to see what the report will include,” she said. “We’ve been looking at all of the different elements of the formula that need updating and what that would look like if we were going to do so in next year’s budget and so we’re ready to start the conversations with all of the different entities who are doing studies and research so that when the legislature needs to make some really key and important decisions, we will be there to make sure our perspective is known.”