Lawmakers in the state Senate on Wednesday advanced measures meant to boost diversity in the state's schools and education policy, including mesures meant to encourage school and college officials to attract underrepresented candidates for teaching positions.
“The Senate Majority is committed to tearing down the barriers that create inequities in our school systems,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said in a statement.
“This legislation package continues those efforts through advancing programs to attract diverse educators, strengthening the community of underrepresented educators, and establishing a task force to study educator diversity. We know that our children learn better when they see themselves in their teachers. I thank the bill sponsors and advocates who have worked hard to address these issues.”
The bills include the "Grow Your Own" initiatives for school districts, cooperative education services and higher education institutions to attract diverse teaching candidates.
Another bill would require public colleges and universities to hold students harmless for their observances of religious and culturally significant holidays.
Lawmakers also want to create a state commission to study the ten community colleges that have not participated in the Educational Opportunity Program and make recommendations for legislative action.
The Amistad Commission, created in 2005 by the Legislature to review how the state teaches slavery and the slave trae, would move from the state Department of State to the State Education Department.
And lawmakers want to establish a task force on educational diversity in the state.
“We know that education works best when it acknowledges and reflects the diversity of our students and our communities, and when key structural inequities within education are addressed by change in law and policy," said Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Shelley Mayer. "This package of legislation reflects our commitment to educating all New Yorkers from Pre-K through college."