Jo Anne Simon – KidsPAC Questionnaire Response 2014

Jo Anne Simon is running for 52nd NYS Assembly seat in Brooklyn, vacated by Joan Millman,

which covers the neighborhoods of downtown Brooklyn, Park Slope, Dumbo, Brooklyn Heights,

Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Vinegar Hill, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, Boerum Hill, and Prospect

Heights.

Campaign website: http://www.joannesimonforbrooklyn.com/

Short bio: Simon is a long-time Brooklyn district leader and an attorney specializing in special

education law.

Here are her responses to the NYC KidsPAC survey, sent to us Aug. 10, 2014 (with one Q added

& responded on Aug. 12)

1) What is your position of the city being obligated to pay rent for charter, or give them

public school space for free?

I have disagreed with the prior mayoral administration on how it sited charter schools, all too

often pushing charter schools into existing public schools without regard for the effects of having

done so, and not charging them rent. I believe that is not good public policy – charter schools

must demonstrate ability to pay rent in order to get their charter. Therefore they should not then

be enabled to exist rent-free on the public dime. Moreover, some (less wealthy and less

powerfully connected) charter schools are paying rent, setting up inequities within the charter

school community itself. I do not believe that the City should be paying rent for charter schools

for the same reason I noted above.

I have worked closely with the leadership in the 52nd AD in connection with charter school

incursions into public schools. The City DOE made very clear that it was not interested in

listening to the concerns of parents, teachers or administrators and co-located charter schools

with significant resources in traditional (and under-resourced) public schools that were poised for

significant improvement and in one case, greatness. Where these charter schools have been

pushed into traditional public schools, the public schools have no room to grow, because the

charter has assumed their space and charter school growth has been facilitated by the City’s

preferential policies. Aside from the inequities, lack of transparency and accountability inherent

in such processes, a number of co-locations are simply inappropriate as a matter of student safety

(putting K-3 classes in a high school, for example). I have publicly testified on a number of

occasions against these destructive co-location policies and practices and will continue to speak

up about the inequities in charter school location and funding. I look forward to working with the

new administration to ensure that traditional public schools – which educate the vast majority of

our students – are fully funded and protected against the proliferation of corporate backed charter

schools. I nevertheless believe that we have to move forward and work with charter schools to

ensure that they too educate our children with special needs and English Language Learners and

that they discipline fairly and equitably.

2) What is your position on the common core standards?

Conceptually, a “common core” of knowledge that all our children will be taught makes sense–

the problems in the implementation of the Common Core has been particularly problematic in

New York. The introduction of new tests as companions to the Common Core has reduced the

concept to a new regime of testing for the sake of testing. Last March, I gave a workshop entitled

“Accommodations for Students with Learning Disabilities in the Age of the Common Core.”

Among the problems are the PARCC standards to which New York has subscribed and their lack

of efficacy and the guidelines for implementation which are both aspirational and in many ways,

wrong-headed. Implementation of these guidelines will require a long term strategy which

includes proper training of teachers and administrators, and significant educational resources and

technology.

3) What do you think about the current testing regime?

The current testing regime suffers from a number of serious problems, borne of faulty

assumptions. First, tests do not teach. Tests are not standards. Tests must be properly validated in

order for them to measure the student learning they purport to measure. No test can measure

student learning comprehensively enough to be the sole barometer for decision-making about

student advancement. Needless to say, such tests are not proper mechanisms for evaluation of

teacher effectiveness because they have not been designed or validated for that purpose.

4) What is your position about the teacher evaluation system?

As an individual well versed in issue of test design and validity, I know that any single measure

does not suffice. Multiple measures of effective teaching practices must be the basis for teacher

evaluation because no alternative exists to control for measurement error or the multiple

variables present. Quite simply, if the purpose of teacher evaluation is to assess which teachers

are effective and enable a school to make fair employment decisions, the evaluation process must

have integrity. Unless properly designed and properly validated for the purpose, no tool can yield

adequate results, hence multiple measures are necessary for an evaluation process to have

integrity.

5) What are your views on campaign funding?

I have long supported the clean elections campaign and campaign finance reform, including

basing reform of NYS Campaign finance laws on New York City’s Campaign Finance Board

model.

6) What is your position on CFE and equitable funding?

I have supported full implementation of the CFE decision since the Court of Appeals decision

was issued and believe that the contracts for Excellence approach could have been better.

Nevertheless, even that hasn’t been fully funded, making the CFE a somewhat hollow victory

thus far. I believe strongly that class size matters a great deal. However, well trained teachers

also make a huge difference in promoting learning. I support quality professional development so

as to support teachers, help them hone their skills and retain them in the system. A successful

school system requires the development and retention of teachers. Otherwise we will lose good

teachers from the system, which can only have a negative effect on student learning, educational

outcomes, and college and career readiness.

7) What is your position on raising the charter cap?

I do not favor increasing the current charter cap.

A little further background:

I have been the female Democratic District Leader for the 52nd AD since February 2004. I have

been a forceful leader in ending Vito Lopez' politics as usual in the Brooklyn Democratic Party.

In 2012, I was in the forefront of the effort to force Lopez from office and adopt a series of long-

overdue reforms to open up the Kings County Democratic Committee. In addition, I am a co-

founder and Secretary of the New York Democratic State Committee's Progressive Caucus.

I was trained as a preschool teacher of the deaf, so early childhood education is deeply

engrained. I worked in the Fairfax County Public Schools for a short time, teaching hearing

impaired children at various levels. I also taught deaf-blind children in Perkins School for the

Blind (akin to a 4201 school in NYS), and have worked in education advocacy through various

non-profit service including as a board member of Everyone Reading (f/k/a NY Branch of the

International Dyslexia Society and where I served with and learned much from our current NYC

Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina), as a member of the Professional Advisory Board of the

Learning Disabilities Association, and the ARISE Coalition here in New York City. I have

worked in student services and taught at various higher education programs and have been a

national leader in issues surrounding the validity of standardized testing. See attached NYLJ

article. Bio can be found on my website www.simonforbrooklyn.com

My special education experiences as a teacher, professional development trainer and advocate

have prepared me to be able to hit the ground running working with schools and principals

toward the benefit of our children. The past 12 years, the people most involved in running our

public schools did not understand how schools work or how children learn. My stepchildren

attended public schools, as have my niece and nephews. My grandchildren have attended a small

charter school in Long Island City where they have experienced a very good, and truly inclusive

education. As an education attorney, I have assisted many parents as they have tackled pre-K,

middle school and high school admissions processes as well.

Pete Sikora – KidsPAC Questionnaire Response 2014

Pete Sikora is running for 52nd NYS Assembly seat in Brooklyn, vacated by Joan Millman,

which covers the neighborhoods of downtown Brooklyn, Park Slope, Dumbo, Brooklyn Heights,

Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Vinegar Hill, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, Boerum Hill, and Prospect

Heights.

Campaign website: http://www.petesikora2014.com/

Short bio: Sikora is a long time community activist and an employee of the Communication

Workers of America.

Here are his responses to the NYC KidsPAC survey, sent to us August 13.

1) What is your position of the city being obligated to pay rent for charter, or give them

public school space for free?

Traditionally, groups who use school space are charged a fee for fair use. Around the country, it

is considered the norm for charter schools, which often have more money than regular public

schools, to pay rent or fees for the space they use. The city school system, which is in desperate

need of more funds, could raise $92 million for students if charter schools were charged rent.

That is money needed to secure the school futures of the 1.1 million public school students in

NYC. Charging charter schools rent on a sliding scale would be an equitable way of making sure

that the needs of both charter school and traditional public schools are met.

2) What is your position on the common core standards?

The Common Core Curriculum sets out strong and reasonable standards, but poor

implementation is robbing our kids of the education that they deserve. We need to make sure that

we are integrating Common Core reasonably and cautiously into our existing school curriculum,

classroom methods, and teaching styles. It is important to ensure that while implementing

Common Core, we focus on the benefits of the program – strengthened math and technology

curricula, experiential and differentiated learning opportunities, and applied concepts – rather

than simply throwing more and more rigid tests at students.

3) What do you think about the current testing regime?

The push toward rigid, exclusionary standardized testing is wrong. While tests are a valuable tool

to determine certain kinds of learning in certain kinds of situations, it is not the only or best

evaluation technique that exists. It has its place, along with other metrics of success and

accomplishment. Educational achievement that does not focus on standardized testing is not

some sort of watering down of standards; it is an overall, inclusive educational approach that

produces better results.

4) What is your position about the teacher evaluation system?

The teacher evaluation system under Mayor Bloomberg was limited, prohibitive, and did not

include a full range of appropriate metrics for measuring teacher success in the classroom. It is

important that we create a holistic and comprehensive evaluation system that does not rely solely

on standardized test scores to measure teacher achievement and success.

5) What are your views on campaign funding?

Under the current system, campaign funding favors very wealthy candidates – or at least

candidates with very wealthy friends. I believe in public financing of elections modeled on New

York City’s campaign finance system: a strong fair elections program with a small donor match.

I’ve spent a lot of time in my career working on campaign finance and democracy issues

(working for the New York Public Interest Research Group and the Communication Workers of

America), and I believe we must fundamentally reform the campaign finance system to reduce

the influence of corporate and other special interests, as well as the wealthy.

6) What is your position on CFE and equitable funding?

It’s time for New York State to fulfill its constitutional obligation to fully fund education at the

levels specified in the Campaign for Fiscal Equality lawsuit. The state has short-funded the city

by as much as $7.7 billion by suspending the terms of the CFE agreement in the wake of the

2009 recession. Unfortunately, the reality is that New York State does not currently have the

revenue to provide the full education funding that our children need. However, there is a way to

increase revenue: when elected, I will fight to restore higher top marginal tax rates for the very

wealthy and eliminate corporate tax loopholes, in order to provide for our children’s future and

other vital public services.

7) Raising the charter cap is going to be an important issue in legislature this year. What is

your position on this?

At this time, it is important for the City and the State to focus on putting resources into existing

schools and school programs, rather than to look toward expanding into new, possibly

duplicative services. I am supportive of maintaining the charter cap this year and reevaluating the

cap in future years.