Provides that the commissioner of education may also withhold from any district or city its share of the public money of the state for willfully disobeying any provision of law, or for such decisions, orders or regulations as aforesaid whose willful violation constitutes an immediate threat to the health, safety, education or welfare of students, employees or visitors at such common school, educational institution, school district or public school.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A4854
SPONSOR: Durso TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to restrictions on
authority for the withholding of public monies from educational insti-
tutions
PURPOSE:
Amends the education law, in relation to restrictions on authority for
the withholding of public monies from educational institutions.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1. Section 306 of the education law, subdivision 1 as amended by
chapter 298 of the laws of 1957, is amended to read as follows:
§ 306 Removal of school officers; withholding public money.
Section 2. is the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
State funding for education is essential to the education and develop-
ment of our youth and the removal of such funding, regardless of the
reason, will invariably harm that developmental process. The ability of
the Commissioner of Education to alter or suspend the specific actions
of the Legislature in allocating such funding to educational insti-
tutions as a punishment or sanction, therefore, must be limited. Pres-
ently, the Commissioner, in addition to the power to remove any school
officer, wields unlimited authority to alter or suspend funds allocated
by the Legislature to educational institutions for any willful violation
of law as well as for any willful violation of a decision, order or
regulation Promulgated by the Commissioner regardless of its severity or
its impact on the health, safety, education or welfare of students,
employees or visitors to that educational institution, Without limits,
this broad power can effectively shut down affected institutions, poten-
tially impacting the education of thousands of students, over ministeri-
al disputes with relatively little consequence, where other less
obstructive measures can be utilized.
The proposed legislation places reasonable limits on the exercise of
this draconian authority, restricting its use to willful violations of
law, or to willful disobedience of decisions, orders or regulations
promulgated by the Commissioner only where such disobedience presents an
immediate threat to the health, safety, education or welfare of
students, employees or visitors to the involved institution.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2024: A7729 Referred to Education
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
4854
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 6, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. DURSO -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to restrictions on
authority for the withholding of public monies from educational insti-
tutions
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 306 of the education law, subdivision 1 as amended
2 by chapter 298 of the laws of 1957, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 306. Removal of school officers; withholding public money. 1. When-
4 ever it shall be proved to [his] the commissioner's satisfaction that
5 any trustee, member of a board of education, clerk, collector, treasur-
6 er, district superintendent, superintendent of schools or other school
7 officer is a member of an organization listed as subversive by the board
8 of regents pursuant to the provisions of section three thousand twenty-
9 two of this chapter, or has been guilty of any wilful violation or
10 neglect of duty under this chapter, or any other act pertaining to
11 common schools or other educational institution participating in state
12 funds, or wilfully disobeying any decision, order, rule or regulation of
13 the regents or of the commissioner [of education], [said] such commis-
14 sioner, after a hearing at which the school officer shall have the right
15 of representation by counsel, may, by an order under [his] their hand
16 and seal, which order shall be recorded in [his] their office, remove
17 such school officer from [his] office.
18 2. [Said] Such commissioner [of education] may also withhold from any
19 district or city its share of the public money of the state for wilfully
20 disobeying any provision of law [or any decision, order or regulation as
21 aforesaid], or for such decisions, orders or regulations as aforesaid
22 whose willful violation constitutes an immediate threat to the health,
23 safety, education or welfare of students, employees or visitors at such
24 common school, educational institution, school district or public
25 school.
26 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01058-01-5
